A New Space Telescope is Due to Launch to Find Exoplanets.

CHEOPS Space Telescope Leaves The University of Bern

©University of Bern Construction of the space telescope CHEOPS is finished. The engineers from the Center for Space and Habitability (CSH) at the University of Bern will package the instrument this week and send it to Madrid, where it will be integrated on the satellite platform.

From article, (Construction of the space telescope CHEOPS is finished. The engineers from the Center for Space and Habitability (CSH) at the University of Bern will package the instrument this week and send it to Madrid, where it will be integrated on the satellite platform.

CHEOPS (CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite) is to be ready to launch in early 2019. It will observe how exoplanets in other solar systems pass in front of their host star - and assist in the search of potentially habitable planets.

The specially designed transport case is ready and waiting in the building for Exact Sciences of the University of Bern. In the next few days, the CHEOPS team will load the space telescope in the cleanroom into the transport container, where it is well protected against shock, moisture and dirt. A truck will then transport the precious cargo to Madrid. The company "Airbus Defense and Space - Spain" built the satellite platform that supports the telescope and enables it to operate in space. In the upcoming weeks the instrument will be integrated and the satellite will be tested.

The space telescope will observe stars in our cosmic neighbourhood that are known to be orbited by exoplanets. CHEOPS measures the brightness of the stars. This decreases slightly when an exoplanet passes in front of its host star. The size of the exoplanet can be determined by the decrease in brightness during such a transit.

"The instrument must be able to measure with extreme precision. This was the major design challenge," says Willy Benz, professor of Astrophysics at the University of Bern and Principal Investigator of the CHEOPS mission, which Switzerland is carrying out together with the European Space Agency (ESA). "We think that we meet the requirements, otherwise we would not be flying," says Christopher Broeg, project manager for the CHEOPS mission.

The team was put under tremendous time pressure. CHEOPS is ESA's so-called first small 'S-class mission'. It must be implemented within a few years and cannot cost ESA more than 50 million euro. Switzerland pays around 30 million euro, while the remaining partners pay about 20 million euro. "We are proud that we were able to stick to the budget in the end, which cannot always be taken for granted in such projects," says Willy Benz.)

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The Continual Low Cost of Wind, Solar Power, and Energy Storage, is Changing the Future of New Coal and Natural Gas Power Plants. What Does this Mean? The Future of Energy Production and Distribution is All About Cost.

Power Shift: Anything Coal And Gas Can Do, Renewables And Energy Storage Can Do Cheaper

Spectacular falls in the cost of wind, solar and battery technology mean that clean energy is increasingly pushing coal and gas out of the world's electricity generation mix in a "chilling" development for the future of fossil fuel power generation.

From article, (Spectacular falls in the cost of wind, solar and battery technology mean that clean energy is increasingly pushing coal and gas out of the world’s electricity generation mix in a “chilling” development for the future of fossil fuel power generation.

Research group Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) has released its latest report on the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) and it suggests that President Donald Trump’s attempts to revive the U.S. coal industry is doomed to failure. That’s because the price of battery storage has tumbled by 79% since 2010, from $1,000/kWh to $209/kWh while both wind and solar power have fallen by 18% in just a year.

BNEF says that fossil fuel power, which is responsible for the bulk of the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which cause climate change, “is facing an unprecedented challenge in all three roles it performs in the energy mix – the supply of ‘bulk generation,’ the supply of 'dispatchable generation,' and the provision of ‘flexibility.’”

Wind and solar PV costs have continued to fall over the last year thanks to falling capital costs, higher efficiency and the spread of competitive tenders for clean power around the world, increasing their viability in bulk generation.

Dispatchable power is the ability to respond to requests from the power network to increase or decrease generation and here, it is the pairing of battery storage with wind and solar to enable these intermittent sources of generation to tackle fluctuations in demand by smoothing output or diverting power into batteries to be used at a later date.

Flexibility is the ability to respond to supply shortages and surpluses over a period of hours, and here batteries on their own are now increasingly competitive not just with open-cycle gas plants but also other options such as pumped hydro.

Elena Giannakopoulou, head of energy economics at BNEF, said: “Our team has looked closely at the impact of the 79% decrease seen in lithium-ion battery costs since 2010 on the economics of this storage technology in different parts of the electricity system. The conclusions are chilling for the fossil fuel sector.

 “Some existing coal and gas power stations, with sunk capital costs, will continue to have a role for many years, doing a combination of bulk generation and balancing, as wind and solar penetration increase. But the economic case for building new coal and gas capacity is crumbling, as batteries start to encroach on the flexibility and peaking revenues enjoyed by fossil fuel plants.”

Competitive auctions for new renewable energy capacity have forced developers, equipment providers and financiers to bear down on all the different costs of establishing wind and solar projects, said Seb Henbest, head of Europe, Middle East and Africa for BNEF. “Thanks to this and to progressively more efficient technology, we are seeing record-low prices being set for wind and solar, and then those records being broken again and again on a regular basis. This is having a powerful effect – it is changing perceptions.”)

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Don't sell Vitamin D Short. It is a Very Valuable Nutrient to a Healthy Body.

The Role of Vitamin D in Liver Disorders - Medical News Bulletin | Health News and Medical Research

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that plays an important role in calcium homeostasis, metabolism, and immune responses. It is an essential nutrient that confers benefits to the heart and regulates insulin secretion, anti-microbial defences, and other immune-modulatory functions. Studies have shown a strong association between vitamin D levels and increased risk of several different diseases, including chronic liver disease (CLD).

 From article, (Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that plays an important role in calcium homeostasis, metabolism, and immune responses. It is an essential nutrient that confers benefits to the heart and regulates insulin secretion, anti-microbial defences, and other immune-modulatory functions. Studies have shown a strong association between vitamin D levels and increased risk of several different diseases, including chronic liver disease (CLD).  A recent review by researchers in Saudi Arabia, published in Nutrition & Metabolism, summarizes the current understanding of the role vitamin D plays in liver disorders.

Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with a poor prognosis in patients with liver cancer and infection. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), one of the most common liver complications, is a condition characterized by a fatty liver. If unaddressed, NAFLD can progress to a condition called non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which is characterized by a fatty liver, accompanying liver inflammation, and a poorer prognosis. A meta-analysis of 5000 NAFLD cases and 8000 control patients showed that those with NAFLD exhibited significantly lower levels of vitamin D. The exact causality of this relationship, however, has not been fully established.

Vitamin D deficiency has also been correlated with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) viral infections. Studies have found that vitamin D supplementation confers health benefits to CHC patients, but the exact mechanism is not fully understood. Researchers argue that the beneficial effects of vitamin D may be primarily attributed to its anti-fibrotic properties. Alcoholic liver disease (ALD), which leads to fibrosis and cirrhosis of the liver, has also been associated lower vitamin D levels. It is not known whether low levels of vitamin D contribute to the disease or whether alcohol consumption associated with ALD impairs the absorption and synthesis. Furthermore, alterations of vitamin D receptors have also been linked with different cancers and diseases. For instance, mutations in vitamin D receptors have been significantly associated with a higher incidence of liver cancer and an elevated sensitivity to liver infections.

Overall, numerous studies have elucidated the association between vitamin D levels and disease severity, and as such, many attempts have been made to investigate the potential therapeutic effects of vitamin D and its analogues. For instance, vitamin D and its analogues are used to treat liver cancer, reducing cancer cell proliferation and inducing cell death. Likewise, vitamin D supplementation and food fortification are employed as a means of providing vitamin D deficient individuals with adequate levels, particularly for those at risk of low vitamin D intake and synthesis.)

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A Protein in the Blood May Lead to a Blood Test for Bipolar Disorder.

​Vitamin D blood test may one day speed bipolar diagnosis in kids

By: Misti Crane Bipolar disorder in young people can be a difficult diagnosis to make; experts say a blood test would help. COLUMBUS, Ohio - A blood test may have the potential to speed accurate diagnosis - and proper treatment - of bipolar disorder in children, new research suggests.

 From article, (A blood test may have the potential to speed accurate diagnosis – and proper treatment – of bipolar disorder in children, new research suggests.

Researchers at The Ohio State University found that children with bipolar disorder had higher blood levels of a protein associated with vitamin D compared to children without mood disorders.

Finding a blood test to confirm bipolar disorder could improve care and cut the current 10-year average lag time between onset and diagnosis, said Ouliana Ziouzenkova, the study’s lead author and an associate professor of human nutrition at Ohio State.

In the study of 36 young people, levels of the vitamin D binding protein were 36 percent higher in those with bipolar disorder than in those without a mood disorder. The study appears online in the journal Translational Psychiatry.

Confirming the significance of the blood marker with further research will take time, but Ziouzenkova and her collaborators are enthusiastic about its potential, and the benefits it could offer to children and their parents.

“Childhood bipolar disorder can be very difficult to distinguish from other disorders, especially in youth with certain types of depression,” said Barbara Gracious, a study lead co-author and associate professor of clinical psychiatry and nutrition at Ohio State.

“Prompt diagnosis and appropriate treatment alleviates the suffering of the child and family, and can potentially lessen the risk for suicide,” she said.

Sensitive and specific biomarkers could give clinicians more confidence in choosing the most appropriate treatment, and decrease lags in proper diagnosis, Gracious said, adding that more research will be needed to confirm whether testing for the vitamin D protein could prove a valuable tool in practice.

The clinical part of the pilot study was conducted at Harding Hospital at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center and included 13 children without mood disorders, 12 children with diagnosed bipolar disorder and 11 children with major depressive disorder.

Ziouzenkova said it made sense to look at vitamin D binding protein because it potentially plays a role in brain inflammation. The researchers also looked at inflammatory markers in the blood, but found no significant correlations. Looking for the nutrient vitamin D in the blood, as opposed to the binding protein, appears to have low diagnostic power, she said.

“We wanted to look at factors that could be involved in mood disorders on a cellular level and that could be easily found in the blood,” Ziouzenkova said.

To date, finding a reliable blood marker for bipolar diagnosis has been elusive, she said. Her lab used an intricate technique to evaluate blood plasma, in which they essentially used biological “bait” to fish for inflammatory factors. That helped them identify the vitamin D binding protein as a potential diagnostic target.

If further research confirms the findings, developing a blood test would be a fairly straightforward and relatively inexpensive proposition, she said. Ziouzenkova is currently seeking support for a larger study using blood that has already been collected from patients with bipolar disorder, including adults.

The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Center for Research Resources.)

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Google Hits 100% Renewable Energy Goal. Will Continue to Match Renewable Energy to New Data Centers and Offices Globally.

Google officially hits 100% renewable energy goal

In 2017, Google announced that it was on track to purchase enough renewable energy to match the electricity that it consumed over the next year. According to a blog posting from Urs Hölzle, Google's senior vice president for technical infrastructure, Google has officially met its goal.

 From article, (In 2017, Google announced that it was on track to purchase enough renewable energy to match the electricity that it consumed over the next year. According to a blog posting from Urs Hölzle, Google’s senior vice president for technical infrastructure, Google has officially met its goal.

Google’s total purchase of energy, including from sources such as wind and solar, exceeded the amount of electricity used by the company’s worldwide operations around the world. To date, its renewable energy contracts have led to over $3 billion in new capital investment around the world.

Hölzle wrote: “What do we mean by ‘matching’ renewable energy? Over the course of 2017, across the globe, for every kilowatt hour of electricity we consumed, we purchased a kilowatt hour of renewable energy from a wind or solar farm that was built specifically for Google. This makes us the first public Cloud, and company of our size, to have achieved this feat.”

Google currently has contracts to buy 3 GW of renewable energy, representing more than any other corporate renewables purchaser. The company plans to build more data centers and offices globally, and expects to keep signing more renewable energy contracts.)

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Largest Bakery in U.S. Goes Green. Will get 100% of Electrical Power from Wind Power.

World's largest bakery signs up for wind power

Committed to working on a sustainable path for a better world through its ongoing technology and innovation investments to reduce its environmental footprint, Grupo Bimbo announced that it has signed a virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA) to receive 100 MW of wind energy from Invenergy, North America's largest independent renewable energy company.

From article, (Grupo Bimbo’s to become the first baking company in the U.S. to use 100% renewable energy for its operations by 2020. Beginning in the third quarter of 2019, wind energy production from the Santa Rita East wind farm will be matched with energy consumption from Grupo Bimbo’s U.S. operations through the VPPA agreement.

This will result in CO2 emissions reductions of 260,000 tons annually. With this sustainable action, Grupo Bimbo will reach 75% renewable energy at a worldwide level, with overall CO2 emissions reductions of 440,000 tons every year globally.

“We are excited to partner with Invenergy in order to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the U.S.,” said Daniel Servitje, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Grupo Bimbo. “We strive to be leaders in sustainability – it is part of our purpose of building a sustainable, highly productive, and deeply humane company – and decreasing our environmental footprint is one of our primary goals.”

Construction and operation of Invenergy’s Santa Rita East wind farm will deliver substantial social and economic benefits to Irion County, Texas. This includes up to 300 jobs during construction, and 12 to 15 permanent jobs once operational. Additionally, as part of Invenergy’s agreement with the County, the project will generate $4,000 every year for eight years for the Mertzon’s Lions Club, Irion County Volunteer Fire Department and the Extension Education Club.

“This agreement is a great example of how companies across all industries can view renewable energy as beneficial for both the environment and business,” said Invenergy’s Founder and CEO Michael Polsky. “Grupo Bimbo is one of the organizations leading the way for sustainability in the baking industry, and as Invenergy continues to lead the way to a clean energy future, we are proud to help expand their commitment to using renewable energy on a global level.”)

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Shell, A Gas Station Giant, is Betting on Recharging Stations in City Apartment Dominated Markets Where EV Owners Can't Plug in their On Street Parked Cars. But it May Still Not Understand the Owner Enthusiasm for EVs.

Gas stations pivot to address the threat from electric vehicles

If you think Big Oil is oblivious to the threat that electric vehicles pose to industry profits, think again. BP has forecast that oil demand will peak in the 2030s as EVs enter the mainstream. The CEO of Royal Dutch Shell has said the next car he purchases will be an EV, and the CEO ...

From article, (Last year, Shell began installing EV charging points at gas stations (“forecourts” to our British mates) in the Netherlands and the UK (in partnership with Dutch charging operator Allego), as well as in Norway and the Philippines. It has also acquired Dutch charging network operator NewMotion, which manages over 30,000 charging points in 25 European countries.

BP, the dominant petrol retailer in the UK, recently acquired a stake in FreeWire, a developer of mobile rapid charging systems. Motor Fuel Group, the UK’s second-largest independent operator of forecourts, also has plans to offer fast charging.

“Downstream is helping Shell to thrive during the global shift to a lower-carbon energy system,” says John Abbott, Shell’s Director of Downstream. “We are helping to deliver tomorrow’s products, services and technologies, from battery-electric vehicle charging to next-generation biofuels, LNG for transport to hydrogen.”

Why is Europe leading the way when it comes to charging at the gas station? Demographics may be one reason: in contrast to the US, where suburban drivers charge at home, many UK drivers (perhaps up to 80%, according to research by National Grid) live in flats with no assigned parking spaces, and must park their cars on the street. This is also the case in China, and in dense urban areas around the world. If EVs are to become a viable option for all drivers, some solution to this dilemma must be found, and rapid charging at public locations could be an option.

The oil giants are also exploring some less practical strategies to meet the electric threat. Some planners at Shell seem to believe that consumers won’t feel the need to buy EVs if they can assuage their consciences by greenwashing away their carbon footprints. Canada’s Financial Postreports that Shell is starting a program that earmarks 2 cents per liter of gas towards planting trees. “This means that everybody who has a car can actually be carbon-free, said Chief Executive Ben van Beurden. “They don’t have to buy an electric car.”

Petroleum analyst Dan McTeague called this gimmick “redundant,” noting that most Canadians already pay a carbon tax that amounts to more than 2 cents per liter. “Beside the point” is another description that comes to mind. As regular readers of this column know, reducing carbon emissions is only one argument for buying an EV. The main reason electrics will replace fossil vehicles is the same reason that the oil-burners replaced horses: they represent newer technology and a superior product.)

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Canada is Slowly Dipping Its Feet Into Electric Car Sales.

Plug-in electric car sales in Canada, March 2018: Prius Prime rivals Volt

The Chevy Volt won its umpteenth monthly plug-in sales title in Canada last month, but soaring sales of other models were the big story in the Canuck electric vehicle market-which may have reached 1.75 percent of the market in March. The Volt tallied 555 March sales, Canada’s second-best single-month total for any model, second only to the 582...

From article, (The Chevy Volt won its umpteenth monthly plug-in sales title in Canada last month, but soaring sales of other models were the big story in the Canuck electric vehicle market—which may have reached 1.75 percent of the market in March.

The Volt tallied 555 March sales, Canada’s second-best single-month total for any model, second only to the 582 it managed last November.

This would have offered an enormous margin of victory, but Toyota sold 500 Prius Primes, the third-best single-month sales total. Toyota also sold 131 “regular” Prius liftbacks, meaning the plug-in made up almost 80 percent of total Prius hybrid sales.

Not far behind them, Nissan sold 423 second-generation 2018 Leafs. That was not only Canada’s seventh-best single-month plug-in sales total, but also more than double the first-generation Leaf’s record of 170 units, set in August 2016.

That means the new Leaf almost doubled the sales of the Chevy Bolt, which sold a still-vigorous 248 units. 

 With the Prius Prime and second-generation Leaf in their first few months of availability, pent-up demand may have contributed to their March sales volumes; their “steady-state” sales levels might be more modest.

Expect the next few months to tell us something about Canadians’ willingness to trade range and price.)

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New Method allows Satellites to Estimate what is in the Ocean: From Surface to 100 meters Deep. Before This Was Impossible. This Data is Important to Monitor CO2 Life Cycle

New satellite method enables undersea estimates from space: Statistical advance quantifies important ocean parameters in the illuminated ocean

Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences researchers have developed a statistical method to quantify important ocean measurements from satellite data, publishing their findings in the journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles. The study was made available online in December 2017, ahead of publication in January 2018.

 From article, (Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences researchers have developed a statistical method to quantify important ocean measurements from satellite data, publishing their findings in the journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles. The study was made available online in December 2017, ahead of publication in January 2018.

Their research remedies a problem that has plagued scientists for decades: ocean-observing satellites are incredibly powerful tools, but they can only "see" the surface layer of the ocean, leaving most of its depths out of reach.

The new method makes it possible to quantify six types of particles that are key to understanding ocean dynamics and ocean-atmosphere interactions. Scientists have long used ocean color remote sensing to measure these particles in surface waters, and now, they will be able to reliably calculate concentrations of these particles through the water column. These calculations will provide data about the first 100 meters of ocean water, or to the depth where light levels dim to about 1 percent of the brightness at the surface.

One important algae quantified by this new technique are the coccolithophores, ocean plants that surround themselves with reflective chalk plates that, en masse, can cause entire ocean basins to reflect more light when they "bloom." The effects of these microscopic coccolithophores are far-reaching: they influence biogeochemistry, global carbon cycling, and global microbial ecology. The carbon they produce when building their chalk plates even helps buffer the increasing acidity in the ocean caused by excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

"It hit me that we've been calculating chlorophyll profiles from surface measurements for more than thirty years, but we don't know what the depth profiles of other biogeochemically-important materials look like," said Barney Balch, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory and lead author on the paper.

The researchers also studied variables related to other ocean plant groups, like diatoms, which build glass shells that carry carbon to the deep sea, sequestering it from the atmosphere. Understanding carbon cycling is essential to understanding present and future changes to global climate.)

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Tesla Semis Getting Spotted Fairly Regularly on U.S. Roads; It Shows How Comfortable Tesla is With the Vehicles.

Tesla Semi truck pair spotted in "Convoy Mode" on CA highway

While Tesla's pair of Semi trucks are usually spotted showcasing their tire-shredding acceleration and their impressive speed, a video taken of the two electric long-haulers in a CA freeway shows how the vehicles look when they are just cruising relaxedly on the road, almost as if they are in what Elon Musk dubbed during the ...

From article, (While Tesla’s pair of Semi trucks are usually spotted showcasing their tire-shredding acceleration and their impressive speed, a video taken of the two electric long-haulers in a CA freeway shows how the vehicles look when they are just cruising relaxedly on the road, almost as if they are in what Elon Musk dubbed during the truck’s unveiling as “Convoy Mode.”

The video was uploaded last week by YouTube user Sergey MoldovanAmerican, who stated that he spotted the Semi pair driving on a CA highway. The nearly 1-minute sighting featured the two electric Semis up close, giving a pretty good idea of the massive size of the electric trucks. The driver of the long-range, silver Semi seemed very relaxed, drinking and even candidly waving at the camera as the YouTuber’s vehicle passed his truck.

The formation of the two electric trucks are reminiscent of what Elon Musk described as the Tesla Semi’s capability to drive in “Convoy Mode.”This particular feature enables a fleet of Semis to semi-autonomously draft in close proximity with each other, reducing energy usage from wind resistance.

“The convoy technology, the tracking technology, this is something that we are confident we can today do ten times safer than a human driver. I want to be clear, this is something we can do now,” Musk said during the unveiling.

Sightings of the Tesla Semi over the past month have become more frequent, with Tesla fans spotting the electric long-hauler on various locations across the country. Not long after the Tesla Semi pair were spotted on the Rocklin Supercharger, the long-range, silver version of the truck was sighted at the Anheuser-Busch brewery in St. Louis, MO. Later during the same day, the long-range Semi was sighted parked at a Supercharger in St. Charles, which is about 24 miles away from Anheuser-Busch’s facility.

A week after the MO sighting, the same Tesla Semi was spotted at the Dallas, TX Service Center, showing up a day later on a private demo event for PepsiCo employees at Reunion Tower. As we noted in a previous report, one of the r/TeslaMotors subreddit’s members, Ryan O’Donnell, was able to attend the private event. While in the demo, Ryan was able to speak with a PepsiCo employee, who noted that the company’s 100 orders of the Tesla Semi were just a “drop in the bucket” for PepsiCo’s overall plans.

Just recently, we also reported on FedEx placing reservations for 20 Tesla Semis, which the courier delivery service will deploy for FedEx Freight, the company’s less-than-truckload (LTL) service.

Overall, the Tesla Semi could very well disrupt the trucking industry the same way that the Model S disrupted the luxury sedan market. Equipped with four Model 3-derived electric motors, the Tesla Semi is capable of hauling 80,000 pounds of cargo, classifying it as a Class 8 vehicle.)

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Tesla to Hire More Workers at Gigafactory 2 in Upstate New York

Tesla accelerates hiring effort at Gigafactory 2 as more solar roof installations emerge

In recent weeks, we have started to see several Tesla solar roof customer installations and now the company is starting to accelerate its hiring effort at Gigafactory 2, where they manufacture the solar roof tiles.

 From article, (In recent weeks, we have started to see several Tesla solar roof customer installations and now the company is starting to accelerate its hiring effort at Gigafactory 2, where they manufacture the solar roof tiles.

Tesla has been producing solar roof tiles since last summer at their pilot factory in Fremont, but it was only low volume for installations at the homes of Tesla employees and company insiders.After a few delays, Tesla transferred the production to its Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo in January.Panasonic was already producing solar modules for Tesla at the plant and now they are moving to produce solar cells for both the modules and the solar roof tiles.

 Now, in order to ramp up production, Tesla is holding a series of 5 information sessions to recruit more workers.

Currently, over 500 people are working at the factory between Tesla and Panasonic employees.

It’s still short of the 1,500 jobs promised under the original deal between the state of New York and SolarCity before it was acquired by Tesla, but the latest hiring effort should accelerate the pace now that solar roofs are being installed at the homes of customers.

Tesla guided for an annual production capacity of 1 GW of solar panels at the factory with potential to increase capacity to over 2 GW – making it one of the biggest solar factories in the world.)

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A Start Up Company Wants to Put a, Hotel? TimeShare? Permanent Housing? In Space.

'Luxury Space Hotel' to Launch in 2021

Well-heeled space tourists will have a new orbital destination four years from now, if one company's plans come to fruition. That startup, called Orion Span, aims to loft its "Aurora Station" in late 2021 and begin accommodating guests in 2022.

From article, (Well-heeled space tourists will have a new orbital destination four years from now, if one company's plans come to fruition.

Orion Span, aims to loft its "Aurora Station" in late 2021 and begin accommodating guests in 2022. 

"Affordable" is a relative term: A 12-day stay aboard Aurora Station will start at $9.5 million. Still, that's quite a bit less than orbital tourists have paid in the past. From 2001 through 2009, seven private citizens took a total of eight trips to the International Space Station (ISS), paying an estimated $20 million to $40 million each time. (These private missions were brokered by the Virginia-based company Space Adventures and employed Russian Soyuz spacecraft and rockets.)

 Orion Span is building Aurora Station itself, Bunger added. The company — some of whose key engineering players have helped design and operate the ISS — is manufacturing the hotel in Houston and developing the software required to run it in the Bay Area, he said.

Aurora Station will be about the size of a large private jet's cabin. It'll measure 43.5 feet long by 14.1 feet wide (13.3 by 4.3 meters) and feature a pressurized volume of 5,650 cubic feet (160 cubic m), Orion Span representatives said. For comparison, the ISS is 357 feet (109 m) long and has an internal pressurized volume of 32,333 cubic feet (916 cubic m).

The private outpost will orbit at an altitude of 200 miles (320 kilometers) — a bit lower than the ISS, which is about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth on average. Right now, it's unclear how Aurora Station and its future occupants will get to orbit; Orion Span has yet to confirm any deals with launch providers, Bunger said.

Aurora Station will accommodate four paying guests and two crewmembers; these latter personnel will likely be former astronauts, Bunger said. Most of the guests will probably be private space tourists, at least initially, but Orion Span will be available to a variety of customers, including government space agencies, he added. 

And the space hotel will get bigger over time, if everything goes according to plan. As demand grows, Orion Span will launch additional modules to link up with the original core outpost, Bunger said.

"Our long-term vision is to sell actual space in those new modules," he said. "We're calling that a space condo. So, either for living or subleasing, that's the future vision here — to create a long-term, sustainable human habitation in LEO [low Earth orbit].")

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Need For a Minimum Wage on Blogs and YouTube Video Creators Who Rely on Ads as Income. Sadly, Google, and Other Internet Content Needing Sites Use Our Artwork (Writing, Photography, Video) to Line Their Pockets With Ad Income, Giving us Pennies In Return.

YouTube's relationship with creators, the source of so much success, has been turbulent

CLOSE SAN FRANCISCO - On April 23, 2005, YouTube launched with a mundane video of a man visiting the San Diego Zoo. It lasted 19 seconds and caused no shock waves. Fast forward 13 years, and the Google-owned platform has morphed into an online juggernaut that, for many Americans of a certain age, is the source for entertainment and news powered by stars that can make a mint.

 Me, "It's sad to see this demonetization happen to Youtube Video Creators. This is the problem with monopolies. They control where ads show up and how much money The Video Creators get paid. Since Google owns Youtube, it's not just a YouTube phenomenon. It is an across the board thing.

Bloggers and other sites that display ads with Adsense make mer pennies in ad revenue, even though thousands of people may have clicked on their sites and seen ads. If anything Adsense needs to be regulated by the government. There is no watchdog seeing how bloggers, who use Adsense, and it seems Youtube video creators, are paid for their work.

If there is an underclass, for the internet, it is in the monetization of these websites, and Google is mostly responsible.

Its not the only one of course. There are other sites, on the internet, that make you work long and hard and give almost nothing in return.  It could be public blogs, where you work just as hard as newspaper journalists, or photography sites that place ads on your photos, but since no government has working wage laws on the internet, internet companies can pay whatever they they want. Us content producers have to submit to this abuse, or find another way of making money.

It's a well thought out plan. Internet Sites get new content for almost free, every day, and they just live off of ads, while the artists make bupkis. 
Something needs to be done. There may need to be a minimum wage from ad suppliers. If they put an ad on your work you should make more than pennies a day. You should make a minimum wage. 
The way things stand now Ad companies pay you a lot more if someone clicks on an ad. Who clicks on an ad? If you see and ad and it interests you, say it's an ad on a bar of soap, you either go to a brick and mortar store and buy the soap, or you order from your favorite online retailer. You don't necessarily have to click on that ad for it to influence you. Trying to make money from the internet is a rigged game, and it is rigged against the content producer."

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