the Pentagon —  The first Ukrainian pilots have completed F-16 fighter jet training at a military base in Arizona, with others soon to follow this summer. "The first batch has graduated, and other…

As humanity returns to the Moon in the next few years, they’re going to need water to survive. While resupplies from Earth would work for a time, eventually the lunar base would have to become self-sustaining? So, how much water would be required to make this happen? This is what a recently submitted study hopes to address as a team of researchers from Baylor University explored water management scenarios for a self-sustaining moonbase, including the appropriate location of the base and how the water would be extracted and treated for safe consumption using appropriate personnel. Here, Universe Today discusses this research with Dr. Jeffrey Lee, who is an assistant adjunct professor in the Center for Astrophysics, Space Physics & Engineering Research at Baylor University, and lead author of the study, regarding the motivation behind the study, significant results, the importance of having a self-sustaining moonbase, and what implications this study could have for the upcoming Artemis missions. Therefore, what is the motivation behind this study? Dr. Lee tells Universe Today, “This paper is actually an eclectic diversion for me from my astrophysics research on primordial black holes, early universe cosmology, breakthrough propulsion physics, and my geophysics research on asteroid impacts. If human missions throughout the Solar System, particularly to Mars, are to be realized, then a permanent lunar facility seems to be a logical early step.” For the study, the researchers investigated water management requirements for a 100-person self-sustaining lunar base measured at 500 m x 100 x 6 m (1640 ft x 328 ft x 20 ft), including the location of the lunar base near water ice deposits, the technology required to convert the water ice to water vapor (since liquid water can’t exist on the Moon), and the technology required for water treatment and recovery that would result in safe consumption for the 100-person base. The study used the current water usage estimates for American households, which is approximately 100 gallons per day (GPD) per person, which includes cleaning, cooking, drinking, flushing toilets, and washing clothes. Additionally, the researchers examined the amount of water required for agricultural, technical, and overall needs for the lunar base. Regarding the location of the lunar base, the researchers deduced that the best location for the base would be either near, or exactly on, the Shackleton-de Gerlache Ridge, which is located at 89.9°S 0.0°E, or almost directly on the lunar south pole. The reason this location is ideal for water ice deposits is because Shackleton Crater resides within a permanently shadowed region (PSR), meaning it is shrouded in permanent darkness due to the Moon’s small axial tilt, and water ice has potentially built up over billions of years. In the end, the team concluded the water requirements for the 100-person lunar base for human, agricultural, and technical needs are 12.3, 72, and 2 acre-feet per year. For context, one acre-foot is equivalent to approximately 326,000 gallons, so a 100-person lunar base would need more than 4,000,000 gallons per year for human needs, more than 23,000,000 gallons per year for agricultural needs, and 652,000 gallons per year for technical needs. So, based on these findings, what were the most significant results from this study, and what follow-up studies are currently in the works or being planned? Dr. Lee tells Universe Today, “There is good evidence that sufficient water exists on the Moon to support a permanent lunar colony, and the acquisition, treatment, and distribution of the lunar water can be achieved with current technology. An appropriate administrative structure will be necessary to oversee all aspects of lunar water. The relative scarcity and management of water on the Moon can potentially provide insight for improving the management of water on Earth. The next study for my group will be to investigate the ways in which the management of lunar water could help to improve terrestrial water management. However, the timeline for this research is yet to be determined.” The study discusses in-situ resource utilization (ISRU), which is using available, on-site resources for both sustainability and survivability. In this case, using water ice deposits on the Moon, and specifically near the south pole of the Moon, to meet the water needs of a 100-person, self-sustaining lunar base. The potential for NASA using ISRU has gained considerable traction in the last few years since sending water from the Earth to the Moon could prove to be extremely costly. But aside from the financial risks, if a resupply mission gets delayed or fails on the way to the Moon, the crew could face significant danger. Therefore, learning to “live off the land” for a lunar base could prove to be a viable, long-term option for mitigating the need of resupply missions from Earth. But what additional importance could a self-sustaining moonbase also provide? Dr. Lee tells Universe Today, “Over the years, there has been a groundswell of excitement at the prospect of colonizing Mars. Indeed, at present, we are conceivably able to mount a short-term human voyage to the Red Planet in which the astronauts would collect samples, conduct experiments, plant flags, and when the next launch window occurs, return to Earth. However, the permanent colonization of Mars is much more ambitious and challenging. Mars is much farther away than the Moon, requiring 9 months to get there and a round trip time of 21 months (a 3-month stay on Mars is needed until the next launch window arrives).” NASA’s goal is to send humans to Mars through the agency’s Moon to Mars Architecture, which is an elaborate, years-long endeavor to develop the necessary technologies on the Moon for use during a crewed mission to the Red Planet. This includes science, infrastructure, transportation, habitation, and operations, just to name a few. However, as noted, while we can (possibly) send humans to the Red Planet for short-term stays with our current technology, a long-term human presence on Mars would require significantly more time and resources.   Dr. Lee tells Universe Today, “Beyond low Earth orbit, the Moon is a logical next destination. Lunar colonization is technologically achievable, and in comparison to Martian colonization, it is far easier. Being capable of establishing a moonbase seems like an obvious prerequisite for establishing a Mars base. Furthermore, the Moon would be an excellent jumping off point for further Solar System colonization including potentially the eventual establishment of small colonies in the interiors of Near-Earth Asteroids. Additionally, some have suggested that the Moon is an ideal location from which the interception of Earth-bound asteroids could be conducted.” This study comes as NASA’s Artemis program plans to land the first woman and person of color on the lunar surface in the next few years. The current landing sites of the Artemis missions are near the south pole to access nearby water ice deposits within the aforementioned PSRs and could be ideal to develop ISRU technologies that can also be used on future Mars crewed missions, as well. Therefore, what implications could this study have for the upcoming Artemis missions? “Short term lunar visits, such as the planned Artemis missions would not require lunar water,” Dr. Lee tells Universe Today. “In these instances, sufficient water could be brought from Earth. However, if at some point in the future, a lunar colony were to become a priority, future Artemis missions could serve to provide valuable in situ information about the presence and abundance of lunar water, particularly at the lunar south pole and in proximity to the Shackleton Crater (an ideal area for a moonbase).” How will water management play a role in a self-sustaining lunar base in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science! As always, keep doing science & keep looking up! The post How Much Water Would a Self-Sustaining Moonbase Need? appeared first on Universe Today.

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The following article, The Public Lynching of Trump and Coming Civil War, was first published on Conservative Firing Line. The New York trial of Donald J. Trump is a public lynching. Lady Justice never entered the courtroom. She was not even in the building. And the worst awaits us all. Trump has been placed in an American version of the Tower of London to languish while the Crown’s clowns besmirch his character, and soon … Continue reading The Public Lynching of Trump and Coming Civil War ...

Last week, this column made note of something of interest going on in Ohio, namely, the fact that President Joe Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee scheduled their nominating convention to end Aug. 22, two weeks after the existing ballot deadline in the Buckeye State. That ballot deadline has been in place for more than a decade. Ohio was not the only state whose deadline was scheduled before the end of the Democrats’ convention as chosen by the party and Team Biden. Alabama’s deadline was also earlier than the set date, and the state, a month or so ago, accommodated Team Biden by moving its back. (READ THE PIECE: Ohio Legislature Refuses to Bail Out Biden’s Incompetence. Good for It.) Ohio has not. In this space, I noted that Ohio’s legislature is free to choose not to follow suit with Alabama: There is no obligation on the part of the Ohio legislature to bail out Team Biden for its incompetence here. Certainly, there’s no moral obligation for Ohio to do Biden a solid. Not after East Palestine. And given the efforts of partisan Democrats in Colorado, Maine, and, less successfully, in other states to pervert the 14th Amendment to deny Trump a place on the ballot there, there certainly isn’t a moral obligation for Republican legislators in a red state to change their laws to accommodate Democrats. And there’s no legal obligation. The Democrat Party is a private entity that does not make election laws, as much as it might clearly believe otherwise. What is Russo offering Stephens in return for a special session and a bill putting Biden’s incompetent campaign, together with a full boat of shady electoral practices and machine politics, on the right side of a brand-new ballot deadline? Anything? It would seem that the GOP, which controls Ohio, ought to be in a position to make a few demands in return for such a consideration. And, yet, if you cycle through the news stories covering this unfolding fiasco, you’ll struggle to find any mention of a deal. The deal is the important piece here. Sure, having Biden on the ballot in Ohio is — as a matter of electoral integrity — probably better than not (though there are many side arguments to be had on that question, to be certain). But as I noted, Biden is set to be off the ballot in Ohio not due to anything Ohio has done. This was the Democrats’ mistake. And that means they ought to have to give something up if they want Ohio’s legislature to change the statute and shoehorn Biden onto the ballot. That’s common sense. It’s fair play. It’s also, as I noted, nowhere to be found in the discussion of Ohio’s ballot controversy. That state’s governor, Mike DeWine, a squirrel of the first magnitude who cannot stop screwing over the people who put him in office, certainly isn’t attempting to broker a deal. He’s instead calling a special session of the Ohio Legislature, demanding that it change the ballot deadline to let Biden slide. What else is on the special-session table in Ohio? I don’t see much. That means this is a freebie from a Republican governor and, assumedly, a GOP-dominated state Legislature to a Democrat Party that is doing … what, exactly, to reach across the aisle? But DeWine is heroic for making those demands, according to the conservative-stalwart editors of the National Review: We agree with Governor DeWine — Ohio’s legislature should pass a bill ensuring the president of the United States’ name remains on the ballot this November. We emphasize that this is a matter of the utmost gravity. It is not — and cannot possibly ever be — about cheap and temporary partisan advantage. It is a question about the fundamental legitimacy of American elections. No, it’s about preserving the integrity of state statutes and enforcing the rule of law. This is the Democrats’ mistake. If they want it fixed, they should be bringing baskets of goodies to the legislative majority as compensation for being bailed out. Why is National Review so solicitous of Joe Biden? Is it still on the Never-Trump bandwagon as it so infamously was in 2016? Are the woke corporate paymasters of that publication forcing that agenda down the throats of the editors, or have they gone along willingly?: Ohio — once the most hotly contested swing state in presidential politics — is nobody’s idea of an electoral battleground these days. It is now considered to be so safely in Donald Trump’s column for 2024 that neither party seriously plans to contest its electoral votes in November. (Incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown faces a strong challenge for reelection in the Senate but has consistently held the upper hand against Republican Bernie Moreno in polling.) It is most likely that the inaction is due to Republicans in the Ohio state legislature — both chambers of which they securely control — feeling like they owe zero favors to Joe Biden in an electoral climate where even being accused of doing one for him is potential fodder for a primary challenge somewhere down the road. Republicans don’t owe Biden favors, and that is the entire point. To do Biden a favor would only be justified if they were given a favor in their own right. For example, Biden’s overly politicized Department of Justice could call off its scandalous lawfare prosecutions of Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., and South Florida — prosecutions that are aimed almost explicitly at knocking Trump off this fall’s ballot. When inaction knocks Biden off the ballot — due to his own mistake — and active abuse of power attempts to knock Trump off the ballot, the equitable deal should be Republican action in exchange for Democrat cessation. Are National Review’s editors so craven that they won’t even make the ask on the part of Ohio’s legislators? Or did it never occur to them that extracting something from Democrats is possible and desirable?: As Alabama’s legislators well understood, this is no favor but rather a basic (and uncontroversial) act of civic responsibility. Joe Biden’s name must be allowed to remain on the Ohio ballot, for to remove it on a four-day technicality (in the renomination of an incumbent) would open Pandora’s box. First and foremost, it would deny Ohio voters a meaningful vote for president of the United States between the two major parties, one it is impossible to argue with any seriousness that voters of the state do not deserve. To allow pointed inaction to permit the president’s name to “default” off the Ohio ballot is to commit a bluntly cynical transgression of civic norms. It is not even good politics; Sherrod Brown would likely benefit from running on voter anger at such transparent self-interest at their expense. Biden’s name isn’t on the ballot in Ohio. It can’t “remain” on it. The 2024 election is a different one than 2020’s, and Biden must be nominated by the Democrats to be on the ballot. The Democrats chose to nominate him too late to meet Ohio’s ballot deadline. It isn’t the legislature’s job to nominate Joe Biden in a timely manner; it’s the Democrats’ job. And they failed to do it. Why are Republicans duty-bound to correct the failures of Democrats? And since when does constantly bailing them out of their failures encourage them to stop failing? How do you think Democrats become less and less sane and more and more radical? It’s obviously because they neither fear nor respect the consequences of their own stupidity. And it’s people like the geniuses at NR white knighting for them that protects the Democrats and the Left from those consequences, rather than seizing the opportunities, and positive disruption, that could be had from letting the chips fall: Even more appallingly, were Ohio Republicans to deny Biden a spot on November’s ballot out of pointless spite, they would be undermining every single argument they — and Donald Trump — have been making for the past several years about how government is weaponized against Republicans. Now they’ve devolved into abject stupidity. This is very poorly disguised Never Trumpism, and it should be called out as such: This is not about doing Democrats or Joe Biden a favor. Ohio’s legislators owe it to the voters of their state and the people of the nation to come together and pass a simple fix to this state election law and give Ohio voters the chance to reject Joe Biden fair and square. And Ohio voters should neither forgive nor forget if legislators contrive specious reasons to deny the people of their state an actual voice in the November election. So now they’re calling for the heads of Republican legislators in Ohio who won’t knuckle under and bail out the Biden campaign? This is shameful. It’s a new low for a publication that claims to be “conservative” and yet refuses to sanction any actual effort to give conservatives political advantage. Again, the point here isn’t that Ohio’s legislators shouldn’t change the ballot deadline. It’s that there ought to be considerations extracted in exchange for doing so. If you want to be known as the gold standard of conservative thought, you have a responsibility to think about those considerations, do you not? It doesn’t appear that anybody at NR even bothered with that concept. And that fact is very damning indeed. The post Just Call <i>National Review</i> the <i>Stupid Party Review</i> From Now On appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.