NASA's Moon to Mars Plans, Artemis Lunar Program Gets Fast Tracked in 2019 [Video Included]

NASA spacesuit engineer Amy Ross and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine introduce spacesuit engineer Kristine Davis, wearing a ground prototype of NASA’s new Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU), and Orion Crew Survival Systems Project Manager Dustin Gohmert, wearing the Orion Crew Survival System suit, Oct. 15, 2019 at NASA Headquarters in Washington. (Credit: NASA)

In 2019, NASA celebrated the 50th anniversary of the agency's Apollo 11 Moon landing, the most historic moment in space exploration, while also making significant progress toward putting the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024 under the Artemis program.

Through America's Moon to Mars exploration approach, Artemis gained bipartisan support this year among members of Congress, the U.S aerospace industry, as well as with international partners, including Canada, Australia, and Japan, and member states of the European Space Agency.

"2019 will be remembered as the year the Artemis program really became a reality with real spaceflight hardware built, U.S. commercial and international partnerships standing behind it, and hardworking teams across NASA and the world coming together like never before to quickly and sustainably explore the Moon and use what we learn there to enable humanity's next giant leap – sending astronauts to Mars," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. "While the Artemis program came into sharp focus this year, NASA continued to show what leading in space exploration is all about, whether it was kicking off 2019 with New Horizons' historic Kuiper Belt object flyby, conducting the first all-woman spacewalk outside the International Space Station, or developing the first flying robotic explorer to study Saturn's moon Titan. And wait until you see what we do in 2020!"

The Office of the Chief Financial Officer received a successful clean audit in 2019 – the ninth consecutive clean financial audit opinion for the agency. And for the eighth year in a row, NASA retained its standing as the number one large agency in the Best Places to Work in Government rankings, published by the Partnership for Public Service.

"Throughout this year, as I have visited each of our centers, I have personally witnessed their unparalleled commitment to accomplishing our mission. The daily devotion of our employees makes them well deserving of this award," Bridenstine said. "I am honored to lead such a dedicated team. They are what makes NASA the Best Place to Work in Government."

Moon to Mars

This year, NASA officially named the new lunar exploration program Artemis, for the goddess of the Moon and twin sister of Apollo. Under Artemis, NASA will send new science instruments and technology demonstrations to study the Moon, accelerate plans to send astronauts to the Moon by 2024, and establish sustainable lunar exploration by 2028.

Science and technology progress in Artemis includes:

• Two sets of Moon rocks, sealed since they were collected by Apollo astronauts and returned to Earth nearly 50 years ago, were opened for study.
• NASA announced it will send a new mobile robot, VIPER, to the lunar South Pole to scout and sample ice in the region.
• Twelve new lunar science and technology investigations were selected in February and July, 24 total, to fly on early Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) flights to the Moon.
• The agency awarded initial surface task orders for commercial Moon deliveries.
• New CLPS contracts were awarded to five companies to support the next generation of lunar landers that can land heavier payloads on the surface of the Moon. A total of 14 companies now are eligible to bid on these deliveries.
• NASA received a record-breaking 10,932,295 names to travel to Mars on the agency's upcoming Mars 2020 mission.
• Engineers attached the Mars Helicopter to the Mars 2020 rover. After the rover lands at the Jezero Crater, the helicopter will be deployed to conduct test flights.
• The international mission team for NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander continues to assess the lander's heat probe, while the lander's seismometer collects data on quakes.
• NASA selected 14 Tipping Point and 19 Announcement of Collaboration Opportunity proposals from U.S. companies that focus on technologies and capabilities needed for a sustainable presence on the Moon by 2028.
• The agency partnered with Advanced Space to develop and build a pathfinder CubeSat destined for the same lunar orbit planned for NASA's lunar Gateway.
• The Sample Analysis at Mars chemistry lab on NASA's Curiosity rover measured seasonal methane and oxygen spikes in Mar's atmosphere.
• Technology sensors and an in-situ resource utilization experiment were installed on the Mars 2020 entry vehicle and rover.

The Orion spacecraft being lifted onto the truck for transport to NASA's Plum Brook Station. (Credit: NASA)

NASA continues to advance development of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft, which will send astronauts to deep space.

• NASA demonstrated that Orion's launch abort system can pull astronauts to safety if an emergency occurs during launch, and assembled the spacecraft for the first Artemis mission, Artemis I. It was delivered to Ohio for final testing for the extreme environment of space before it's returned to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch preparation.
• On the SLS rocket for the first Artemis mission, engineers completed the segments for the boosters and assembled the core stage. The core stage next will ship to NASA's Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, for a Green Run test of the integrated propulsion system before joining Orion at Kennedy for stacking.
• Teams at Kennedy conducted a series of water flow tests of the sound suppression system at the launch pad and tested the flow of cryogenic fluids through the pad's infrastructure – the systems that will send liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to the rocket at the time of launch.
• The launch team at Kennedy held its first formal training simulation for Artemis I, and flight controllers at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston simulated part of Orion's uncrewed flight to the Moon.

Work also began on hardware for Artemis II, the first SLS/Orion test flight with astronauts aboard. NASA and Northrop Grumman technicians applied insulation to the final booster motor segment of SLS and completed casting of all 10 booster motor segments. The agency also issued a request for proposals from U.S. small satellite developers to fly their missions as secondary payloads on Artemis II.

Development of the key pieces of NASA's lunar architecture is underway:

• NASA awarded a contract for the first element of the Gateway, which will provide power, propulsion, and communications to the lunar outpost. The new Gateway Program is based out of Johnson.
• Negotiations are underway for the Gateway's habitation and logistics outpost (HALO) module, and awards are expected in the future for logistics supply services.
• NASA announced astronaut spacesuit designs for the Artemis III mission, which will include the return of astronauts to the Moon's surface. The agency is asking industry for input on production for Artemis IV missions and beyond.
• The agency also announced its Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, will manage its new Human Landing System Program and asked American companies to design, develop, and demonstrate a human lander.

NASA's InSight lander captured audio of the first likely quake on Mars on April 6.

The agency also bid farewell to a veteran Martian science rover on Feb. 13 and captured audio of the first likely quake on Mars. The Mars Opportunity Rover mission stopped communicating with Earth when a severe Mars-wide dust storm blanketed its location in June 2018. Designed to last just 90 Martian days and travel less than 3,300 feet (1,000 meters), Opportunity far surpassed all expectations, exceeding its life expectancy by 60 times, traveling more than 28 miles (45 kilometers), and returning more than 217,000 images.

Solar System and Beyond

It was a great year for astrobiology and the agency's search for life in the universe:

• Scientists synthesized a molecular DNA-like system in NASA-funded research – a feat that suggests there could be an alternative to DNA-based life as we know it.
• NASA selected Dragonfly, a rotocraft-lander that will survey locations on Saturn's moon Titan for prebiotic chemical processes common on Titan and Earth.

Other highlights this year include:

• On New Year's Day 2019, NASA's New Horizons mission flew by the most distant object ever visited by a spacecraft and became the first to directly explore an object that holds remnants from the birth of our solar system.
• NASA launched the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) spacecraft and announced the first results from the agency's Parker Solar Probe mission.
• Significant progress was made on the agency's James Webb Space Telescope. The two halves of Webb were assembled into one observatory and the sunshield passed a critical test.
• After a navigation maneuver to keep NASA's Juno mission out of an eclipse that could have frozen the solar powered spacecraft, it discovered a new cyclone at Jupiter's south pole. The cyclone is the size of Texas, small by Jupiter standards.
• NASA's next Mars rover, Mars 2020, passed its first driving test as it rolled forward and backward and pirouetted in a clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, on Dec. 17. The next time the rover drives, it will be rolling over Martian soil.
• The Europa Clipper mission's next phase was confirmed with a decision in August to allow the mission to progress to completion of final design, followed by the construction and testing of the entire spacecraft and science payload.
• NASA's Chandra, Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NUSTAR), Fermi, Swift, and Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) telescopes contributed to the first direct imaging of a black hole. Chandra, which celebrated its 20th anniversary, separately spotted three black holes on a collision course.
• The agency's Hubble Space Telescope observed the first confirmed interstellar comet and found water vapor on a habitable-zone exoplanet for the first time.
• The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) completed its first year of science, capturing a panorama of the southern sky and finding 29 confirmed planets and more than 1,000 planet candidates. TESS also captured a rare astrophysical event – a black hole tearing apart a star.
• The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) detected the universe's first type of molecule, helium hydride.
• The Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) mission was selected to help us understand how our universe evolved and to search our galaxy for the ingredients for life.
• NASA's Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) was cleared for the next development phase: finalizing the spacecraft's design.
• The Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security - Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-Rex) made the first-ever close-up observations of particle plumes erupting from an asteroid's surface, and the mission team announced the site on the asteroid Bennu where the mission will collect samples that will be returned to Earth in 2023.

A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket carrying a Cygnus resupply spacecraft is seen during sunrise on Pad-0A April 16, 2019, at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Northrop Grumman’s 12th contracted cargo resupply mission with NASA to the International Space Station launched around 8,200 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory and its crew (Credits: NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Humans in Space

NASA astronauts Anne McClain, Nick Hague, Christina Koch, Andrew Morgan, and Jessica Meir of the 2013 astronaut class all participated in their first spaceflight missions to the International Space Station. Each also conducted their first spacewalks, including the first all-woman spacewalk with Meir and Koch.

The space station is facilitating a strong commercial market in low-Earth orbit for research, technology development, and crew and cargo transportation, and remains the sole space-based proving ground and stepping stone for the Artemis program. In 2019:

• SpaceX's Crew Dragon returned to Earth after a five-day demonstration mission to the space station for NASA's Commercial Crew Program. SpaceX now is preparing for an in-flight abort test in advance of its first flight with astronauts.
• NASA and Boeing are collecting data and lessons learned from the uncrewed flight test of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner, which launched and landed successfully, but was unable to dock with the space station. Boeing successfully completed a key safety milestone in November with a test of its abort system.
• NASA astronauts assigned to the first Commercial Crew Program flights trained extensively in preparation for their flight tests on Crew Dragon and Starliner.
• Koch and Morgan are participating in extended missions to provide further opportunities to observe the effects of long-duration space travel. On Dec. 28, Koch will set a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman.
• Results from NASA's landmark Twins Study were published, revealing the resilience of the human body in space.
• NASA announced a five-point plan to open the space station to U.S. industry to accelerate a thriving commercial economy in low-Earth orbit.
• Five commercial cargo missions delivered more than 32,000 pounds of science investigations, tools, and critical supplies to the space station and returned more than 10,800 pounds of investigations and equipment to researchers on Earth.
• Commercial resupply missions enabled the crew to support more than 100 new U.S. science investigations to advance human space exploration and conduct research for the U.S. National Laboratory to benefit life on Earth.
• Research conducted on station included experiments to better understand: human adaptations to spaceflight; how fluid shifts affect an astronaut's blood flow and regolith behaves in microgravity; black holes and quantum mechanics; and how best to grow and harvest vegetables in space and measure atmospheric carbon dioxide.
• Also tested on the space station was a free-flying robot system, a new air quality monitoring system, a vest designed to protect astronauts from radiation, a new medical research technology called tissue chips, and a virtual reality camera.
• NASA astronauts participated in 10 spacewalks to install a new docking port for commercial crew spacecraft, upgrade the station's power system, and repair an instrument that is searching for dark matter, anti-matter, and dark energy.

SpaceX launched its 19th cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station at 12:29 p.m. EST Dec. 5, 2019, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. (Credit: NASA TV)

Flight

NASA's aeronautics team reached several major milestones in its efforts to enable commercial supersonic air travel over land.

• NASA tested the eXternal Vision System, a forward-facing camera and display system that lets the pilot see the airspace in front of him or her, for the X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST).
• NASA deployed CarpetDiem along a 30-mile-stretch of the Mojave Desert in California to test a specially-configured microphone array that will be used when the X-59 makes a series of acoustic validation flights in 2021.
• The X-59 project team completed its critical design review and the aircraft was cleared in December for final assembly and systems integration.

NASA's research into electric-powered flight with the X-57 Maxwell made headlines throughout the year.

• NASA devised a custom-designed skin around the aircraft's motor electronics to cool them without changing the aircraft's shape or design.
• NASA and General Electric announced a $12 million partnership to further explore electrified aircraft propulsion and received the X-57's Mod II aircraft, paving the way for NASA engineers to put the aircraft through ground, taxi and flight tests.

Another major aeronautics focus was NASA's ongoing work in Urban Air Mobility – a safe and efficient system for passenger and cargo air transportation.

• NASA selected two organizations to host the final phase of its four-year series of technical demonstrations involving small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), or drones, in Reno, Nevada, and Corpus Christi, Texas.
• NASA and Uber partnered on computer modeling and simulation of airspace management for small aircraft in crowded city environments. NASA also launched its solicitation for companies to participate in the Urban Air Mobility Grand Challenge.

Continuing other avenues of research in aviation technology, the agency:

• signed contracts with three industry partners to demonstrate the use of systems for the safe operation of drones in the national airspace;
• successfully tested an advanced photographic technology that captured the first-ever images of the interaction of shockwaves from two supersonic aircraft in flight;
• demonstrated a new aircraft wing using advanced carbon fiber composites that can flex in flight to maximize aerodynamic efficiency;
• brought onboard its newest world-class research facility, the NASA Electric Aircraft Testbed (NEAT), in Sandusky, Ohio, which provides a reconfigurable research platform capable of accommodating power systems for large passenger airplanes with megawatts of power;
• demonstrated air traffic management tools that manage the movement of aircraft from an airport gate to a spot in the sky after takeoff; and,
• installed onto a flying testbed small fins made from shape memory alloys to help control airflow during flight.

Space Technology

As NASA embarked on the next era of exploration in 2019, the agency continued to advance technologies needed for a sustainable human presence on the Moon and future human missions to Mars.

• Two NASA technology demonstrations were launched to improve how spacecraft travel and navigate. The Green Propellant Infusion Mission is successfully demonstrating a low-toxin propellant and NASA's Deep Space Atomic Clock is close to determining how well the clock keeps time, down to the nanosecond.
• A biology experiment on the space station is testing a method of using microorganisms to produce nutrients usually found in vegetables.
• Google, in partnership with NASA and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, achieved quantum supremacy by demonstrating the ability to compute in seconds what would take the largest and most advanced supercomputers thousands of years.
• NASA demonstrated the first coordinated maneuver between two CubeSats in low-Earth orbit, and two CubeSats teamed up for a laser communications pointing experiment.
• NASA awarded a contract to Made In Space to 3D print and assemble spacecraft parts in low-Earth orbit.
• NASA helped test a commercial terrain-relative navigation system for precise lunar landings and dozens of other technologies aboard suborbital rockets, spacecraft, planes and balloons.
• The 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge wrapped up after 30 hours of 3D printing prototype planetary habitats. College students practiced drilling for water on the Moon and Mars using simulated soil and ice stations.
• NASA established two new space technology research institutes to study smart habitats. NASA-funded university faculty and graduate students researched technologies for robot explorers, spacecraft temperature control and more.
• Two NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts aimed at exploring lunar craters and mining asteroids received another round of NASA funding
• The agency licensed to commercial companies NASA technologies and software that can be used to create products and solutions to benefit people everywhere.
• NASA awarded nearly $180 million, in May, June and November, to hundreds of U.S. small businesses to advance capabilities in aeronautics and space.

Earth

NASA continued to use its perspective of Earth from space to improve lives and revolutionize our understanding of how our planet is changing.

• After powerful Hurricane Dorian hit the Bahamas in September, NASA assisted emergency response organizations by creating detailed damage assessment and flood maps based on satellite data.
• The largest migration of small sea creatures on the planet was studied globally for the first time using the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) satellite.
• A study showed that the increasing dryness of the atmosphere above the Amazon rainforest is primarily the result of human activities and is increasing the demand for water and leaving ecosystems vulnerable to fires and drought.
• A new NASA laser instrument on the space station began collecting data to create detailed 3D maps of Earth's forests and topography.

STEM Engagement

NASA provided more than $32 million in financial support to more than 8,000 students participating in internships and fellowships through its: Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP); Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR); Space Grant Project; and Next Gen STEM. Nearly 40% of the opportunities were filled by women, and 30% went to racial or ethnic minorities.

Participating in NASA's Micro-g Neutral Buoyancy Experiment Design Team (Micro-g NExT) program, Team CERO, from Lone Star College-CyFair in Cypress, Texas, became the first team to have their tool sent to the International Space Station, where it was used during a spacewalk on Nov. 22 to repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.

This picture, taken July 12, 2011, shows the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) experiment on the International Space Station. AMS is a state-of-the-art particle physics detector designed to search for antimatter and dark matter. (Credit: NASA/Ron Garan)

NASA also engaged students, educators and the public in STEM through a series of public events including:

• Future of Space, a live television event for college students to learn more about NASA's newest mission, Artemis and hear from NASA's leadership
• Forward to the Moon, a 30-minute show to accompany the Apollo 50th live broadcast to engage the public in STEM activities
• Space and STEM: Where do you fit in?, a show for college students participating at 2019 International Astronautical Congress

Public Engagement

NASA is dedicated to engaging the public in the excitement, accomplishments and opportunities available only through the nation's space program. The agency hosted and participated in events across the country marking the 50th anniversary of the first Apollo Moon landing in July 1969, including two events in Washington: a concert on July 20 at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts co-hosted by former Myth Busters host Adam Savage, and a three-day festival on the National Mall that featured exhibits and talks and had more than 50,000 attendees.

Other public events included:

• NASA Day of Remembrance, attended by Vice President Mike Pence
• Earth Day celebration at Union Station in Washington
• The agency's Independent Verification and Validation Facility in Fairmont, West Virginia, was renamed in honor of West Virginia native and NASA "human computer" Katherine Johnson.
• Hidden Figures Way dedication at NASA Headquarters in Washington
• Events leading up to the premier of the movie Ad Astra, including a conversation between astronauts on the International Space Station and actor Brad Pitt
• Star Wars actors Kelly Marie Tran and Naomi Ackie visited Johnson Space Center, where they met with astronauts and learned about training to live and work in space. Tran also narrated a new video detailing how we'll go to the Moon with the Artemis program.
• Ariana Grande, Blake Griffin, and Karol G also visited Johnson to learn more about human space flight.
• The cast of Lost in Space toured NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
• Interactions on social media with celebrities such as Barbara Streisand, Billie Jean King, Priyanka Chopra, Ava DuVernay, Misha Collins, David Bowie, Alicia Keys, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Tony Hawke, Tig Notaro, and others.

NASA had a significant exhibit presence at two high-profile annual space policy conferences: Space Symposium, which brought together space industry leaders and entrepreneurs from around the globe to discuss the current and future state of space exploration; and the International Astronautical Congress, hosted this year by NASA and during which more than 6,660 people visited the agency's exhibit.

NASA now has more than 219.7 million social media followers – up from 187 million in 2018. In addition to increasing engagement on various platforms, the agency hosted 10 NASA Social events, bringing together nearly 500 followers for unique, in-person experiences of exploration and discovery. The agency's social media activity was honored in April with two Webby Awards and two People's Voice awards.

The agency's website received its 11th People's Voice Award in the Government & Civil Innovation category. The busiest day for the website was April 10, when NASA shared a black hole image from the National Science Foundation, which had 1.7 million visits. The second-busiest day, with 1.6 million visits, was May 21, when NASA invited to the public to send their names to Mars on the Mars 2020 rover.

The agency launched two new mediums to communicate with the public. In March, NASA debuted a weekly email newsletter that already has more than 1.1 million subscribers. In September, NASA TV launched a new video series called #AskNASA, in which agency experts answer questions from the public about its incredible mission.

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences recognized NASA's engagement efforts in September with two Emmy Awards for its coverage of the landing on Mars of NASA's InSight mission and the agency's first test of a spacecraft that will help bring crewed launches to the International Space Station back to U.S. soil.

The Video:

SOURCE: NASA

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Reggae Artist, Safira Mono Targeted by VooDoo Community for Her Latest Single "Tunback Blow" [Video Included]

Tunback Blow - Artwork

Reggae artiste Safira Mono is getting a lot of flak from several individuals in various countries including Jamaica, Haiti and Ghana following the release of her recent single "Tunback Blow," produced by James Lord.

The single tackles the taboo topic of obeah, a system of spiritual and healing practices developed among enslaved West Africans in the West Indies. She hones in on a particular practice of the 'tunback blow' which is a means of deflecting evil sorcery onto the perpetrators of the original act.

"Obeah is real if we believe it to be so. Our minds are more powerful than we may have been led to believe. Therefore, if a person possesses an evil intent, the mind is powerful enough to manifest that evil into reality. I wrote and recorded 'Tunback Blow' based on life experiences. If we put out negative energy, we should also expect a negative return," she said.

The song was released recently and ignited a fierce online debate about the practice with some accusing Safira Mono of promoting sorcery and slackness.

Safira Mono

Although obeah remains a popular practice among those of African ancestry, it is still frowned upon by society, and widely practiced in secrecy. In fact, obeah has been outlawed in Jamaica since 1760 after Tacky's Rebellion.

Variations of obeah are practiced in the Bahamas and in several Caribbean nations. Obeah was decriminalised in Anguilla in 1980, Barbados in 1998, Trinidad and Tobago in 2000, and St Lucia in 2004. In Guyana, the government recently announced its intention to remove the crime of obeah from the criminal code.

Last year, Justice Minister Delroy Chuck advocated that a new law to protect vulnerable people from being fleeced by those who exploit their beliefs, and suggested that there were moves afoot to repeal the 1898 Obeah Act. Chuck's remarks in Parliament ignited a firestorm of abuse on social media, and he clarified his comments, denying that the government wanted to make the practice of obeah legal.

"It is evident that Jamaica is not ready for talks about what to do with obeah, we have a complicated relationship with our African ancestry and heritage. But the government needs to understand that criminalising people's belief systems is unconstitutional and could be challenged in court," Safira Mono said.

Even at the height of the lucrative Christmas season, the annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, the practice is ramped up because of the high financial stakes involved.

"Obeah is practised all over Jamaica, is like it decriminalised already, dem more brave and open with it downtown and in some rural towns, especially commercial areas because of the intense competition to make sales. Trust me, if someone promises say dem ah go obeah yu, dem will dweet in front of your face, dem no 'fraid," Safira Mono said.

The Video:

SOURCE: Safira Mono

Tempest in a Teapot: 5 Cybersecurity Storms Brewing [Infographic]

Top Cybersecurity Threats of 2020

Blockchain, 5G data networks, Amazon Echo's. Is there anything that technology doesn't control in our daily lives? As the number of new platforms and enhanced capabilities surges, so too does the risk of attacks. 

This new "digital industrial revolution" turned the global economy into a treasure trove of personal data ripe for the hackers' picking. Recently, the U.S. has experienced cyberattacks that target healthcare companies, social media platforms, and even political organizations. According to IBM, cybercrime has become 'the greatest threat to every profession, every industry, every company in the world." The most frustrating part? The hacker's tactics are constantly evolving and adapting.

With all of this in mind, the editorial staff at FitSmallBusiness evaluated the 5 most dangerous cybersecurity threats to watch for in 2020. The digital business publication assessed a wide range of research and data - and considered the following industries: government, healthcare, telecom, and social media. In this way, they were able to determine which sectors are most vulnerable to hackers.

[While the list can be found below, the full report is available here.]

The Greatest Cybersecurity Threats Targeting Your Business in 2020:

1. Corrupting Government
2. Exposing Healthcare
3. Breaching Social
4. Targeting New Tech
5. Hacking Your Home

The Infographic:

Cybersecurity Threats for 2020

"With this study, we wanted to be as people-focused as possible," says Michael De Medeiros, Special Projects Editor, FitSmallBusiness. "Cybercriminal tactics evolve with the technology that they target. It's imperative for individuals and small business owners, alike, to be wary of what's changing and how to stay ahead of the curve."

SOURCE: FitSmallBusiness.com

#Matesong: Australia's Pop Icon Kylie Minogue Invites Brits Down Under [Video Included]

Tourism Australia’s ‘Matesong’ campaign featuring Kylie Minogue (Photo Credit: Nicole Bentley. Location: Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Northern Territory, Australia)

Australian pop icon Kylie Minogue has delivered a special musical Christmas Day message to the UK as part of Tourism Australia's latest campaign aimed at enticing more Brits down under.

With original lyrics written by Australian singer-songwriter Eddie Perfect and filmed against a backdrop of extraordinary Australian locations, the three-minute advert premiered on British TV as millions tuned in for the Queen's annual Christmas address.

The first overseas activation of its recently launched Philausophy campaign, Matesong is the largest investment that Tourism Australia has made in the UK in more than a decade.

"At a time of uncertainty in the UK, the light-hearted Matesong musical tribute is a symbolic hand of friendship from Australia, that celebrates the deep and longstanding ties that exist between the two countries."

Helping Kylie deliver the musical tribute is Australian comedian and TV presenter Adam Hills, supported by cameo appearances from Australian sporting legends Shane Warne, Ash Barty and Ian Thorpe; model twins Zac and Jordan Stenmark; UK-born chef Darren Robertson from Three Blue Ducks and the Aboriginal Comedy Allstars.

Tourism Australia Managing Director Phillipa Harrison said that Christmas Day presented the perfect opportunity to capture the attention of millions of Brits.

"The Queen's annual Christmas speech is a key cultural moment in the UK, with millions tuning in to watch on television and many more online.

We also know that January in the northern hemisphere winter is a time when many Brits are thinking about an overseas holiday, providing the perfect opportunity to engage with a captive audience and remind them why they should make that next trip Australia," Ms Harrison said.

Kylie said it was an honour to work alongside Tourism Australia to share Australia with people from her adopted UK home.

"Filming the Matesong music video was literally a dream come true. I've had the opportunity to see parts of the country I haven't seen before, as well as to go home and revisit places that I know are beautiful.

I'm such a proud Australian that I've spent most of my life travelling around the world sharing my stories of Australia with anyone who would listen, so I kind of feel like a walking tourism advert for Australia already."

Tourism Australia’s ‘Matesong’ campaign featuring Kylie Minogue (Photo Credit: Nicole Bentley. Location: Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Northern Territory, Australia)

• The campaign will continue to run on British television and in cinemas, across digital and social platforms, and through out of home advertising.

SOURCE: Tourism Australia

Knights Templar: Still Loved By Conspiracy Theorists 900 Years On

Conny Skogberg via Shutterstock 

On Christmas Day, 1119, the king of Jerusalem, Baldwin II persuaded a group of French knights led by Hugh de Payne II to save their souls by protecting pilgrims travelling the Holy Land. And so the Order of the Knights Templar was formed.

This revolutionary order of knights lived as monks and took vows of poverty and chastity, but these were monks with a difference – they would take up arms as knights to protect the civilians using the dangerous roads of the newly conquered Kingdom of Jerusalem. From these humble beginnings, the order would grow to become one of the premier Christian military forces of the Crusades.

Over the next 900 years, these warrior monks would become associated with the Holy Grail, the Freemasons and the occult. But are any of these associations true, or are they just baseless myth?

The Crusades ended in 1291 after the Christian capital of Acre fell to the Mameluke forces of Egypt and the Templars found themselves redundant. Despite their wealth and European holdings, their reason for existence had been to wage war in defence of the Holy Land.

But the French king Philip IV was in debt to the Templar order and, with the Holy land lost, he capitalised on their vulnerability and had the Templars arrested in France on Friday October 13, 1307 in a dawn raid on their Paris Temple and residences. In 1312, the order was abolished by papal decree and in 1314 the last grand-master, Jacque de Molay, was burned at the stake in Paris with three other Templars. With the order destroyed, any surviving former members joined other orders or monasteries. 

Execution of Jacques de Molay in Paris, March 1314. Giovanni Villani, Nuova Cronica - ms. Chigiano L VIII 296 - Biblioteca Vaticana

Despite the arrests and charges of heresy being laid against the order, a document known as the Chinon Parchment was found in 2001 in the Vatican’s archives which documents that the Templars were, in fact, exonerated by the Catholic Church in 1312. But, despite clearing them of heresy, Pope Clement ordered that they be disbanded. 

Appropriation of a legend

The suppression of the Templars meant that there was nobody to safeguard their legacy. Since then, the order has been appropriated by other organisations – most notably as ancestors to the Masonic order in the 18th century and, more recently, by right-wing extremist groups such as the Knights Templar-UK and mass-murdering terrorist Anders Behring Breivik.

The Knights Templar’s association with Freemasonry is not so much a myth as it was a marketing campaign by 18th-century Freemasons to appeal to the aristocracy. Historian Frank Sanello explained in his 2003 book, The Knights Templars: God’s Warriors, the Devil’s Bankers, that initially it was Andrew Ramsey, a senior French Freemason of the era, who first made the link between the Freemasons and the Crusader knights.

But he originally claimed the Freemasons were descended from the crusading Order of the Knight Hospitaller. Of course, the Hospitallers were still operational, unlike the Knight Templar, so Ramsey quickly changed his claim to the Templars being the Freemasons’ crusading ancestry.

The Knights Templar had actually been mythologised in popular culture as early as the 13th century in the Grail epic Parzival by German knight and poet Wolfram von Eschenbach. In this Grail epic, the Knights Templar were included in the story as the guardians of the Grail. After the order’s sudden fall, these warrior monks became associated with conspiracies and the occult.

For some, a mystery still surrounds the fate of the Templar fortune (which was in reality seized by Phillip IV, with the majority of their property redistributed to the Hospitallers) and the Templar confessions (extracted under torture) to worshipping an idol dubbed Baphomet. The link between the Templars and the occult would resurface again in the 16th century in Henry Agrippa’s book De Occulta Philosophia.

Modern-day myth

Modern fiction continues to draw upon the widespread mysteries and fanciful theories. These mythical associations are key themes for many popular works of fiction, such as Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code in which the Templars guard the Grail. The Templar myth has also found its way into the digital gaming format in the globally successful Assassin’s Creed franchise, in which the player must assassinate a villainous Templar.

Nine centuries after they were formed, the Templars remain the most iconic and infamous order of knights from the Crusades. The Templar legacy has grown beyond their medieval military role and the name has become synonymous with the occult, conspiracies, the Holy Grail and the Freemasons. But these are all false narratives – fantastical, but misleading.

The real legacy of the Templars remains with the Portuguese Order of Knights, Ordem dos Cavaleiros de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo (Order of the Knights of Jesus Christ). This order was created by King Diniz in 1319 with Papal permission due to the prominent role the Templars played in establishing the kingdom of Portugal. The new knighthood even moved into the Templars’ former headquarters at Tomar.

For historian Micheal Haag, this new order “was the Templars under another name” – but it pledged obedience to the king of Portugal and not the Pope like their Templar predecessors.

And so the essence of the Templar’s successors still exists today as a Portuguese order of merit for outstanding service – and the Templar myth continues to provide a rich source of inspiration for artistic endeavours.

About Today's Contributor:

Patrick Masters, Lecturer in Film Studies, University of Portsmouth

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

How Did The Rebels Beat The Empire In Star Wars? The Answer Is Closer To Home Than You Think

How Did The Rebels Beat The Empire In Star Wars? The Answer Is Closer To Home Than You Think (NeONBRAND/Unsplash, CC BY-SA)

It may all have happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, but there’s a secret weapon in every Star Wars film that’s found almost everywhere humans live on Earth. It explains how the scrappy Rebel Alliance were able to defeat the mighty Galactic Empire, with all its high-tech weaponry, vast space armada and the Death Star.

Even with the help of Jedis, The Force, ewoks and a wookiee, Luke Skywalker and the rebels skirted annihilation on many occasions. We believe that their ultimate victory owed less to their mystic powers and allies, and instead to something more down-to-earth.

In several key moments throughout the series, the survival of the rebels depends on their ability to escape the Empire’s clutches, by retreating to, and defending, fortified bases. These are spread out on remote planets throughout the galaxy, in often hostile environments, from snowbound Hoth to desiccated Crait.

It’s time to finally give the Rebel Alliance’s engineering corps the credit it deserves. The fate of the galaxy was decided not by light sabres – but by concrete.

The Snows of Hoth

At the start of The Empire Strikes Back, things are looking grim. The Empire have cornered the remnants of the Rebel Alliance on the ice planet, Hoth. Fortunately, General Leia and co are able to defend Echo Base long enough for their allies to evacuate. The base is built into subterranean caves, but concrete is still needed for the roofs and floors of the spacecraft hangars, and the defensive laser cannon emplacements.

But how could they make all that concrete when temperatures on Hoth are consistently below 0°C? Concrete doesn’t set by drying out, but by a hydration reaction, which consumes water. If the water in the concrete mix is frozen solid, it can’t take part in the hydration reaction, and so the concrete can’t develop its strength.

So how did the Rebel engineers get around this? A cheat solution for small structures is simply to make the concrete in a place it’s not freezing, and then bring it in. This is known as “pre-cast” concrete. Engineers are currently using this to upgrade the Rothera research station in Antarctica – the most similar place to Hoth there is on Earth.

But shipping all that concrete through space isn’t practical. Engineers on Earth have a better solution – they use special rapid-hardening cement that contains calcium aluminates. This reduces how long the “danger zone” lasts, during which the cement must be protected from freezing. This quick-hardening ability allowed the French Army to build gun emplacements quickly in the first world war, and could have helped fortify rebel defences on Hoth.

The salt lakes of Crait

In 2017’s The Last Jedi, the rebels were almost wiped out again by the pursuing Imperial fleet. They take shelter on the barren planet of Crait, covered by flat, dried up salt lakes. The rebels regroup in an old base built into a mountain that’s protected by colossal, metal blast doors, supported by a reinforced concrete structure. Outside lie the vast salt flats and the attacking Imperial forces. Compared to the laser cannons of the First Order, salt would seem the least of the rebels’ worries. But in fact, salts can be one of the most destructive substances for reinforced concrete.

Reinforced concrete contains steel rods to make it stronger and resist bending. But if CO₂ in the atmosphere and chloride in the salts diffuse into the concrete, the steel can corrode, blister and weaken the concrete by expanding. This is sometimes known as “concrete cancer” and has been a contributing factor in several engineering disasters on Earth, including the collapse of the Morandi bridge in Genoa in 2018. In that particular case it is believed that salts carried in the sea air accelerated the deterioration of the structure.

Were the Rebels foolish to build reinforced concrete bases where salt is everywhere? Actually, this type of corrosion needs a certain level of humidity in the air. Crait has very little water, or none at all. In such a dry environment, corrosion wouldn’t happen. So thankfully for General Leia and co, the mountain base was in a good enough condition to resist the bombardment – just long enough for Luke Skywalker to intervene. But how did they make all that concrete in the first place with so little water?

Given that concrete needs water to set, a planet without water would prove tricky. The Middle East on Earth is largely desert, but there’s still a lot of concrete production, much of it made with desalinated seawater, which is expensive. On planets where there isn’t even seawater, water is too dense and precious to use for anything but keeping humans alive. There’s no easy fix for this, but it’s possible the rebels took a similar approach to scientists designing constructions on our Moon – using alternative binding materials instead of cement, such as sulphur, which could be mined from lunar rocks.

Tattooine is the desert planet on which Luke Skywalker grew up. (20th Century Fox)

Back on Earth

While the battle for the fate of the galaxy concludes in the cinema, the battle for the future of humanity continues here on Earth. Cement is the largest manufactured product on Earth by mass, and generates about 8% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, which is more than all of aviation. Concrete is the second most-used substance on Earth – only water is used more. The world as we know it would not exist without concrete.

But the concrete saga is by no means over. At the UK’s National Centre for Infrastructure Materials, our research is helping to tackle two of the biggest challenges – reducing the environmental footprint of producing concrete and making the sure that the lifetime of concrete infrastructure is as long and robust as possible. May The Force be with us …

About Today's Contributor:

Alastair Marsh, Research Fellow in Civil Engineering, University of Leeds

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

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How A Canadian Superhero Brought Queer Representation To Marvel Comics

Northstar’s marriage was prominently displayed on the cover of ‘Astonishing X-Men #51.’ (Marvel)

 Marvel Comics is frequently referred to as “the house of ideas,” yet the idea of a queer superhero did not fully arrive at Marvel until the 1990s. Despite Marvel’s reputation as a campus phenomenon and as a hotbed for liberal — even subversive — discourse, Stan Lee’s comics publishing juggernaut would not feature a canonically gay character until some 30 years after the debut of The Fantastic Four. 

There’s a reason for that.

The 1954 Comics Code Authority — a censorship bureau that policed comics content — explicitly banned “sex perversion or any inference to same,” which comics scholar Hilary Chute notes is “a clear reference to homosexuality.” The Marvel Universe as we know it began in 1961, with the launch of Fantastic Four #1. Thus, Marvel Comics was, from the outset, actually prohibited from depicting gay characters.

So how do you a write a queer character at a time when comics are expressly forbidden from featuring queer characters?

In a word: delicately.

The slow coming out

It wasn’t until 1992 — three years after a major revision to the Comics Code officially opened the door to depictions of LGBTQ+ characters — that Marvel had their first openly gay superhero. In Alpha Flight #106 written by Scott Lobdel, the character Northstar (alias Olympic ski champion Jean-Paul Beaubier) declared: “I am gay.”

Even then this move was met with outrage by Marvel’s corporate leadership, Marvel Comics historian Sean Howe explained in his book Marvel Comics: The Untold Story.

Twenty years later, Northstar would also feature in Marvel’s first same-sex marriage, an event that was prominently depicted on the cover of Astonishing X-Men #51.

Astonishing X-Men #51. Written by Margaret Liu and illustrated by Dustin Weaver, published June 20, 2012. (Marvel)

A hotbed for queer subtext

Northstar had debuted way back in 1983 as part of the all-Canadian, government-sponsored superhero team, Alpha Flight. The team first appeared in the pages of X-Men, brought to life by Canadian artist and writer John Byrne and iconic X-Men writer Chris Claremont.

At the time, X-Men comics were already a hotbed for queer subtext. Comics scholar Ramzi Fawaz notes that Claremont’s X-Men “articulated mutation to the radical critiques of identity promulgated by the cultures of women’s and gay liberation.”

Another comics scholar, Scott Bukatman, puts it more simply and says: “mutant bodies are explicitly analogized to … gay bodies” in Claremont’s X-Men. It is no surprise then, that Marvel’s first gay superhero should emerge from this series.

Marvel’s first gay superhero emerged from the X-Men series. (Marvel)

Byrne described the impetus of Northstar’s sexuality:

“There needs to be gays in comics because there are gays in real life. No other reason …. The population of the fictional world should represent the real world. That’s why I created Northstar — I felt the Marvel Universe needed a gay superhero (even if I would never be allowed to say it in so many words in the comics themselves), and I felt that I should create one, rather than retrofitting an existing character.”

Validation through storytelling

Northstar’s sexuality first surfaces in Alpha Flight #7 (1983) when he meets up with “an old friend” named Raymonde who is strongly hinted to be a former lover. In the story, written by Byrne, Raymonde comments on Northstar’s good looks. He also references the secretive nature of his relationship with Jean-Paul: “Then you have not really told your sister all about me, after all, Jean-Paul? I thought that would have been odd.”

From Alpha Flight #7 (Marvel)

When Raymonde is later murdered, Northstar snaps with blind rage. The narrative caption tells us: “And Raymonde had led him out of that dark fear, into the bright clear light of self-acceptance.” 

In 1983, the narrative of a former lover being murdered and thus spurring the superhero to action and emotional eruption was already a comics cliché. But staging that through a same-sex couple establishes a sort of subtextual validation of Northstar’s relationship as something more than the Comics Code Authority “sex perversion” label.

Two years later, in the 1985 limited series X-Men and Alpha Flight, Northstar’s sexuality is once again woven into a key story, this time written by Claremont. After having his consciousness briefly absorbed by the X-Man Rogue, Northstar becomes furious that she now knows his “secrets.”

In a misguided attempt to help Northstar, Rogue then asks him to dance at a very public reception. When Northstar’s own teammates make fun of the incongruity of Northstar dancing at a ball with a woman, Rogue thinks “None of y’all understand him the way ah do.”

In the face of this ridicule, a stoic Jean-Paul takes Rogue up on the dance. She remarks “You don’t have to,” to which he replies, “Yes, Rogue. I do.”

From X-Men and Alpha Flight #1 (Marvel)

Northstar

On the literal level, Northstar is being ridiculed for his general disinterest in heterosexual romance. But Claremont is crafting a story of a man who struggles with his closeted sexuality in the face of social pressures.

It’s a sympathetic portrayal of the character that helps to normalize the concept of a gay superhero, even if Marvel couldn’t identify him that way at the time.

Whether through delicate subtext or comics covering wedding events, Northstar holds a uniquely prominent and, at times, poignant position in the history of LGBTQ+ superheroes.

As we come to understand the importance of diverse representation within the superhero genre, this is a character that needs to be known, discussed and hopefully appreciated.

About Today's Contributor:

J. Andrew Deman, Professor, University of Waterloo

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

London Letting Hotspots

London - Underground Sign (image via Pixabay)

London is a popular spot for residential and commercial tenants. Read on to discover about two of the best areas. 

History Combined With The Future Of Letting In Greenwich

Situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, Greenwich is in the unique position of being on a peninsula that brings it within easy travelling distance of the newly regenerated Docklands, Canary Wharf and the City of London. It is ideally situated for those looking for flats to let in London that want the space and greenery that is present in Greenwich and the proximity to the shopping and nightlife that are present north of the river. Much of the area owes its existence to its Maritime heritage, with the Naval College still very much at the centre of the Royal Borough. Housing that can be obtained through letting agents is a mix of old and new styles with everything from ex-council estate housing to new build apartments being up for let. There are opportunities for those looking for student accommodation and short term lets, as well as for those looking for a more permanent base in the city and those looking to find commercial properties to let. Prices vary depending on floor space and positioning within the borough, water front property lettings will be more expensive than letting a flat in a converted Victorian house. However, the latter property may have the more character and be part of a more established community, so much depends on what you prioritise during your property agents search.

The Benefits Of Beaufort Park

If you are familiar with the name of Beaufort Park, but can’t place it, you need to think back about seventy years to when the area was RAF station. Now fully regenerated the area keeps in touch with its roots with the inclusion of a RAF museum. Situated in Northwest London the area has been completely landscaped and contains all the modern amenities you could want alongside flats to let in London. With the tree lined boulevards and open spaces you could easily forget how close to the City you are. However, with everything from coffee houses, to nurseries, schools, banks and shops all situated nearby the newest of the developments in the area, there is little you need to go into the City for. The nearest tube station is Colindale and it connects to the centre of London via the Northern line. There is also easy access to the motorway for those looking to travel further afield. Many of the flats and apartments available through letting agents are at the higher end of the rent scale, but cheaper apartments and studios are available around the outskirts and neighbouring Mill Hill area. If considering a property in this area take into consideration the cost of living, as well as the cost of the property itself before signing any agreements.