In space, this is the age of reusability

Falcon 9 launch in March 2017.
SpaceX/flickr

Big plans are being made in space.

Investment banks want to mine asteroids for rare, valuable metals. Japan wants to build a solar power station. Billionaire tycoons want to build hotels in orbit for space tourists.

We could be seeing the start of an economic boom in space. But so far, none of these ideas have made it far from the drawing board. What’s holding them back?

Reusing rockets

First and foremost, it’s hard to make profit in space. Moving “stuff” (cargo, equipment and people) from Earth into space is an expensive process. This is because we haven’t learnt how to recycle rockets yet.

Since the launch of Sputnik started the space age 60 years ago, most of the spacecraft that have been launched are Expendable Launch Vehicles (ELVs), which only fly once. After delivering their payload, they either come crashing back down to Earth, burn up in the atmosphere, or simply remain in orbit as “space junk”.

Every time a new payload needs to be sent into space, a new ELV has to be built, costing millions of dollars. Imagine how much an Uber would cost if the driver had to buy a new car for every trip!

It might seem that the obvious solution is to reuse rockets. The idea of Reusable Launch Vehicles (RLVs) isn’t new, but reusing rockets has proven tricky in the past.

The first real attempt at making an RLV was NASA’s Space Shuttle program.

The Space Shuttle fleet was meant to lower the cost of space transportation by being partially reusable. But rather than lowering costs, the program increased them. The complexity and risk of the Space Shuttle fleet made maintaining and operating them expensive. And when the 30-year program ended in 2011, it may have seemed like the argument for RLVs ended with it.

Space Shuttle Atlantis undergoing maintenance at Kennedy Space Center in 2003.
NASA

Recovering and recycling

But proponents of RLVs were undeterred.

A few months after the final Space Shuttle flight, SpaceX, a start-up company founded by tech billionaire Elon Musk announced a plan to make its Falcon 9 rocket reusable. SpaceX began working on ways to recover and reuse the Falcon 9’s booster stage, the largest, most expensive part of the rocket.

Two years later, the company began trying to recover used boosters by having them make controlled descents into the ocean after completing their missions. After some spectacular failures, SpaceX successfully recovered a booster for the first time in late 2015.

Over the next 15 months, SpaceX recovered more and more boosters, building up a stockpile of secondhand rockets. But it still hasn’t reused any of them.

That changed in March 2017, when one of the recovered boosters was refurbished and used to launch a communications satellite. It wasn’t the first time a rocket had been reused – that honour will always belong to the Space Shuttle program. But unlike the Space Shuttle, the reused Falcon 9 was cheaper.

For the first time in history, recycling rockets makes good business sense.

Launch cost of medium-lift rockets.
Data from U.S. Federal Aviation Administration

Even without being reused, the Falcon 9 was already much cheaper than similar medium-sized rockets, as shown in the chart above. And it will only get cheaper with more reuse flights.

How is SpaceX’s competition reacting to these developments?

US rocket industry heavyweight United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, has published a plan for reusing rockets. But even after the succesful SpaceX reuse flight in March, ULA CEO Tory Bruno remains sceptical about RLVs.

European rocket company Arianespace seems to be ignoring RLVs altogether.

The quest

Even if the traditional players in the rocket industry continue to ignore RLVs, SpaceX will not remain alone in its quest for reusability.

Other billionaires aren’t letting Musk have the industry to himself. Jeff Bezos, the world’s second-richest man, owns Blue Origin, a rival rocket company. The company is finishing testing New Shepherd, a small suborbital rocket, and plans to start sending passengers into space in 2018.

Blue Origin is also working on New Glenn, a much larger reusable rocket that will be able to compete with SpaceX directly.

Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, also wants to send tourists on suborbital flights. Branson has founded Virgin Galactic, which will fly passengers on SpaceShipTwo, a reusable spaceplane. Hundreds of people have paid US$250,000 deposits for Virgin Galactic flights, which are slated to start in 2018.

At the same time, other groups from all over the world are setting out to prove that you don’t need to be a billionaire to play the RLV game. In the UK, Reaction Engines are designing the Skylon reusable spaceplane with with its innovative SABRE hybrid engine.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is researching a reusable sounding rocket. And the Indian Space Research Organization is testing a reusable Space Shuttle-like spaceplane.

In Australia, the University of Queensland is developing SPARTAN, a small RLV that uses cutting-edge scramjet engines.

Time will tell which of these efforts are successful but it’s clear that momentum for RLVs is building. RLVs bring with them the promise of low-cost space transportation, which could open up new worlds of opportunity in space.

The age of reusability has begun.

Matthew Richardson, Doctoral Candidate in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, University of Tokyo and Michael Smart, Professor of Hypersonic Aerodynamics, The University of Queensland

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

Bleached girls: India and its love for light skin

In India, a light complexion is associated with power, status and beauty, fueling an innovative and growing market of skin-bleaching products.
Adam Jones/Flickr, CC BY-SA

Neha Mishra, Reva University of Bangalore and Ronald Hall, Michigan State University

“Let’s scrub out that tan” is a common refrain in beauty parlours in India, where girls grow up with constant reminders that only fair skin is beautiful.

From Sunday classified ads touting the marriageability of an “MBA graduate. 5-½ ft. English medium. Fair complexion” to elderly aunties advising young women to apply saffron paste to “maintain your skin whiter and smoother”, the signs are everywhere.

Even sentiments like, “She got lucky he married her despite her [dark] complexion” are still whispered around India in 2017.

Younger generations are now starting to push back. On July 7, 18-year-old Aranya Johar published her Brown Girl’s Guide to Beauty on Youtube. The video, a spoken-word poem containing lines like “Forget snow-white/say hello to chocolate brown/I’ll write my own fairy-tale” went viral, reaching 1.5 million viewers around the world in its first day alone.

Aranya Johar’s anti-bleaching poetry went viral.

Johar’s candid slam came just before Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui used Twitter to indict the Indian film industry’s racist culture.

His post recalled the vehement pushback of actress Tannishtha Chatterjee, who was was bullied for her skin tone on live TV in 2016.

Though many Indians still feign ignorance about social discrimination based on skin colour, the country’s obsession with whiteness can also be violent. In recent years, fear of black and brown skin has also spurred harassment and attacks on African students living in India.

Why do Indians so hate their own colour?

The bleaching syndrome

Indian history offers some answers.

Throughout medieval and modern history, the Indian subcontinent has been on the radar of various European settlers and traders, including, from the 15th to 17th centuries, the Portuguese, Dutch and French. The subcontinent was invaded and partly ruled by the Mughals in the 16th century, and colonised by the British from the 17th century onwards until independence in 1947. All these foreign “visitors” were of relatively fair complexion, and many claimed to be superior.

Being subject to a succession of white(ish) overlords has long associated light skin with power, status and desirability among Indians. Today, the contempt for brown skin is embraced by both the ruling class and lower castes, and reinforced daily by beauty magazine covers that feature almost exclusively Caucasian, often foreign, models.

It’s been the dark man’s burden in this majority-non-white nation to desire a westernised concept of beauty, and post-colonial activism has not been able to change this.

Indian women, like all women, come in various shapes, sizes and, yes, colours.
Neha Mishra

According to a study we conducted from 2013 to 2016, 70% of the 300 women and men we interviewed reported wanting a date or partner with someone who had light skin. This colourism is what pushes so many Indians to lighten their skin, creating a phenomenon termed “bleaching syndrome”.

Bleaching syndrome is not a superficial fashion, it’s a strategy of assimilating a superior identity that reflects a deep-set belief that fair skin is better, more powerful, prettier. And it’s not limited to India; skin bleaching is also common in the rest of Asia and in Africa.

A thriving bleaching market

An inventive and growing market of creams and salves has cropped up to fill this demand, which now pulls in over US$400 million dollars annually.

Some of the most widely-sold products include Fem, Lotus, Fair and Lovely and its gendered-equivalent Fair and Handsome. Most of these appealingly named creams are in fact a dangerous cocktail of steroids, hydroquinone, and tretinoin, the long-term use of which can lead to health concerns like permanent pigmentation, skin cancer, liver damage and mercury poisoning among other things.

Various skin-lightening products are found across India and online, no prescription or restrictions required.
Neha Mishra

Nonetheless, a 2014 marketing study found that almost 90% of Indian girls cite skin lightening as a “high need”. These young women are willing to overlook the after-effects of bleaching, and the advent of online sales allows them to use these products in the privacy of their own homes.

Initially focused on feminine beauty, the fairness creams market now also caters to Indian men. Products marketed to men promise to fight sweat, give them fairer underarms and attract women.

Megastar Shahrukh Khan explains that the secret to win a woman’s heart is light skin.

And Bollywood stars with huge followings, including Shahrukh Khan and John Abraham, regularly endorse and promote skin bleaches.

Bleaching backlash

The brand Clean and Dry took bleaching to new levels in 2012, when it began heavily advertising for a new wash to lighten the vagina.

Clean and Dry intimate wash ad compares Indian vaginas and coffee.

This time, women had had enough.
In 2013, the activist group Women of Worth launched their Dark is Beautiful campaign, which was endorsed by the Indian theatre actress Nandita Sen.

With other feminist groups, the women compelled the Advertising Standards Council of India to issue guidelines in 2014 stating that “ads should not reinforce negative social stereotyping on the basis of skin colour” or “portray people with darker skin [as]…inferior, or unsuccessful in any aspect of life particularly in relation to being attractive to the opposite sex”.

This guidance is in keeping with the Indian Constitution, which provides for equality for all (article 14) and prohibits discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth (article 15).

Unfortunately, the law can do little to stop the subtler forms of racism and bigotry present in Indian society. And, to date, that vagina bleaching product is still on the market.

The “bleaching syndrome” goes far beyond skin colour, with Indian women also questioning their hair texture and colour, speech, marital choices and dress style, raising real concerns about female self-esteem.

As Aranya Johar rhymed on Youtube, “With the hope of being able someday to love another/let’s begin by being our own first lovers”.

Neha Mishra, Assistant Professor of Law, Reva University of Bangalore and Ronald Hall, Professor of Social Work, Michigan State University

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

SA Government commits to root out violence

President Jacob Zuma says government will continue to take positive measures and work closely with communities to root out the scourge of violent crimes against women and children.

The President was addressing the 50th anniversary of the death of Chief Albert Mvumbi Luthuli that was held in Groutville in KwaZulu-Natal on Friday.

While government has made considerable progress on the gender equality front, President Zuma reckons that Luthuli would have been deeply pained by the high levels of violent crime against women and children in society today.

Although Luthuli died about 50 years ago under mysterious circumstances, President Zuma said the country must take solace in the fact that his legacy lives for generations to come to learn and build on -- to make the country a united, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous society.

“The official report was that he was run over by a train. The report remains unconvincing to this day,” said President Zuma.

Luthuli was a committed freedom fighter who outlined South Africa's vision as follows in the Nobel Peace Prize lecture on receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize from the Norwegian Nobel Committee in 1960, which he accepted in 1961.

Speaking in the context of Mandela Month, President Zuma said the values of South Africa’s Constitution should provide a moral and ethical edifice from which citizens can draw sustenance and a sense of purpose.

According to President Zuma, Luthuli was a practical exponent of such values as exemplified in his quest for equality, especially gender equality, non-racialism, openness, respect and his fervent fight against all manifestation of tribalism.

“The values of respect, selflessness, openness and accountability all epitomise who Chief Luthuli was. We are therefore duty-bound to learn from him and find ways in which his ideals and values can find a practical expression in our day to day lives.”- SAnews.gov.za

Address by President Jacob Zuma - Chief Albert Mvumbi Luthuli

Address by President Jacob Zuma on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the death of Chief Albert Mvumbi Luthuli in Groutville, KwaZulu-Natal

 

We greet you all on this important occasion to immortalise a colossus of our struggle for liberation Chief Albert Mvumbi Luthuli.

 On this day 50 years ago, our country lost one of its most illustrious sons and Africa’s first Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Chief Albert Luthuli, under mysterious circumstances. The official report was that he was run over by a train. The report remains unconvincing to this day.

Given the brutality of the racist apartheid regime and its attitude to the leadership of the mass democratic movement, the death of Chief Albert Luthuli will continue to be shrouded in suspicion.

He left behind a legacy of peace, non-racialism, anti-racism and the quest for freedom, justice and a better life for all.

A man of the people, he played several roles in the community. Chief Albert Luthuli was a traditional leader, preacher, Christian, teacher, college choirmaster, sports and cultural activist and a sugar cane farmer.

They sought to silence him through all means possible, including stripping him of the chieftaincy and imposing banning orders because of his political activities.

These attempts only hardened his resolve to end apartheid.

Chief Luthuli is a symbol of peace and unity and in his memory, we must recommit to the South Africa he envisaged.

A committed freedom fighter, he outlined this vision for South Africa as follows in the Nobel Peace Prize lecture on receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize from the Norwegian Nobel Committee in 1960, which he accepted in 1961.

He stated with humility as follows on receiving the award:

“This Award could not be for me alone, nor for just South Africa, but for Africa as a whole.”
He used that lecture to outline the type of South Africa he envisaged and what the oppressed black majority was fighting for. He said:

“The true patriots of South Africa, for whom I speak, will be satisfied with nothing less than the fullest democratic rights. In government we will not be satisfied with anything less than direct individual adult suffrage and the right to stand for and be elected to all organs of government. In economic matters we will be satisfied with nothing less than equality of opportunity in every sphere, and the enjoyment by all of those heritages which form the resources of the country which up to now have been appropriated on a racial 'whites only' basis.

In culture we will be satisfied with nothing less than the opening of all doors of learning to non-segregatory institutions on the sole criterion of ability. In the social sphere we will be satisfied with nothing less than the abolition of all racial bars.”

Importantly, Chief Luthuli outlined succinctly the ANC belief in non-racialism.

He underlined how the ANC was guiding the country towards this goal in spite of the difficult state of race relations in the country. He stated in the Nobel Peace Prize lecture that the racism problem in the country was acute compared to other parts of Africa and that: ”Perhaps in no other country on the continent is white supremacy asserted with greater vigour and determination and a sense of righteousness.”

He added the racism meted out against black people would have made it easy for the natural feelings of resentment at white domination to have been turned into feelings of hatred and a desire for revenge against the white community.

However, his organisation the ANC had chosen the path of non-racialism for the country, and he declared:

“Our vision has always been that of a non-racial democratic South Africa which upholds the rights of all who live in our country to remain there as full citizens with equal rights and responsibilities with all others. For the consummation of this ideal we have laboured unflinchingly. We shall continue to labour unflinchingly.”

As our country’s experiment with constitutional democracy continues, this is one key lesson that we must take to heart from Chief Luthuli, even during difficult moments when we feel the non-racial project is faltering.

We all have a responsibility to build a non-racial society and to unite all our people, black and white.
Our struggle for liberation had a strong international pillar. Chief Luthuli acknowledged the contribution of the international community while also acknowledging the responsibility of South Africans to be their own liberators.

And in dealing with the problems facing the country, Chief Luthuli uttered the profound words on the need for courage that rises with danger. Indeed we are in that phase in our country where we need to be stronger, and more steadfast in defending and protecting our country and to consolidate democracy. We need courage that rises with danger.

Compatriots,
As we mark 23 years of democracy, we ask ourselves what Chief Luthuli would say if he were with us today.

I have no doubt that while he would be disheartened by the persistent poverty, inequality and unemployment, he would equally be encouraged by the level of progress our democratic government has made since the dawn of democracy in 1994.

He would be pleased that the country has almost reached the universal primary education threshold, ahead of many other developing nations.

He would also be happy that we have managed to expand our social safety net in terms of housing, social grants, and the provision of basic services to indigent families for free, including the provision of financial assistance to over 12 million students through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme.

The province of KZN has the highest incidence of HIV and Aids. Chief Luthuli would appreciate that we have a comprehensive HIV and AIDS antiretroviral national treatment programme which has saved many lives in our country and makes our people live longer.

He would appreciate the efforts of the leaders of various sectors and the government of this province in particular, to defeat this disease through the flagship project Sukuma Sakhe that is commended by UNAIDS.

The rate of HIV infection remains unacceptably high with over 2000 new infections a week. Young people aged 15 to 25 are the most vulnerable.

In his memory we urge especially our young people to practice safe sex and to refrain from it where possible until they are ready to settle and build strong families.

We urge you to heed the call and join the She Conquers Campaign.

Compatriots,
In Chief Luthuli we celebrate his contribution in the struggle against patriarchy to which he gave practical expression as Inkosi of the Amakholwa people.

He invited women in the village to participate in civil affairs and in the actual conflict resolution deliberations.

At that time, women had just gained the right not so long ago to become members of the ANC NEC.
Lillian Ngoyi had been elected as the first woman to join the ANC NEC in 1956. It is important to recount his courage in wading into a territory which only a few men dared to traverse.
It was this courage that was to become an inspiration for his successor, Comrade Oliver Tambo who agitated without fail, for women’s rights.

It is thus fitting that we remember Luthuli, just like OR Tambo in subsequent years, as a staunch champion of gender equality.

In this regard, it is equally apt to invoke the spirit of OR Tambo in this lecture since he would be turning 100 this year.

 While we have made considerable progress on the gender equality front, Luthuli would have been deeply pained by the high levels of violent crime against women and children in our society today.

We will continue to take positive measures and work closely with the communities to root out this scourge.

I cannot conclude this talk without some reflective conversations about values and ethics, in the context of the Mandela Month. We have just celebrated and commemorated International Nelson Mandela Day early this week.

In this regard, and as Luthuli would have implored us, the values of our Constitution that so many sacrificed for should provide us with the moral and ethical edifice from which we can draw sustenance and a sense of purpose.

These values have a universal appeal as they are premised on Ubuntu – the sense that our survival and wellbeing is interdependent – that I am because we are.

Chief Luthuli was a practical exponent of these values as exemplified in his quest for equality, especially gender equality, non-racialism, openness, respect and his fervent fight against all manifestation of tribalism.

The values of respect, selflessness, openness and accountability all epitomise who Chief Luthuli was.
We are therefore duty-bound to learn from him and find ways in which his ideals and values can find a practical expression in our day to day lives.

I thank the members of the Luthuli family and the Luthuli Museum management for the sterling work they continue to do in ensuring that the legacy of this giant of our liberation struggle lives on.
Through the museum, generations will be able to find out more about this gentle giant of our struggle and this icon of the African continent.

We lost our leader 50 years ago in suspicious circumstances, but we must take solace in the fact that his legacy lives for generations to come to learn and build on: to make our country a united, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous society.

Long live the spirit of Chief Albert Luthuli!
I thank you.
Source

Pityana asks MPs to vote according to conscience

“Zuma and his cohorts conduct themselves in a way that represents a betrayal of the liberation movement”

By Moira Levy
21 July 2017

Sipho Pityana (right) with (from left)Nelson MandelaBay Mayor Athol Trollip and city council speaker James Lawack at a protest in Port Elizabeth in April. Photo: Joseph Chirume

Convenor of the Save South Africa Campaign and chair of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac) Sipho Pityana described the practice of voting according to party lines as a “major handicap of Parliament”.

He said the idea that Members of Parliament (MPs) could risk losing their seats if they defied their party’s voting position was a “major drawback for our democracy” and took the opportunity to recall that South Africa was supposed to come up with a “reconfigured electoral system” many years ago.

South Africa’s electoral system, in place since democracy began, was not meant to be permanent. It was understood from the start as a transitional arrangement that was supposed to have been revised after the first term of ANC rule.

The current practice, says Pityana, “undermines Parliament” because Members cannot act according to their conscience and “what their political judgement tells them is the right thing to do”. This procedure may not ensure that the outcome is in the best interests of the country. “It was always understood that the parliamentary system that we have has limitations, but it was [meant to be] a transitional one.”

Asked about how South Africa was going to find a way out of its current crisis, his response was that the mission of the Save South Africa Campaign and Casac was “about the restoration of accountable leadership, leadership with integrity and honour, [that acted] within the context of our constitutional democracy”.

He added to the chorus of criticism of President Jacob Zuma. “The bottom line is that the tone is set by Zuma and his conduct is everything that a leader presiding over a constitutional democracy shouldn’t be.”

Pityana has drawn praise and anger over his denouncements of President Zuma and repeated calls for the President to step down.

In his public appearances, Pityana has always appeared wearing an ANC scarf or has in some way indicated his continued support for the ANC and its role and legacy as a liberation movement. He sees no contradiction in that, although he warns that this year, culminating in the December ANC elective conference, may have a decisive impact on current ANC members who still identify with the movement that brought democracy to South Africa.

Right now he is comfortable in his support for the ANC while at the same time calling for a leadership change.

Our Constitution has the “values of the struggle for liberation” at its core, he says, with the emphasis being on “human rights, socio-economic rights and the interests of the poor.” Those rights, indeed the Constitution itself, must always be protected, he said.

“We decided that we were not going to go through what we saw our allies [experienced] in anti colonial struggles elsewhere, when soon after taking power [they] became the oppressive forces against the masses.” That is entrenched in our Constitution and is consistent with what the ANC as a liberation movement stands for. “It is what the ANC and any liberation movement is about.”

The Save South Africa Campaign, Casac and other civil society formations are not driven by a desire to see the ANC fail, explains Pityana, or for its diminishing support to result in a loss of its constitutional majority at the 2019 election. Their focus is on protecting and restoring the founding principles of the Constitution, which provide “a plethora of checks and balances” needed to hold a majority party accountable.

He repeatedly returned to his conviction that the Constitution set in place by people “of the calibre of Mandela” addresses the people’s needs first and not the interests of the few.

He described groupings like Casac and the Save South Africa Campaign as part of a “broad-based” movement that is “non-partisan in that we have people who don’t belong to political parties”. Their collective call is for a leader who subscribes to the Constitution.

“We are a project that is about delivering an equitable society and that means that we must be genuine about putting the poor first” and improving their circumstances.

He warned that a single dominant party could present a situation in which the Constitution and its supporting structures, like the Chapter Nine Institutions, could be undermined. “We have to protect [the Chapter Nine Institutions] because they are there to play a very important role.

“Zuma and his cohorts are happy to defy the long-held traditions and policies of the ANC and conduct themselves in a way that represents a betrayal of the liberation movement,” he warned.

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Published originally on GroundUp .

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