Early on the evening of Monday, 12 July, a thin crescent Moon will be seen low on the horizon, just after sunset. Just half a degree below and to the right of our planetary companion, Venus and Mars — the two closest planets to Earth, will shine in the twilight.
This is a perfect time for families to venture outside, viewing the wonders of the night sky.
“I’m NOT a Star” — Venus
Venus is often called the morning star, or evening star (depending on when the planet rises and sets), due to the fact it is seen near the Sun — in the east at dawn, and west at sunset.
The evening of 12 July is a perfect example of Venus as the evening star.
This planet, roughly the size and mass of the Earth, is home to a hellish landscape of scorching temperatures, a poisonous atmosphere, and sulfuric acid rain. “In June, NASA announced that two new space missions would be heading to Venus beginning later in the decade. VERITAS and DAVINCI+ will investigate the planet’s surface and atmosphere, returning incredible images, maps, and other data, likely rewriting our understanding of how Earth’s sister planet became so inhospitable, along with how it might still be active today. They’ll be joined by the European spacecraft EnVision, for what’s sure to be an exciting new chapter in solar system exploration,” NASA describes.
“Better Red than Dead — Eat THAT, Pluto!” — Mars
Credit: The Cosmic CompanionThe Moon, Mars, and Venus will be seen close together in the early evening sky on 12 July.
Shining bright red near the Moon andVenus, Mars completes the evening’s cosmic triangle.
Mars is now a planet of robots, as orbiters, landers, and rovers explore the Red Planet. Robotic explorers built by NASA, the ESA are now joined by intrepid robotic explorers from China and the UAE.
Mars will, almost certainly, be the first world after the Earth on which humans lead out their lives. If we are smart enough, brave enough, and far-sighted enough toovercome the anti-science paradigmperpetuated far too often on social media, Mars provides us our best chance to become a multi-planetary species.
As seen from Mars, the Earth will be an “evening star” or “morning star” to future Martian colonists.
How long will it be until people living on Mars will look toEarth, hanging out as a bright light in the Martian sky? Will they see the Martian moons — Phobos and Deimos — as they appear to huddle together with Earth?
A Neighborhood Get-Together
“Counting stars by candlelight, all are dim but one is bright; The spiral light of Venus, rising first and shining best, On, from the northwest corner, of a brand new crescent moon, While crickets and cicadas sing, a rare and different tune, Terrapin Station” — The Grateful Dead,Terrapin Station
The relative positions of Venus and Mars near closest approach.
Anyone can view this event without any special equipment — The Moon,Mars, and Venus are all easily visible using just the naked eye. This event will be seen by most people around the globe, provided the skies above them are clear.
Ideally, skygazers will want to head outside just a little after sunset, to a dark location, with a clear view to the west. This event will be visible for around 30 minutes before Mars and Venus set, so bring chairs, drinks, and snacks if you’ve got them! If you have a pair of binoculars, bring them along!
The thin two-day oldMoonwill be the first of the objects seen — a slender crescent will appear, staking its claim on the darkening sky. Look for the first signs of this young Moon about 20 degrees above the western horizon.
Minutes later, the shining light of Venus will make itself known, just about 3.5 degrees to the right and a little over six degrees below, the Moon.
One handy trick for observing the night sky is to hold an index finger out at arm’s length. This will cover about half a degree side-to-side, around the size of the Moon or theSunas seen from Earth. a clenched fist held at arm’s length covers about 10 degrees from thumb to pinkie finger.
Following the arrival of Venus, a red light — first dim, then growing progressively brighter as the sky darkens, will be seen just one-sixth of a degree below and half a degree west of the Moon. This is, of course, the planet Mars.
Make sure to see Moon,Mars, and Venus together in the sky on 12 July, low on the western horizon, just after sunset.
This article was originally published onThe Cosmic Companionby James Maynard, the founder and publisher of The Cosmic Companion. He is a New England native turned desert rat in Tucson, where he lives with his lovely wife, Nicole, andMax the Cat. You can read the original article here.
By the end of 2021, if everything goes according to plan, the richest man in the world will take a pleasure cruise to outer space on his personal spacecraft and both Bitcoin and Dogecoin will literally go to the Moon.
Space exploration and exploitation have traditionally been nationalist endeavors. But the rise of the 12-digit billionaire has suddenly made outer space look like open territory.
The players
Jeff Bezos is stepping down from his position as the CEO of Amazon after 25 years ahead of his imminent launch into space aboard one of his own Blue Origin spaceships.
While it’s easy to imagine the long-time leader retiring to live out a childhood fantasy, there’s nothing in Bezos’ history as an incredibly ambitious person and businessman to indicate his he’ll just blast off into the sunset to live a life of quiet leisure.
Simply put, Bezos’ interest in the space sector likely won’t end with offering consumer thrill rides. While it’s impossible to know where the soon-to-be-former CEO might take his ambition, it’s likely Amazon and/or Blue Origin is already looking for ways to exploit the space sector for profit.
But, obviously, Bezos isn’t the only private citizen with a spaceship company. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has spent the last decade becoming the belle of NASA’s ball and he’s already all-in on the idea of sending humans to Mars.
And we can’t forget Richard Branson. He may only be worth a paltry $5 billion (lol), but his Virgin Galactic company’s been banking on making some money in space tourism for a long time. Let’s also not forget that Virgin’s dabbled in everything from railroad technology to record labels.
And the list goes on. Anyone with a few billion dollars has business options and opportunities that extend beyond our planet’s surface.
Space for profit
In the past, we’ve discussed the idea of mining space asteroids for profit. Some experts believe there are unimaginable fortunes floating around in space in the form of resource-rich asteroids.
In fact, you can even get a degree in asteroid mining. And even Goldman Sachs has considered getting in on the action.
But, at the end of the day, we still have to figure out where these resources are, build machines capable of extracting them, and get them safely to somewhere they can be useful. Right now, there’s not much value in investing in asteroid mining futures because the technology either doesn’t exist or isn’t ready yet.
However, there’s more than one kind of mining you can do in space.
Enter cryptocurrency and the future
Elon Musk recently got involved in a friendly space race, but this time it has nothing to do with competition over rockets or government contracts. He’s racing against BitMEX, a cryptocurrency exchange and derivative platform, to see who can get a cryptocurrency on the Moon first.
If you’re curious about how that works, here’s a snippet from BitMEX’s official announcement:
BitMEX will mint a one-of-a-kind physical bitcoin, similar to the Casascius coins of 2013, which will be delivered to the Moon by Astrobotic.
The coin will hold one bitcoin at an address to be publicly released, underneath a tamper-evident hologram covering. The coin will proudly display the BitMEX name, the mission name, the date it was minted and the bitcoin price at the time of minting.
According to BitMEX, this isn’t just a ceremonial or token delivery. The coin itself is a hardware wallet containing an actual Bitcoin, so its value will change with the value of the BTC here on Earth.
In other words, BitMEX is sending a literal treasure to the Moon for anyone brave (or rich) enough to retrieve it.
Come and Get It. When the physical coin lands, it will remain on the Moon until anyone deems it worthy of retrieval. Decades from now, what will it be worth?
Back in 1999 Wired ran a feature about the imminent rise of the world’s first trillionaire. At the time, everyone assumed the richest man in the world, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, would be the first trillionaire by a long shot.
The value of Bill’s Microsoft stake has grown from $233.9 million at the time of Microsoft’s 1986 IPO to $72.2 billion as of June 15, 1999 (disregarding stock sales). At this rate – 58.2 percent a year – he will become a trillionaire in March 2005, at age 49, and his Microsoft holdings will be valued at $1 quadrillion in March 2020, when he is 64.
Of course, we still haven’t seen a trillionaire in modern history. As of the time of this writing, the richest person in the world is France’s Bernard Arnault, whose $193.6 billion empire edges out Jeff Bezos’ $189 billion.
At some point, if Bezos wants to pull away with it or Elon Musk wants to close the widening gap between his $151.4 billion and a first place finish, the world’s richest people are going to have to do more than squeeze terrestrial markets for every last drop of profit.
That’s why many experts view Elon Musk’s heavy involvement in cryptocurrency as the potential difference maker. On any given day the Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink founder’s total worth can skyrocket or plummet by tens of billions of dollars based on how his cryptocurrency holdings are performing.
When you consider that market movements can be directly tied to Musk’s social media statements, the power proposition for billionaires holding cryptocurrency is unbridled.
Simply put: Elon Musk has more control over the so-called “volatile” world of cryptocurrency than most.
Putting a cryptocurrency in space, much like firing a Tesla off into the galaxy, is a PR move meant to generate interest in the burgeoning cryptomarket. But that’s not the only purpose they serve. These acts remind us that people like Musk and Bezos can do anything they want. If they want to put a coin on the Moon, they have the means to do it.
And, for example, if Musk or Bezos suddenly wanted to solve the biggest problems with cryptocurrency mining – power consumption, carbon footprint, developing powerful-enough hardware – they’re in a unique position to do so.
In space, no one can hear you mine
Arguably, one of the biggest things stopping an apex whale like Elon Musk from spending a fair portion of his billions on cryptomining centers is the fact that such an operation would almost certainly draw universal condemnation for its potential effect on the global climate crisis.
Hypothetically speaking, there’s nothing to stop a billionaire from building a facility on the Moon to mine cryptocurrency. They would, of course, need to be able to build their own batteries, have experience with artificial intelligence and supercomputers, and already have their own satellite network set up in space – all boxes Elon Musk can tick today.
And, in the near-future, as we perfect deep space transmission technology, what’s to stop a billionaire from putting a supercomputer on a satellite and sending it somewhere in deep space to mine cryptocurrency 24/7 at near absolute-zero temperatures?
All of this is conjecture, but the writing is on the wall. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts fear what the experts are consistently warning: regulation is coming.
Eventually, it’s possible cryptocurrency mining could become regulated with harsh policies designed to keep mining operations from further damaging the environment. This could seriously hinder the market.
If humanity walks away from terrestrial mining to save the planet, we’ll be leaving unfathomable amounts of money on table. Billionaires don’t become billionaires by doing that.
The only logical path forward, barring some unknown new green mining technology, may be moving the cryptocurrency industry to space.
Outer space is so often called a “cold void” that it’s easy to forget there’s weather up there too. You won’t see any thunderstorms or tornadoes in space, but our sun’s been cycling through various “seasons” for millions of years and scientists think they’ve figured out how to predict “extreme” weather events in our neck of the universe.
A team of researchers from the University of Reading today published research indicating the window for good weather might be closing for NASA’s plan to send a crewed spacecraft to the Moon in 2024.
Titled “Extreme Space-Weather Events and the Solar Cycle,” the team’s paper details a “seasonal” weather cycle involving the sun’s polar position and radiation bursts.
Per the research:
Here we use the 150-year aaH record of global geomagnetic activity with a number of probabilistic models of geomagnetic-storm occurrence to test a range of hypotheses.
We find that storms of all magnitudes occur more frequently during an active phase, centred on solar maximum, than during the quiet phase around solar minimum.
We also show that the available observations are consistent with the most extreme events occurring more frequently during large solar cycles than small cycles.
Finally, we report on the difference in extreme-event occurrence during odd- and even-numbered solar cycles, with events clustering earlier in even cycles and later in odd cycles.
In other words: the researchers determined that periods of extreme geomagnetic activity as measured on Earth can be attributed increased solar activity. By timing these “cycles,” the researchers hypothesize they can determine when extreme solar weather events are most likely to happen.
And, of course, the bad news is that we’re not far from entering one of these cycles.
The researchers say extreme activity tends to occur at the tail end of odd cycles and the beginning of even cycles – meaning, for example, there’s a higher likelihood of bad weather at the end of cycle 25 and the beginning of cycle 26.
The findings could have implications for the NASA-led Artemis mission, which plans to return humans to the moon in 2024, but which could be delayed to the late 2020s.
This could be problematic for NASA’s Artemis mission. The crewed Moon mission already exists on a truncated timeline and many experts believe 2024 is simply too soon for a viable, crewed mission.
One of the problems was that former president Donald Trump pushed NASA to move its original timeline of 2028 up to 2024 for apparently political reasons.
Luckily for NASA, the program appears to have survived the transition to the Joseph Biden presidency, but the 2024 date may be in jeopardy.
The problem: The scientists’ warning indicates extreme weather events are more likely from 2025 and on, until the next cycle starts toward the beginning of the 2030s. But this isn’t exactly a showstopper.
If you think about it like terrestrial “extreme weather,” it’s easier to understand. If there’s a storm in Cape Canaveral, we aren’t launching any space craft that day. And if there’s a hurricane, we might delay launch by days, weeks, or even months.
In space things are a bit different. We’re not so much worried about getting rained out as we are ensuring we’re taking all the environmental factors into consideration as we plan to, essentially, light a tiny piece of metal with people inside of it on fire and shoot it 384,400 kilometers into space. That’s the kind of thing you need to get the math just right for.
Quick take: This is absolutely no reason to speed up the launch. We’re not talking about moving your wedding date up a few days to avoid some cloudy days, we’re talking about risking the lives of humans in a mission that’s already been needlessly bumped up for PR purposes.
2028 is starting to sound like a more reasonable timeline again.
The Russian space agency Roscosmos and China’s National Space Administration (CNSA) recently agreed to establish lunar outposts on, and in orbit around, the Moon. This announcement comes as Russia prepares to mark the 60th anniversary of Yuri’s Night — the beginning of human spaceflight.
Roscosmos originated in 1991 from the dissolved soviet space program. The Soviet space agency accomplished a number of firsts, including launching the first satellite, as well as the first man, and woman, into space. In 1971, the USSR launched Salyut 1, the first space station, into orbit around Earth. The Soviet Union also played critical roles in the development of the International Space Station as that outpost morphed from Ronald Reagan’s original vision of an all-American space station Freedom.
Credit: CNSA
On February 10, the Tianwen-1 spacecraft arrived at Mars. Designed by the China National Space Administration (CNSA), this was the first mission to arrive at Mars with an orbiter, lander, and rover (although the lander and rover have not yet touched down on the surface of Mars). In December, a robotic mission from China collected samples from the Moon, returning them to Earth for analysis. This was the first time in 40 years this has been accomplished.
“Within the framework of creation of the ILRS, China and Russia will use their experience in space science, R&D and use of space equipment and technology to jointly formulate a road map for the construction of the ILRS, and carry out the close collaboration on planning, demonstration, design, development, implementation and operation of the ILRS, including the promotion of the project to the international space communities,” the CNSA reports.
The space agencies in each country have issued statements welcoming the development and shared their views on what may be the first massive structure to be constructed in lunar orbit. Each nation is committed to combining their rich experiences in space science, research, and use of space technology to explore Mars, and develop an international moon-based station for scientific research. Both countries will be involved in the planning, conducting the design, development, and operation of the research station.
“China and Russia use joint experience and scientific technologies to create a roadmap for building an international research station on the Moon,” CNSA said in a statement posted on WeChat.
On April 12, the world will celebrate Yuri’s Night — the 60th anniversary of human spaceflight, as well as the 40th anniversary of the first flight of the Space Shuttle.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, The Russian Federation has lagged behind the US and China in the exploration of the Moon and Mars, and the nation is seeking to retake a leading role in the exploration of space.
Why a Lunar Station?
A lunar station could provide many benefits to the world space agencies and the people of those nations. It would serve as a practical step between our current capabilities and technologies need to, one day, colonize Mars. A permanent lunar outpost could serve as a base for a variety of activities such as the observations of the Sun and other astronomical objects, the study of Earth’s resources and environment, and other bodies in the Cosmos.
Building such an outpost would provide a research and proving ground for a variety of important advanced technologies and capabilities, including robotics, utilization of in-situ resources, resource depots, deep space units’ habitats, in-space propulsion, optical communication, space additive manufacturing (3D printing), and more.
During the “successful failure” of Apollo 13, the crew of this troubled spacecraft took stunning images of the lunar surface as they turned their sights back to Earth. Here are some of the video images they took while rounding the Moon in April 1970. Video by NASA.
The nature of the Moon and its resources, such as large quantities of water preserved in eternally-shaded craters, makes it a perfect base for lunar and subsequent Mars missions and other planetary activities.
The establishment of an International Lunar Station would signal an important breakthrough in transportation, high-value extraterrestrial resources, power and communications, crew habitats, and facilities that would significantly lower technical and financial risks for missions beyond the Moon.
And it would give the space programs of the world a much-needed clear, timely, and logical next step in the human exploration of space.
Still, More than 20 years Late for Space: 1999
Credit: NASAThe International Space Station has proven that people from all nations can survive — and work — together in space
The idea behind the construction of the Lunar Station is to put a permanent human facility on the Moon using proven capabilities and the best practices learned from the evolution and operation of the International Space Station.
“The ISS offers an existence proof of the feasibility of sustained human occupation and operations in space over decades. It also demonstrates the ability of many countries to work collaboratively on a very complex and expensive project in space over an extended period of time to achieve a common goal,” NASA writes in a 2014 study of a potential international lunar base.
The International Lunar Research Station would capable of supporting crews of 10-30 people, providing shelter, power, life support, communications, and the ability to exit from the facility and travel across the surface of the Moon. This outpost would be developed primarily through a consortium of public, private, and international contributors, according to the agreement.
It’s not the first time the two countries have collaborated on space missions. Moscow and Beijing are also working together on several other lunar and deep space exploration projects.
Movin’ on Up (384,400 kilometers up)
The community living in the International Lunar Research Station would work together, developing and sharing infrastructure, while also developing their own specific capabilities and talents. Activities would range from scientific research and technology development, resource mining and processing, to human exploration of the Moon and even tourism. This enterprise would build on lessons learned from the International Space Station (ISS), built and used by sixteen countries.
While considering budgets to build and operate the lunar station, program managers looked, again, at the ISS. The initial effort will, likely, come from a government-funded programs. In order to share costs, it is helpful that two of the leading world economy countries have agreed to pull their resources together to build this international lunar scientific research station.
A look at NASA’s own plans for permanent human habitation of The Moon, narrated by William Shatner.
ASA is planning to return humans to the Moon with the Artemis program, a mission currently scheduled for 2024. When the Apollo missions placed 12 people on the Moon, only the United States and the Soviet Union had the technology capable of carrying out such a mission. In the coming years, several nations, including China, as well as some private companies, are likely to have the technology to place human beings on the surface of the Moon.
Currently the United States spends just one-half of one percent of the Federal budget on science. The 2020 budget for NASA was just $22.6 billion, while the current annual budget for the ISS runs about $3 billion per year. Roscosmos is funded annually to the tune of around $2.8 billion.
China and Russia estimate a lunar base would cost approximately $2 billion per year to maintain. Of that cost, roughly half would be transportation costs, with the remainder funding payloads and operations. Once the initial station is underway, additional funding from international and private partners is anticipated.
One essential technology still needed for building and operating a lunar station is inexpensive, reliable transportation to the orbit of our planetary companion — and, potentially, our new home.
This article was originally published onThe Cosmic Companionby Chukwuemeka Aloysius Anigbogu, and James Maynard, founder and publisher of The Cosmic Companion. He is a New England native turned desert rat in Tucson, where he lives with his lovely wife, Nicole, andMax the Cat. You can read this original piecehere.
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Figuring out the breeding system in every Pokémon game can be fun, but also a bit tricky. The introduction of the breeding system in Pokémon has created a new way for players to interact with their adorable creatures. Breeding Pokémon isn’t too hard, but mastering the right way to do it absolutely is.
Mastering this system can take some time, but there are some benefits to using it. The main reason to master the Pokémon breeding system is to get the best stats for your Pokémon. There are several semi-hidden systems within the breeding system that can produce some of the best Pokémon you’ll find. Additionally, it’s easier to level newly hatched Pokémon than wild Pokémon, making it easy to have the strongest, fastest, and most powerful Pokémon possible.
The breeding system can be time-consuming and frustratingly random, but strategically breeding Pokémon is necessary for success. And the end result, a newly hatched, baby Pokémon, makes the process rewarding. Here are a few things about breeding Pokémon in Pokémon Sun and Moon that you need to know!
Further reading
Why you need to breed
Breeding is necessary for competitive players because of that old nugget of Pokémon knowledge. Every Pokémon , even if they’re the same species, level, gender, and nature, will have different stats from its peers. That’s due to a feature called Individual Values, or “IVs.”
IVs are like a Pokémon’s DNA. They range from 0 to 31 and there’s one for each stat. IVs determine what a Pokémon’s stats look like, high or low. Once you’ve hatched any 20 eggs you can speak to a character in the lobby of the Battle Tree on Poni Island to gain the ability to easily check any Pokémon’s IVs, a feature new to Sun and Moon.
Pokémon caught in the wild usually have random IVs, but those hatched from eggs inherit some IVs from their parents, working like genetics. And that’s why you must breed to get perfect competitive Pokémon. By selectively breeding across multiple generations, you can get the highest possible stats for your Pokémon.
This doesn’t matter at all when playing through a Pokémon game’s story, up to and beyond defeating the Elite Four. That’s because in-game, you can simply level your Pokémon above your opponents’ levels, and gain an unbeatable advantage (not to mention most players are smarter than the game-controlled opponents). But in competitive and online battling all Pokémon are the same level, and Pokémon without perfect IVs are at a serious disadvantage.
How breeding works
It may seem complicated, but there are concrete rules that go into breeding, and it all makes sense in the end.
When you drop two Pokémon off at the daycare they’ll eventually make an egg, if they’re in the same egg group. Note that they don’t need to be the same type or species of Pokémon — just the same egg group. Look a Pokémon up on Serebii, a great Pokémon resource, to find out what egg group its in. However, any Pokémon can breed with Ditto, which is important.
Thanks to egg groups, a Dratini and a Magikarp will happily make eggs together, and whichever Pokémon is female determines what comes out of those eggs. Either gender can mate with Ditto, though, and the non-Ditto Pokémon determines the species of the hatchlings (i.e. you can’t hatch a Ditto).
If the parents in the daycare are holding no items, the Pokémon that hatch from their eggs will have a random nature, while the female Pokémon has a greater chance to pass its ability down if the parents have different abilities.
The hatched Pokémon’s stats will also be half random — three of their six stats will be passed down from the parents, while three will be determined randomly. There are items you can use to adjust those odds, which we’ll discuss in the next section.
Those are the basics of breeding. Now let’s get into how best to utilize them.
How to breed the best Pokémon
The most important factor when breeding Pokémon is the items that the parents are holding:
Power items: These ensure that a specific stat is passed down (or, if both parents are holding one, give a greater chance for both specified stats to be passed). They include the Power Weight, Power Anklet, Power Band, Power Belt, Power Bracer, and Power Lens, each corresponding to a different stat. They can be bought at the Battle Royal Dome.
Everstone: When a Pokémon in battle holds an everstone, it will never evolve. But when a breeding Pokémon holds everstone it ensures that the hatched Pokémon will have the same nature as the parent. They can be found on some common wild Pokémon .
Destiny Knot: The Destiny Knot’s breeding function was a game changer when it was introduced in PokémonX and Y, making it far easier to breed effectively, and it remains crucial today. It ensures that not three, but five of a Pokémon’s stats are inherited from its parents. It too can be bought in the Battle Royal Dome.
There are two other important things you need to make sure you have:
Oval charm: Get this from a character in Heahea City’s Dimensional Research Lab after you beat the Elite Four. It causes Pokémon in the daycare to produce eggs more frequently.
Flame Body: Keep a Pokémon with this ability (like Talonflame) in your party and eggs will hatch more quickly.
The Destiny Knot is the most important item in Pokémon breeding because it takes away almost all the randomness (five sixths of it, in fact). Most competitive Pokémon only need five perfect IVs to be viable, since most Pokémon only use one attack stat (either attack or special attack) and the unused attack stat doesn’t matter. If the parents you’re breeding have the five perfect stats you’re looking for between them, Destiny Knot gives a good chance that all five will be passed down.
For best breeding, catch the perfect Ditto
But before you get to that point you’ll likely need to go through multiple generations of eggs and parents. One thing that can help a lot is to catch a Ditto with its own perfect IVs, which is easier than ever in PokémonSun and Moon thanks to a new feature called “ally chaining.”
There’s a fantastic guide on exactly how to do this right here on Reddit, but the gist of it is you find a wild Ditto, get its health low, then keep it alive while it continuously “calls for help.” Every time it summons another Ditto to help it, you defeat the new Ditto, and repeat this process until it’s summoned 40 or more. Then you defeat the original Ditto and catch the most recent Ditto summon. After a 40-Pokémon chain, the new arrivals are guaranteed to have at least 4 perfect (31) IVs.
Having a Ditto with four perfect stats gives you an advantage when breeding. You can even do that more than once to have multiple well-endowed Dittos, so that no matter what stats you wind up breeding for you have a Ditto with a perfect IV in that stat.
Let’s do a hypothetical. You’re trying to breed a Mimikyu with perfect 31s in HP, Attack, Defense, Special Defense, and Speed, plus a “jolly” nature that raises its speed and lowers its special attack (the one stat this Mimikyu, a physical attacker, won’t need)
You get a jolly Mimikyu, either by catching one in the wild using a Pokémon that has the ability “synchronize” and a jolly nature, by breeding a female Mimikyu with a jolly male Pokémon in the same egg group holding an everstone, or by hatching Mimikyus randomly until you get a jolly one.
You give the jolly Mimikyu an everstone and breed it with a Ditto with 4 of the IVs you want holding a Destiny Knot.
Every time you hatch a new Mimikyu with better IVs than the one that’s currently breeding, you swap it in to breed with the Ditto.
Eventually you’ll land on a Mimikyu with enough perfect stats that you can swap in another Ditto, or breed two of the Mimikyu together, as long as the two Pokémon between them have the IVs you want passed down.
Eventually you will get a Mimikyu with the nature and the five perfect IVs you want, even if it takes hours or even days of riding Tauros around in circles to hatch eggs. (And in the meantime you can send all the rejects off through Wonder Trade!)
The other benefits of breeding
There are other benefits to breeding besides getting the IVs and nature that you want.
For example, many Pokémon have special “egg moves” — attacks they can only learn through breeding with Pokémon of a different species (possible thanks to egg groups). Want a Tyranitar with Dragon Dance? Can’t blame you, but you’ll have to breed a female one with a male Haxorus that knows the move.
That’s just one example, and there are countless combinations. This muddies the process significantly, though it can be worth it to surprise opponents with advanced strategies.
You can also use breeding to pass rare “hidden abilities” on if you find a Pokémon with one. The easiest way to get them is through ally chaining, which makes Pokémon with hidden abilities more likely to appear. Hidden abilities are sometimes better than a Pokémon’s normal abilities, like Venusaur, whose hidden ability double its speed stat in battle during “sunny” weather. Serebii is, as always, a good place to research hidden abilities.
(If you happen to have a Pokémon with impeccable statistics but the wrong qualifications, you can purchase a pricey item called an Ability Capsule to modify it. Remember that doing this will not change its hidden ability, so we suggest ally chaining if that’s what you’re aiming for).
Players can take advantage of the Hyper Trainer located in the Hau’oli City Mall to better their IVs in Pokémon Sun and Moon. If you wish to trade bottle caps, you’d have to raise your Pokémon’s IVs significantly higher than their natural levels. This artificial measurement boost plays a helpful hand in battles but won’t affect the genetic makeup of your Pokémon. That said, if your Pokémon has increased IVs from Hyper Training—that creature will pass on their initial IV numbers if you use them to develop eggs.
After you’ve artificially formed your preferred Pokémon, there are still a ton of things you need to tackle before it can be ready for battle. We recommend checking out our guide on competitive Pokémon battling to discover what you’ll need to do to prepare your Pokémon.
We do want to point out that no one truly knows how Pokémon eggs are formed. For that reason, it’s pretty common to breed your hatched Pokémon with their parent Pokémon to unlock purer genes. We promise that’s not unusual in this game.
Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan blasted off from the Taurus-Littrow valley on the Moon in their lunar module Challenger on December 14, 1972. Five days later, they splashed down safely in the Pacific, closing the Apollo 17 mission and becoming the last humans to visit the lunar surface or venture anywhere beyond low-Earth orbit.
Now the international Artemis program, lead by NASA, is aiming to put humans back on the Moon by 2024. But it is looking increasingly likely that this goal could be missed.
President Nixon welcomes astronauts aboard the USS Hornet. wikipedia
History shows just how vulnerable space programs, which require years of planning and development spanning several administrations, are. After Apollo 17, NASA had plans for several further lunar Apollo missions, even including a possible flyby of Venus. But budget cuts in the early 1970s and a reprioritizing of human spaceflight to focus on the Skylab project precluded any further lunar missions at that time.
It was not until July 20, 1989, the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, that President HW Bush inaugurated the Space Exploration Initiative. This involved the construction of a space station called Freedom, which would later become the International Space Station, aimed at returning humans to the Moon, and eventually undertaking crewed missions to Mars.
The project was to take place over an approximately 30-year time frame. The first human return flights to the Moon would take place in the late 1990s, followed by the establishment of a lunar base in the early 2010s. The estimated cost for the full program, including the Mars missions, was US$500 billion (£350 billion) spread over 20-30 years. This was a fraction of what would be spent on the Iraq War in 2003 but, the project nevertheless ran into opposition in the Senate, and was later canceled by the Clinton administration in 1996.
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Orion, optimized for extended trips beyond low-Earth orbit, was to be developed by 2008, with the first crewed mission no later than 2014, and the first astronauts on the Moon by 2020. To lift the Orion and Altair spacecraft a new series of launchers would be developed under the name Ares, with Ares V having lift capability more akin to the massive Saturn V rockets of the Apollo era.
President Obama took office in 2009 and in 2010 instituted a review of US human spaceflight – the Augustine Commission. It found that the Constellation program was unsustainable with current NASA funding levels, was behind schedule, and that a human Mars mission was not possible with current technology. The prototype of the Ares I rocket was nonetheless launched on a successful test flight from the Kennedy Space Center on October 28, 2009.
The Constellation program was canceled by President Obama in 2010. This was the same year in which private company SpaceX made their first flight with the Falcon 9 rocket. Obama’s space plans were praised by some, including SpaceX’s founder Elon Musk, but criticized by others, including several Apollo astronauts.
The only significant survivor of Constellation was the Orion spacecraft which was repurposed and renamed the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle or Orion MPCV. The Augustine Commission recommended a series of more modest space exploration goals for the US, which included Orion flights to near-Earth asteroids or to the moons of Mars, rather than the planet’s surface. Orion’s first, and so far, only test flight in space (without astronauts) took place on December 5, 2014.
The future of Artemis
In December 2017, President Donald Trump signed “Space Policy Directive 1,” which reoriented NASA to a lunar landing by 2024. NASA implemented the Artemis program in the same year, and it has been endorsed by the new Biden administration. This is the first time in decades that a new US administration has continued with the deep space human spaceflight policies of the previous one.
Artemis is also an international program, with the Lunar Gateway — an international orbital outpost at the Moon – being an essential part of the project. The international nature of Artemis might make the program more robust against policy changes, although the Lunar Gateway has already been delayed.
Officially, the first uncrewed test flight of Orion to lunar orbit, Artemis 1, is scheduled for later this year, with the 2024 return to the lunar surface still on the books. The effects of the pandemic and recent engineering concerns with the new and still unflown Space Launch System, may push this back. Furthermore, in 2020 NASA requested US$3.2 billion (£2.3 billion) in development costs for the Human Lander System, a critical component of the first lunar landing mission, Artemis 3. Congress approved only a fraction of what was requested, putting the 2024 landing date in further jeopardy.
A delay of any more than a year would move Artemis 3 beyond the end of President Biden’s first term in office. This would make it vulnerable to the many vagaries of US deep space human spaceflight policy that we have seen for most of the spaceflight era.
By contrast, NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, which began in 1993 and whose goals are driven primarily by scientists rather than politicians, has resulted in a series of highly successful robotic orbiters and landers, most recently the spectacular landing of the Perseverance Rover at Jezero Crater. Undoubtedly, the robotic exploration of Mars carries less political weight than human missions and is considerably cheaper – with no inherent risks to astronauts.
If the current Artemis 3 schedule holds, then 52 years will have passed between Cernan and Schmitt departing the lunar surface in Challenger and the next human visitors to the Moon, in 2024.
The region of Alola was first introduced in Pokémon Sun and Moon. These games gave us new Pokémon as well as reinterpretations of Pokémon we know and love. Naturally, there are some Pokémon that are obviously better than others, but there are also a few Pokémon that no trainer would want to miss out on. Although these Pokémon aren’t necessarily the hardest to catch, it can be difficult to track them down.
Luckily, we’ve compiled a list of the 10 most difficult-to-find Pokémon. Hopefully, this will make your training a little easier. Rather than blindly searching for these elusive Pokémon, we have the location of each one and the best tactics for finding them.
Further reading
Munchlax and Happiny: Route 1
Munchlax, the baby form of the formidable Snorlax, can be caught extremely early in the game. Munchlax can be found in the patches of grass directly to the right of your house on Melemele Island. It’s an exceptionally rare encounter, but it’s in there.
Happiny, the unevolved form of Chansey, can also be caught on Route 1, but only during SOS battles (battles where the Pokémon has called for help). Rumor has it that wild Bonsly are most likely to summon a Happiny to help.
Bagon: Route 3
The dragon Pokémon that eventually evolves into the fearsome Salamance can be found more easily later in the game, but you can run into it very early on Melemele Island (the first island). There’s a single patch of grass on Route 3 to the right of the bridge that leads back to Route 1. Its encounter rate is insanely low, but if you’re determined to have a Salamance on your team right at the start, it is possible.
Passimian/Oranguru: Lush Jungle
The twin (fraternal, not identical) new monkey Pokémon can be found early on, on the second island in Lush Jungle. Passimian only appears in Sun and Oranguru in Moon. They’re both extremely rare encounters in their respective games. All you can do is keep hunting.
Feebas: Brooklet Hill
When it was introduced in generation 3 (Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire), Feebas was insanely hard to catch. Now, it’s just a matter of beating the odds while fishing at Brooklet Hill. Look for fishing spots with bubbles coming out of them to improve your odds of finding the weird fish that evolves into the beautiful Milotic.
Vulpix/Sandshrew: Tapu Village
Vulpix (in Pokémon Sun) and Sandshrew (in Pokémon Moon) have been around in Pokémon forever. But in Alola, they get new typing, and they look awesome. They’re common on the path approaching the Elite Four, but you can actually get them much earlier than that. With a little patience, you can find them in the grass in Tapu Village on the third island.
Mimikyu: Thrifty Megamart
If you’ve progressed far enough in the story to catch a Mimikyu, then you’ll already know exactly where to get it. But an encounter with the powerful Pikachu wannabe is so rare within the abandoned supermarket that you might find yourself questioning whether it’s in there at all. Rest assured, it is — just keep fainting those Golbats and Haunters until your new best friend appears.
Jangmo-o: Vast Poni Canyon
Jangmo-o lives in the canyon on Poni Island and is your battle opponent once you arrive there. But like the other monsters on this list, it’s not easy to find this dragon-type Pokémon. You’ll have to search the grasses around the trial site or even crawl around under the nearby branches to find his hiding place.
Aerodactyl: Seafolk Village
Call it a quirky defect, but in Pokémon Sun and Moon, Pokemon cannot hide because all the different creatures willingly expose themselves. Just take the case of Aerodactyl, who has his cover blown by Seafolk Village inhabitants. Once you find the trainer in the Huntail boat, he’ll give you Aerodactyl for free, no strings attached. It’s definitely worth the trip to catch this Pokemon.
Dhelmise: Seafolk Village
We can safely say that Dhelmise is the strangest Pokemon fish you will encounter while on the hunt. For one thing, it’s not a fish, and it doesn’t even have water typing (it’s ghost/grass). Regardless of all that, you can only catch the ghostly anchor when you’re fishing in Seafolk Village. Even when you’re casting your line in bubbly spots, you might not find Dhelmise because it has a pretty low encounter rate.
Drampa and Turtonator: Mount Lanakila/Blush Mountain
In addition to the legendary Pokemon, Drampa and Turtonator are the best Sun/Moon version exclusives you’ll want to catch. Drampa, the Moon exclusive and dragon/normal type, can be found on Mount Lanakila; Turtonator, the Sun exclusive and dragon/fire type, is on Blush Mountain.
