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Building and managing your own space colony is an unmatched experience. Whether it is creating a settlement among the stars and witnessing the lives of your colonists in Rimworld or managing several bases in Planetbase, space management games can prove to be very relaxing and fun.

Take a deep breath before plunging into these games.

These games surely put your resource-hoarding and team-leading skills to the test as you set out on your space adventure in the deep and never-ending universe. There are quite some space colony builders that you can try out, each offering a unique gameplay experience catering to every space enthusiasts taste buds.

Building an extraterrestrial city in a land as dry and inhabitable as Mars is not easy. In this title, you start from scratch as you build a bio-dome where you provide oxygen along with other necessary resources for your Martian colony to thrive.

The game gives you a very hard time in the beginning, as you start with very limited resources. But there is something extremely satisfying when you successfully set up your very first dome with everything from factories and windmills to keep it running.

Platform(s)

PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Geforce now, and Mac OS

Released

October 15, 2015

Developer(s)

Madruga Works

Planet Base is a great resource management space colony simulator where you use robots and humans to survive on a foreign planet. Unlike other space colony management games, Planetbase is pretty unforgiving, especially if youre playing in the challenge mode; you have to provide oxygen, water, and food and maintain the supplies to ensure the survival of your hard-working crew.

Things will start to get difficult as you progress and set up bases on other planets, as there are plenty of things to worry about including the shortage of resources and malfunctions. Also, you have to be prepared to tackle natural disasters as well, and youll need a very good strategy if you want to manage your bases successfully; otherwise, you will quickly end up wiping your whole colony.

Platform(s)

PC, macOS, Linux, and Classic Mac OS

Released

October 24, 2014

Developer(s)

Aspyr and Firaxis Games

If you enjoy titles of the Civilization series, Beyond Earth is another decent title to try out as it sets out beyond the horizons of Earth with whole new challenges. As you settle down on a foreign planet, you will get to deal with aliens and monsters that are much like the Barbarian tribes.

The game gives you a unique and customized experience as you have to formulate strategies to build your alien colony while making tough choices including choosing your affinity, that affect your Victory outcome and overall gameplay as well. You battle against aliens using powerful military units and even launch satellites to establish a connection with Earth.

Platform(s)

PC, Linux, Geforce now, Mac operating systems, Xbox one

Released

July 22, 2016

Developer(s)

Chucklefish

Starbound is a spectacular 2D space exploration and crafting game with amazing combat, which mostly revolves around mining in the alien territory as you collect resources to set up bases and even craft weapons and armor. There are several planets for you to explore, each with its own unique biomes and hidden underground areas that you can discover through a bit of digging.

Its basically like Minecraft but set in space, with endless possibilities of exploring and discovering. But that is not all as you will get to fight devastating bosses during your quests that you can complete with your friends as well in co-op.

Platform(s)

PC, Xbox One, GeForce Now, and PlayStation 4

Released

July 25, 2017

Developer(s)

Mothership entertainment

Aven Colony is great in case youre looking for a simple and relaxing game that lets you set up your colony on an alien planet with some fun occasional missions that can be pretty taxing at times. The city builder has a slow but engaging pace and easy mechanics.

Epic Games, the developers of Fortnite, launched their own store to provide some competition to the market, as well as exclusive game titles.

The first few hours do require some grinding; however, after that, building and maintaining becomes quite manageable. Aven Colony uses splendid otherworldly visuals and the attention to detail in the atmosphere is praiseworthy; do look after the colonists though, as they can turn against you in a second if their needs are not fulfilled.

Platform(s)

PC, Geforce now, Mac operating systems, Linux, and classic Mac OS

Released

July 25, 2017

Developer(s)

Klei Entertainment

A very fun and clever take on space colonization and survival genre, Oxygen Not Included is a must-try solely because of its spectacular art style and satisfying gameplay experience. Your mission is to colonize an asteroid, which sounds insane, but apparently, it is the only option left.

The resources are very scarce, but you have to manage them in order to sustain life on this asteroid. Also, each of the characters you get to use has their own strengths and weaknesses, and you have to make the right use of them to keep your colony running.

Platform(s)

PC and Mac OS

Released

August 29, 2003

Developer(s)

Firefly studios

Space Colony is a wonderfully executed real-time space builder where your ultimate goal is to set up a colony on another planet with the sole purpose of generating more profit. Your colonists are quirky and sarcastic and will always put their needs first, so most of your time will be consumed by them and making them do a certain job can be quite a task in itself.

There are multiple modes, including story mode, where you have to complete certain objectives; sandbox mode, where you can freely play without the limitations of missions, and Galaxy mode, where you will get to explore other planets with different requirements and objectives. You can also create your very own level, which is certainly a great feature to try out if you intend to pick up Space Colony.

Platform(s)

PC, PlayStation 4, Linux, Xbox One, Geforce now, and Mac OS

Released

November 4, 2013

Developer(s)

Ludeon Studios, Double Eleven, and Tynan Sylvester

There is quite nothing like the iconic masterpiece that Rimworld is; even after years of its release, it still managed to remain one of the best real-time space management open-world sims. The art style is sublime, and the gameplay is all about making choices that will actually question your morality.

One feature that sets Rimworld apart from any other space game is definitely its colonists, who seem more real and relatable than ever. From getting married to playing poker with their workmates, you will get a chance to witness their lives unfold in front of you.

Need a little mood booster? Give these games a try.

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The Best Video Games About Space Management - TheGamer

SpaceX's mega-rocket Starship is set to launch toward space this weekend, after exploding on its first try.

Starship reaching space would be a victory for Elon Musk and SpaceX that's over a decade in the making.

Here's how Starship has evolved, from the first concept to today.

SpaceX is planning to launch its Starship mega-rocket toward orbit again as soon as Saturday. Mere months ago, the ship tried to fly to space for the first time and exploded en route.

If it succeeds this time, Starship could quickly become the most powerful rocket in operation, a monumental feat over a decade in the making.

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk introduced the early concepts of Starship in 2012, which back then was known as the Mars Colony Transporter.

Here's how the new launch system has evolved, from its first iteration as the Mars Colony Transporter, to the BFR ("Big Fucking Rocket"), to today's Starship-Super Heavy, in pictures.

Starship is a futuristic-looking spaceship that's designed to stack atop a towering Super Heavy booster, making the world's first fully reusable launch system.

It should be able to heave more cargo than any previous rocket to Earth's orbit, the moon, and Mars.

But first Starship has to prove it can reach orbit at all.

On its first attempt, in April, Starship failed to separate from the Super Heavy booster 24 miles above ground, ultimately tumbling, until it exploded.

However, this was just the latest in a series of multiple explosions over the years.

At an international space technology event in 2016, Musk finally revealed the long-awaited prototype design of SpaceX's biggest rocket yet.

Originally teased under the name Mars Colonial Transporter, Starship's first rocket design was called "Interplanetary Space Transporter" as SpaceX realized its ambitions went beyond transport to Mars.

"This system really gives you freedom to go anywhere you want in the solar system," Musk said at the event, per Popular Science.

The 2016 design put forward a carbon fiber hulled rocket, with expandable legs that could deploy during landing.

By 2017, the design started to look somewhat more like its final Starship form. This version was named BFR.

SpaceX's president Gwynne Shotwell eventually announced BFR stood for "Big Falcon Rocket", a nod to the company's other rocket. But it was widely reported at the time the acronym originally referred to a very different name used colloquially in-house as "Big Fucking Rocket." However, Musk has never publicly confirmed this.

More recognizable as a Starship, its landing legs were gone, replaced by the characteristic arrow-like fins sticking out of the side of the rocket though it has three fins instead of two.

The biggest difference with the final design is that in 2017, the rocket was still due to be molded out of carbon fiber. But that was soon going to change.

The first Starship prototype wasn't really a Starship at all. Dubbed "Starhopper," the stout craft was only ever meant to test the power of the Raptor engine SpaceX was developing for Starship.

The little Starhopper showed the engine's might in 2019, when it leapt 492 feet in the air and successfully landed back down.

Musk unveiled the first bonafide Starship prototype in 2019. But this design would not fare well.

The biggest leap made between the BFR concept and the Mk1 Starship was that the new prototype was made of steel, a material choice that has become the mainstay of the Starship rockets.

"The carbon fiber is $135 a kilogram," where about 35% of it is scrapped, "so you're starting to approach almost $200 a kilogram. The steel is $3 a kilogram," Musk told Popular Mechanics in 2019.

Musk then ambitiously announced the rocket would be ready to fly within two to three months.

The first Starship, though, did not last long. On the first liquid nitrogen pressure test, designed to simulate and execute the pressure during a real launch, Starship Mk1 burst apart.

The next few Starships were more successful than the first, flying miles into the air above SpaceX's facilities in Boca Chica, Texas.

The first full-fledged Starship prototype to really catch some air was called Starship serial no. 8, or SN8. It soared 7.8 miles high, then cut its engines and belly-flopped toward the ground, proving the spaceship could fly. Even so, that prototype slammed into the landing pad and exploded.

It took three more prototypes blowing up before a Starship finally stuck the landing in May 2021. That prototype was called SN15.

Musk's long-term plan is for Starship to be a reusable rocket, and for the first time, SN15 showed the spaceship could touch down back on its landing pad unscathed.

With these prototypes' successes, SpaceX was ready to move to its next step: launching the rocket atop its Super Heavy booster.

But that maiden flight wouldn't happen for another two years.

The next landmark trial for Starship was for the spaceship to take its fully integrated form stacked on top of its Super Heavy Booster.

The spaceship took off atop its booster, aiming to reach orbit for the first time, in April 2023. The rocket's fully integrated maiden flight test, however, did not end exactly as hoped.

Though the rocket successfully took off, the booster was eventually unable to separate from the spaceship, leaving the rocket to tumble out of control and eventually burst mid-air.

It later came to light that, in addition to the separation failure, SpaceX had miscalculated just how resistant its concrete launchpad would be against the dozens of Raptor engines in the booster.

Reports suggest the rocket blew a crater through the launchpad, blasting sand, concrete, and debris far afield, some of which was said to have landed in a small town 5 miles away.

Musk is undeterred and aims to fly the next iteration of his rocket shortly.

Since its last flight, SpaceX has made at least 1,000 changes to the rocket design, Musk previously told reporter Ashlee Vance, the most noticeable of which is the introduction of a vent between the spaceship and the booster.

Engineers also have devised a risky maneuver one designed to help prevent the explosive error of the last test. The Starship spaceship will fire up its own engines as its booster is still pushing it forward.

This will be the rocket's most ambitious test flight yet.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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Photos show how SpaceX's Starship evolved from a trash-can-shaped prototype to the most powerful rocket ever built - Yahoo Movies Canada

Mar 24, 2024 18:00:00

When reading science fiction novels set in a future where humans have left Earth and entered the solar system, you may come across scenes where people living on the Moon or Mars speak with a unique ``Moon accent'' or ``Martian accent.'' there is. If a colony is built on the moon or Mars and people start colonizing it, the scientific media Live Science explains whether or not an accent unique to that planet will really be born.

Will future colonists on the moon and Mars develop new accents? | Live Science

It is believed that in the not-too-distant future, humans will advance into the solar system and begin colonizing and establishing colonies on stars such as the Moon and Mars. The first manned space colony will be built on the moon, and it is possible that it will be settled within the next few decades. The idea of humans living away from Earth poses many challenges for experts to solve, such as securing food and water and adapting to an environment without gravity.

However, one of the questions that has been commonplace in science fiction works but has long been overlooked by experts is ``Will future space colonists have their own accents?''

Human accents are a fascinating research topic in their own right; people all over the world speak with some type of accent without realizing it, and accents can be related to the time period, place, language, or race in which they live. I am. However, the accent that space colonists develop is unknown because it does not even exist yet.

Professor

Accent changes happen unconsciously when you interact with people with different accents over a long period of time. Therefore, it seems that people who move from the place they used to live to another area will notice their accent change without them noticing.

Furthermore, Harrington argues that if a group of people with different accents are isolated from the rest of the world, the people in the group will imitate each other's accents, and eventually a completely new accent will be born. Especially in small groups, the birth of new accents can occur rapidly.

In a 2019 study , Harrington and colleagues analyzed how the accents of 11 researchers who lived in isolation for an entire winter at a research facility in Antarctica changed. The group is made up of a diverse group of members: five with accents from the South of England, three with accents from the North of England, one from the North West of the United States, one from Germany, and one from Iceland. Ta.

The results of the study showed that the subjects' accents changed throughout the experiment, with the entire group now pronouncing certain sounds with different accents. This can be said to be the first step in forming a new accent in an isolated group. 'Exactly the same thing should happen in any environment where individuals are isolated for long periods of time, whether it's Antarctica or space,' Harrington said. 'In fact, in space, contact with the population is more difficult, so the accent 'The changes should be even greater,' he said, expressing the view that unique accents will emerge in space colonies.

In colonies on Mars or the Moon, the accents of the colonists could begin to change unconsciously within a few months. In particular, on Mars, it takes about 20 minutes to exchange voice with Earth, so it is likely that accents will change, making it difficult to communicate with people on Earth.

For a unique accent to be passed down over time, a colony must be large enough to reproduce and produce offspring. However, once the ``Moon accent'' and ``Martian accent'' are fully established in the colony, it is thought that the way new settlers speak will slowly change due to the influence of that accent.

Harrington points out that the accents that develop within space colonies are likely to be formed by 'the most prevalent accents within the original group.' A good example of this is the Australian accent, which has many similarities with the Cockney accent, as many of the first settlers were

Colonies on the moon and Mars are likely to develop different accents depending on the composition of the colonists. On the other hand, Harrington thinks it's unlikely that environmental factors on the Moon or Mars will have a big impact on accents.

A 2019 study used a computer program to predict how subjects' accents would change and found that actual accent changes matched the program's predictions very closely. Therefore, if you know the accents of people who will colonize Mars or the moon, it may be possible to predict in advance what kind of accents will occur.

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Will future people living in colonies on the moon or Mars speak in a ``Moon accent'' or ``Martian accent''? - GIGAZINE

Elon Musk has spent nearly two decades rallying SpaceX fans around his goal of colonizing Mars, something world governments arent currently attempting in part because of the unfathomable price tag such a mission will entail.

Musk, the companys CEO and chief engineer, refers to his interplanetary ambitions more like a sci-fi protagonist with a moral calling than an entrepreneur with a disruptive business plan.

If theres something terrible that happens on Earth, either made by humans or natural, we want to have, like, life insurance for life as a whole, Musk said during a virtual Mars conference on Aug. 31. Then, theres the kind of excitement and adventure.

SpaceXs plans for a Red-Planet settlement bring up numerous technological, political and ethical questions. One of the most challenging hurdles may also be financial: Not even Musk has ventured to guess an all-in cost estimate.

The last space program that came close to Musks interplanetary travel ambitions was NASAs Apollo program, the mid-20th Century effort that landed six spacecraft and 12 astronauts on the moon. Apollo cost well over $280 billion in todays dollars, and, in some years, NASA was taking up more than 4% of the entire national budget. The space agency, which in more recent years has received less than half of one percent of the federal budget, is mapping its own plans to return humans to the moon and, eventually, a path to Mars.

But the agency has not indicated how much the latter could cost, either.

Musks personal wealth has ballooned to about $100 billion at least on paper thanks in no small part to a series of stock and stock awards from his electric car company, Tesla. Musk has also repeatedly said that he hopes profits from SpaceXs other businesses, including a satellite-internet venture that is currently in beta testing, will help fuel development of his Mars rocket. SpaceX has also raised nearly $6 billion from banks and venture capitalists, swelling into one of the most highly-valued private companies in the world, according to data firm Pitchbook. Presumably, at least some investors will one day be looking to cash out.

And that begs the question: Is there money to be made on Mars?

SpaceX is likely still many, many years from developing all the technology a Mars settlement would require. The company is in the early stages of developing its Starship, a massive rocket and spaceship system that Musk hopes will ferry cargo and convoys of people across the at-minimum 30 million-mile void between Earth and Mars. Musk has estimated Starship development will cost up to $10 billion, and Musk said Aug. 31 that SpaceX will look to launch hundreds of satellites aboard Starship before entrusting it with human lives.

If it proves capable of the trek to Mars, settlers will need air-tight habitats to shield them from toxic air and the deadly radiation that rains down on its surface.

Its not for the faint of heart, Musk said. Good chance youll die, and its going to be tough goingItd better be pretty glorious if it works out.

But for at least the first 100 years that humans have a presence on Mars, the economic situation will be dubious, said Michael Meyer, the lead scientist for NASAs Mars Exploration Program, which recently launched the Perseverance rover to further study the planet robotically.

Musk does have a plan for making Mars an attractive destination for long-term living: Terraforming, a hypothetical scenario in which humans make Mars more Earth-like by pumping gases into the atmosphere. Itd be an attempt to use the same greenhouse gases causing the climate crisis on our home planet to make Mars atmosphere thicker, warmer and more hospitable to life. Musk has promoted the idea that the process could be kicked off by dropping nuclear bombs on the planet.

The idea of terraforming arose from scientists who were kicking around ideas, Meyer said, but not from anyone who thought it was something humans could or should do.

It was an intellectual exercise, Meyer said. But theres barely any oxygen in Mars atmosphere. And theres an infinitesimally small amount of water, meaning it will be extremely difficult to grow crops, much less create a Mars-wide water cycle. Its not even clear if there are enough resources on Mars to make terraforming possible at all.

I think Total Recall has the right idea, he joked. Youd need to use some alien technology.

Musk has also acknowledged that terraforming will be extremely resource-intensive. But the concept is ingrained in SpaceX lore, so much so that the company sells t-shirts saying Nuke Mars and Occupy Mars.

Musk is frequently seen wearing one.

There are no known resources on Mars that would be valuable enough to mine and sell back to Earthly businesses, Meyer said. Part of the reason [scientists are] interested in Mars is its pretty much made of the same stuff as Earth, he told CNN Business.

Musk has previously suggested that he agrees, noting that the resources on Mars would likely be valuable only to settlers hoping to build up industries on the planet. He noted eight years ago that the only economic exchange between Mars and Earth dwellers would be intellectual property.

Money-making ambitions aside, the idea that Mars could one day become home to a metropolis and potentially a tourist destination is acknowledged by mainstream scientists like Meyer, NASAs lead Mars expert.

Meyer said that, 20 years ago, he attended a presentation about Mars business and tourism. I went in pretty skeptical of this and coming away I was thinking, Well, [there are] some pretty reasonable ideas, he said, adding that he now embraces the idea that businesspeople could make space travel more accessible.

Meyer added that, in his mind, its not if Mars travel will one day be a profitable venture, but when.

Musk hasnt expanded on his ideas for making money on Mars, but his musings about exporting intellectual property echoed a book written by Robert Zubrin, an influential but polarizing figure in the space community and a longtime Musk ally.

Ideas may be another possible export for Martian colonists, Zubrin, who heads the Mars Society, wrote in his oft-cited 1996 book, The Case for Mars.

To look towards a potential future of humanity, Zubrin looks to its past.

Just as the labor shortage prevalent in colonial and 19th century America drove the creation of Yankee Ingenuitys flood of inventions, so the conditions of extreme labor shortagewill tend to drive Martian ingenuity.

In a recent interview with CNN Business, Zubrin stood by those ideas, arguing American colonization has worked. Zubrin again harkens back to the colonization of North America as an example of how would-be Mars colonists might fund their trip.

If you say, okay, you want to go to Mars, youre going to want to offer something, Zubrin said. If you look at Colonial America, a middle-class person could travel to America by liquidating their farm. But, the proceeds would give them a one-way ticket. But if you are working, what you could do is sell your labor for seven years.

Zubrin, who has worked with conservative think tanks but says he is not politically affiliated, also acknowledged that colonization can go hand-in-hand with exploitation: If somebody says, But wont there be exploitation there? Well sure, thats what people do to each other all the time.

(Musk has not expounded on his thoughts about colonialism, and he donates to both US political parties.)

To be clear: The story of American colonialism also included chattel slavery and the brutalization and erasure of many native populations.

There arent native Martians, Zubrin said.

But Damien Williams a teacher and PhD student at Virginia Tech who studies the intersection of advanced technologies, ethics and societies warns that the stories we may tell ourselves about America and exploring outer space can leave out key context.

Its still unclear, for example, who Musk envisions as the first Mars settlers. NASA astronauts? Ultra-wealthy thrill-seekers? SpaceX employees?

This competitive stance of expansion and exploration, its not necessarily a bad thing, Williams, who also works with the advocacy group Just Space Alliance, said. But, when it comes to a private company using resources that international treaties say do not belong to anyone Whos been brought in and how? Whos been left out and why? These things matter.

Musks use of the word colonization also belies a long history of Americans and other Western nations enriching themselves by exploiting and enslaving others. And when it comes to colonizing another planet, its not just the microbial lifeforms that may exist on Mars that should be concerned. Without clearly defined objectives and agreements, SpaceXs colony could create a contentious sphere of conflict, Williams said.

The values that we take with us into space exploration should be front and center, he added.

SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

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Colonizing Mars could be dangerous and ridiculously expensive. Elon Musk wants to do it anyway - AOL

After the obligatory time jump, Apple TV Plus's "For All Mankind" splashes down in 2003. The U.S. has teamed up with the Soviet Union and other allies to build a thriving colony on Mars, and plans are afoot to capture and mine asteroids that will help the base to become self-sustainable.

But, this being "For All Mankind," there's also plenty of human drama to unpack. Indeed, the key players are still dealing with the aftermath of a 1995-set season three finale in which NASA was left reeling by the Johnson Space Center (JSC) bombing that killed both Karen Baldwin (Shantel VanSanten) and hero-of-the-hour Molly Cobb (Sonya Walger).

Kelly Baldwin (Cynthy Wu), meanwhile, gave birth in orbit around Mars, as Danny Stevens (Casey W. Johnson) faced stern consequences for causing the deaths of some of the red planet's first human inhabitants. Plus, former NASA boss Margo Madison (Wrenn Schmidt) seemingly struck up a deal with the Soviets to defect and avoid punishment for passing on state secrets.

Related: Season 4 of 'For All Mankind' debuts with alternate asteroid history

Picking up the story eight years later, "For All Mankind"'s fourth season premiere, "Glasnost," has a lot of work to do establishing its new world order. As such it can sometimes feel like a case of information overload, but thanks to its big action set-piece we reckon it lays the groundwork to ensure the show's latest run of episodes is ready for launch.

Watch "For All Mankind" on Apple TV Plus

As ever with "For All Mankind", there's a lot of catching up to do in the opening minutes of this season premiere. In what's quickly become one of the show's hallmarks, the episode opens with a montage of news clips strategically placed to fill you in on eight years of alternative history.

Some of the pop culture events Woodstock '99, the rise of reality T.V., chess champion Garry Kasparov taking on IBM computer Deep Blue, hit movies "Jerry Maguire" and "Castaway" look remarkably familiar. However, beyond that it's clear that the "For All Mankind"-verse is diverging further and further from our own reality, nearly 40 years after the space race began to unfold very differently back in season one.

Since we last visited the Happy Valley Mars colony in 1995, humanity's expansion into the solar system has continued at pace. Trips to the moon are now increasingly commonplace, with plenty of job opportunities and even a hotel for the growing business of space tourism. Seven leading space-faring powers (including the U.S. and the Soviet Union) have established a "Mars-7" agreement to help keep things cordial on the Red Planet, while private sector space pioneers Helios have unveiled an advanced new plasma propulsion technology. This cuts the travel time to Mars down to one or two months, and will undoubtedly be a narratively expedient way for the writers to negate the vast distances and timescales generally involved in space travel. It's also surprisingly sci-fi tech (for now, at least) in a show that's generally kept one foot in the real world.

Back on Earth, Jimmy Stevens (David Chandler), younger son of former astronauts Gordo and Tracy (Michael Dorman and Sarah Jones, respectively), made a plea bargain after testifying against the perpetrators of the Johnson Space Center bombing. Meanwhile, ex-astronaut Ellen Wilson (former series regular Jodi Balfour) won an unexpected second term as President in 1996. So, during her term in office she legalized same-sex marriage and subsequently married her long-term sweetheart, Pam Horton (Meghan Leathers). Her running mate, George Bush Sr., fared less well than his son did in real-life, losing the 2000 election to Al Gore.

Former Beatle John Lennon performed a successful halftime show at Superbowl XXXVI (it was U2 in real-life) and over in the Soviet Union, Premier Mikhail Gorbachev had significant success with his new Glasnost and Perestroika reforms. Gore later declared the Cold War over.

With the alt-history revision done and dusted, the episode wastes little time reminding us where all the familiar "For All Mankind" faces find themselves in 2003. Series mainstay Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman) is still employed by Helios and is the second-in-command at the thriving Martian mini-metropolis at Happy Valley. Part of the same generation of spacefarers as Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and the other Apollo astronauts, Ed is now well into his 70s, and as is the case with the other survivors from season one the show's make-up department has done extensive work adding three decades onto the 40-something. The results are both impressive and convincing.

Ed's due back on Earth in two months' time and daughter Kelly (Cynthy Wu) can't wait for his return. She's busy raising "space baby" Alex whilst she has a difficult house guest in the form of Olga, the mother of the kid's late cosmonaut dad, Alexei. Right now, however, Ed's busy commanding the Ranger One spacecraft on a groundbreaking mission to haul an asteroid into Mars' orbit, where it will be mined for resources that will help make Happy Valley self-sustaining. Cosmonaut Grigory Kuznetsov (Lev Gorn) the first Soviet on Mars has the honor of taking the first ever steps on an asteroid.

With the Johnson Space Center in Houston destroyed in the season three finale, the impressive Mars Mission Control Center at the renamed Molly Cobb Space Center has a modern new look. It's also under new management, with Eli Hobson (Daniel Stern) now pulling the strings as the boss of NASA. Interestingly he's a recruit from the private sector, credited with driving America's move to electric vehicles when he was CEO of Chrysler. The adoption of alternative energy sources seems set to be a major theme in this new season, as does Hobson's penchant for cost cutting.

A few feet away from him, engineer Aleida Rosales (Coral Pea) follows the action from her console, as Kuznetsov pilots his self-propelled suit towards the asteroid. Naturally, his efforts culminate with him as the focus of a beautifully composed shot of a guy standing on the horizon of a tiny, rocky world.

As teased by the season three finale, former NASA head Margo Madison wakes up in a sparse Moscow apartment, her morning routine a neat echo of the old days back at JSC albeit without her trusty piano. Living under the alias of Margaret Reynolds, she's now clearly doing her best to assimilate on the other side of the Iron Curtain she speaks Russian with a strong American accent and keeps up with current affairs via the International Tribune.

Meanwhile, Danielle Poole (Krys Marshall), the first American on Mars, has left NASA and is keeping a close eye on the family of disgraced astronaut (and Jimmy's elder brother) Danny Stevens. The episode never reveals what happened to Danny after he was banished to solitary confinement on the Martian surface, which suggests there's a big reveal to come later in the season. Whatever Danny's ultimate fate turned out to be, it still haunts Danielle.

The significant new addition to the cast is Miles Dale (Toby Kebbell), an offshore oil driller who's fallen on hard times following the decline of fossil fuels. Estranged from his young family, he applies for a job extracting natural resources from the moon, but doesn't bank on the booming popularity of careers in outer space, fueled, in part, by the hit "Moon Miners" reality T.V. show. After lying about his college experience, he manages to get a placement that will start in two years' time, but complains that it's not soon enough. He's ultimately offered a two-year trip to Mars harder, longer and further away, but with a "bigger upside." Reasoning that it's the best option for his family, he accepts the position.

"Glasnost" spends so long getting its pieces in the right place on the chess board that there's little time for actual plot. What story there is focuses on the aforementioned Martian asteroid and in the long-established tradition of the show what happens when something goes very, very wrong.

The mission starts out with plenty of promise, as astronauts, cosmonauts and private contractors team up to build the apparatus that will tow the rock back to Mars' orbit. In fact, the construction of this surprisingly Death Star-like structure plays out like an outer space version of the famous barn-raising scene in "Witness."

When the connection with the ship inevitably starts to malfunction, the episode makes ingenious use of sound effects, music and "2001: A Space Odyssey"-style silence to ramp up the tension. Grigory immediately volunteers for a spacewalk to fix the problem and he's joined by Parker, a private sector colleague keen to secure his bonus. The situation quickly goes from bad to worst, as Parker is fatally impaled and Grigory finds himself trapped with his suit running out of air. Ever the action hero, Ed wants to go outside to rescue his friend, but the Soviet commander tells him it's pointless and sacrifices himself for the good of the crew. For Aleida, the incident triggers flashbacks to the JSC bombing and she rushes out of mission control. She subsequently dodges all phone calls from NASA.

Like the space hotel disaster in the season three premiere, Polaris, this failed mission seems primed to be the catalyst that sets this year's events in motion. Within hours, Margo is making her way to Star City to meet with Soviet Space Agency director Catiche, although it turns out she's not as important as she used to be. She obviously made some kind of deal to consult on space matters when she relocated to Moscow, but nearly a decade after she left NASA, she's in danger of becoming obsolete. An official tells her never to come to Star City without an appointment again and she's escorted out of the building.

One week later, Margo has an interesting encounter with a woman on a park bench. Initially, the only thing that would raise eyebrows about this benchmate is her surprisingly deep knowledge of the migratory habits of bullfinches. However, she suddenly starts talking English and events shift into the realms of a Cold War spy movie. The woman claims to have Margo's "best interests at heart" and reminds her that she "must be patient." The fact she also knows Margo's real name suggests that the exiled former NASA boss still has a significant role to play this is no accident.

Back in the U.S., we learn that asteroid missions are grounded until the Mars Commission publishes its report. Changes are already afoot at Happy Valley, as commanding officer Colonel Peters' position has been deemed untenable in the wake of the debacle. Ed who's clearly not keen on heading back to Earth anyway uses it as an excuse to stay on Mars longer, reasoning that a new commander will need the continuity of a long-standing executive officer to help them settle in.

NASA director Hobson's first choice for the job is Danielle, but she's reluctant. It turns out that she only agreed to meet him because of what happened to Grigory, one of her closest friends. Unsurprisingly, Hobson's not inclined to take no for an answer and proves to be a master of persuasion, pointing out that she's the only person with a chance of controlling Ed Baldwin.

Danielle eventually accepts, and the episode ends with her floating on board a Unity spacecraft ready to fire up its plasma engines to Mars and sitting further back is none other than Miles Dale.

Not a vintage "For All Mankind" episode, perhaps, but it's one that puts this fourth season on the launchpad for an intriguing journey into the 21st century.

New episodes of 'For All Mankind' debut on Apple TV Plus on Fridays

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'For All Mankind' season 4 episode 1 review: Lots of moving parts ... - Space.com