Free Republic

Following its official creation this past December, the Space Force is looking for ideas on what the members of the newest branch of the U.S. military should be called. "The U.S. Space Force is looking for feedback from U.S. military space professionals on what Space Force members should be called – similar to how the Air Force refers to its members as ‘Airmen’ or the Army refers to its members as ‘Soldiers,’" the Space Force wrote in a statement on its website. It continued: "Given the significance a name has to the identity and culture of an organization, the Space...

ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, MARYLAND — Flanked by two fighter jets and in front of a giant American flag, President Trump on Friday signed the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act that officially created the Space Force, the sixth and first new military branch since 1947. “For the first time since Truman, we will create a brand new American military service,” Trump said. “You will witness the birth of the Space Force. That’s a big moment and we’re all here for it.”

The motto "always be prepared" is wise advice, but one man is taking the mantra to the max. He's got former military bunkers spanning a space that is three-quarters the size of Manhattan, and is selling them to survivalists. Survivalists and so-called "preppers" are often the brunt of jokes, with insults ranging from "paranoid" to "weird" and everything in between. But Robert Vicino couldn't disagree more. He runs a company which is currently focused on transforming military bunkers into doomsday shelters. The shelters are in Middle of Nowhere, USA, otherwise known as Edgemont, South Dakota. It's barely on the map,...

Such a shield could leave Mars in the relatively protected magnetotail of the magnetic field created by the object, allowing the Red Planet to slowly restore its atmosphere. About 90 percent of Mars's atmosphere was stripped away by solar particles in the lifetime of the planet, which was likely temperate and had surface water about 3.5 billion years ago. According to simulation models, such a shield could help Mars achieve half the atmospheric pressure of Earth in a matter of years. With protection from solar winds, frozen CO2 at Mars's polar ice caps would start to sublimate, or turn directly...