Welsh Man Is First to Walk the Length of the Yangtze River
n Monday, 28-year-old Ash Dykes from Old Colwyn in Wales completed what is believed to be the first 4,000-mile trek along the banks of the Yangtze River, Asia’s longest river and the third longest river in the world. The river begins in the Tibetan plateau and stretches through China before discharging into the East China Sea at Shanghai.
Aamna Mohdin at The Guardian reports that the beginning of the adventurer’s epic walk through China was the toughest part. The source of the Yangtze is the Ulan Moron River, which begins in meltwaters at 16,700 feet, the height of Everest basecamp. “There were worries I wouldn’t get to the source,” Dykes says, and four of his support crew had to bail out at that point due to altitude sickness.
Once he got going, the adventurer claims a pack of wolves that recently killed a woman trailed him for two days through Tibet. “We could hear them howling and we felt super vulnerable of course. We had to stay vigilant,” he says. “There were moments when I thought what on earth have I put myself through for the past year.”
He was also detained by police several times during the journey, and at one point forced to turn around and start the journey over. The trek took two years of planning and training and the long walk itself took a year. The Yangtze is the largest river in the world contained by one nation, and the trek took the young man through 11 provinces in China, up and down countless mountains and through many villages where he took in the sights, interacted with the locals and even did some kung-fu training.
He tells the BBC that the trip wasn’t just about setting a new record—though that was the impetus. He was also interested in raising biodiversity awareness in China, highlighting projects by the World Wildlife Fund and Green Development fund along the way reports SkyNews. He also kept track of plastic pollution along the banks of the river during his journey. “The good news is that I've seen a huge increase in knowledge and understanding within the communities, towns and cities along the way,” he says. “People are aware of the damage being caused to their water sources and are now actively changing their ways for the better—it’s inspiring to see.”
According to a press release, Dykes found that the the western half of the river which flows through wilder, less populated provinces, was very clean. As he moved east, however, the impact of industrialization and increased population became apparent.
While Dykes describes the endless walking as a bit boring, the best part was engaging with local communities, experiencing support from people across the country, where he says millions of people have followed his journey on TV and social media. “Having had huge support from the Chinese media and people, this has not only been one of my most ambitious journeys, but also most enjoyable,” he says in another press release. “It’s been amazing to be able to share the whole journey on my social media, including Instagram and Facebook, as one of the most interactive world firsts.”
Dykes was originally scheduled to finish his trek on Saturday, but was delayed by Super Typhoon Lekima, which hit his intended finish line in Shanghai over the weekend.
Ths is not his first world record. The adventurer previously crossed Mongolia solo and unsupported and also walked the entire interior of Madagascar, summiting its 8 highest mountains along the way.
For this trip, a professional video crew accompanied him along the route, and Dykes hopes to create a documentary or television program out of his adventure in the near future.
ast week NASA released images of astronauts testing out SpaceX’s sleek, white and gray spacesuits.
Since NASA shuttered its space shuttle program in 2011, astronauts have hitched rides to the International Space Station on spacecraft launched from Russia. Now, the space agency is preparing to once again send astronauts into space aboard American rockets, likely in 2020 as part of its commercial crew collaboration with private companies SpaceX and Boeing. But unlike space shuttle crews of the past, the newest astronauts won’t be wearing those spiffy orange flight suits.
Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley donned their new suits at a SpaceX facility in Hawthorne, California, as part of a training session for the Demo-2 mission, the first crewed SpaceX flight to the International Space Station. The training was essentially a dry run for the astronauts and ground crew to go through all the procedures of launch day, when Behnken and Hurley will ride a Crew Dragon spacecraft that launches into orbit on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The practice procedures included a crew suit-up, in which suit engineers helped the astronauts put on their one-piece space duds, then went through the leak check procedure and helped them buckle into their seats.
Chelsea Gohd at Space.com reports that when SpaceX founder Elon Musk debuted the suit design on Instagram in 2017, the response to the sleek, futuristic looking suit was fairly positive. The spacesuit was designed by Hollywood costume designer Jose Fernandez, who created the superhero costumes for Wonder Woman, Wolverine and Captain America: Civil War.
SpaceX has not released details on the features of the space onesies, but Gohd reports it is likely similar to previous NASA flight suits that included liquid-cooling systems, emergency breathing systems, automatic parachutes, food and water and could also pressurize in an emergency situation.
Astronauts, however, will not just be wearing black and gray into orbit. Missions conducted using Boeing’s Starliner launch system will have their own bright blue spacesuits, which were released in 2017. In a press release, NASA reports those suits weigh about 20 pounds and have the helmet and visor built into the suit instead of being detachable. The gloves are designed to work with touchscreens. The suit has vents to keep the astronauts cool and to allow for instant pressurizing.
Hopefully, astronauts won’t have to rely on their flight suits much at all. “The spacesuit acts as the emergency backup to the spacecraft’s redundant life support systems,” says Richard Watson, subsystem manager for spacesuits for NASA's Commercial Crew Program. “If everything goes perfectly on a mission, then you don't need a spacesuit. It’s like having a fire extinguisher close by in the cockpit. You need it to be effective if it is needed.”
These flight suits, however, aren’t designed to let astronauts float out in space. Those extravehicular activity (EVA) suits are a whole different engineering challenge. Last week, the companies ILC Dover and Collins Aerospace—both of which produced the current spacesuits used by space station astronauts to conduct space walks—unveiled a new upgraded prototype suit called Astro. The system includes an EVA suit, which has better mobility than previous versions and includes a digital display system as well as a life support backpack that attaches to the suit. It also includes a next-gen carbon dioxide scrubber, which will increase how long a user can wear the suit and may allow future astronauts to bounce around on the moon and Mars.
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