Walt Disney World has announced that Spaceship Earth will be temporarily closing for refurbishment later this summer.

Earth as our spaceship, uniquely designed to support life. Like a finely tuned machine, it requires us to account for every detail in how we convert energy from one form to another.

Can space save Earth? A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., in May 2020. (John Raoux / Associated Press) By Joel Kotkin and Marshall Toplansky.

Space on Earth. Interestingly, technologies developed for use in space can also help on Earth. A classic example is solar panels. Invented back in 1954, during the era of coal-fired power stations ...