Humans can contaminate space; microorganisms can find their way onto and into stuff that gets sent into space, even though care is taken to decontaminate spacecraft prior to launch. Spores from Earth are entering space, with unknown consequences. Scientists in the lab of George Fox at the University of Houston are studying how spores can evade decontamination protocols; the aim is to learn more about how to stop that contamination. Their findings have been reported in BMC Microbiology. NASA uses a special sterilized room to assemble space-bound tech. The world’s biggest clean room is housed in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Caltech, California. Lab members have to pass through a series of steps and wear protective gear to ensure they are totally disinfected - to protect the spacecraft. Even after the adhesive foot pads and the forced-air showers, bacteria still get through. Those cleaning processes are also acting to filter out weak bacteria, which makes tough bacteria even stronger. "No matter what we do, some bacterial spores appear to be finding ways to escape decontamination," said Madhan Tirumalai, a post-doctoral biologist in Fox's lab. "I'm trying to understand what makes these spores so special at their genomic level and relate these features with their ability to evade decontamination measures." Bacteria have been found on the Mars Rover and the International Space Station. The microbes that can survive those extremes could lead to ‘forward contamination.’ "The search for life elsewhere is impacted by the possible transport of organisms from Earth to solar system bodies of interest," said Fox, Moores Professor of Biology and Biochemistry and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UH. In this study, the team assessed harmless microbes that are members of the Bacillus genus, and make extremely resistant spores. They were gathered from assembly facilities and clean rooms at JPL. Take a tour of the JPL clean room in the video. The genomes of two strains that are resistant to radiation and peroxide were sequenced - B. safensis FO-36bT and B. pumilus SAFR-032. Those genome sequences, and that of another strain called B. safensis JPL-MERTA-8-2 (found on Mars Odyssey Spacecraft) were compared to a bacteria that makes spores that are resistant to radiation and peroxide, B. pumilus ATCC7061T. "The genome blueprint gave us the basic clues of what the organism might be harboring," said Tirumalai. They compared those blueprints to one another and found ten genes that are only found in FO-36b. Those genes have unknown functions, which may have something to do with B. safensis FO-36bT resistance to radiation and peroxide. The presence or absence of particular genes has not been definitively linked to the variations in resistance, yet. "It is quite possible that distinctions in gene regulation can alter the expression levels of key proteins thereby changing the organism's resistance properties without gain or loss of a particular gene. These are potential genes of interest with respect to the resistance of the spores of this strain" said Tirumalai. A virus that infects a bacterium is called a phage, and some of those interesting genes that the team found are also located in elements of the bacterial genome that are similar to phages. Phages can move genes between organisms. "The task to eliminate microbes in clean rooms, where spacecraft are assembled, or aboard spacecraft, will continue to be a challenge for NASA and other space agencies," concluded Tirumalai. Sources: AAAS/Eurekalert! via University of Houston, BMC Microbiology

In the near future, the X-ray images from your doctor's office will no longer be just black and white, at least that's what MARS Bioimaging Ltd, an imaging company based in New Zealand, hopes. Why are they so confident? A CERN (yes the organization that built the Large Hadron Collider)-developed technology called Medipix3 that can capture a three-dimensional color x-ray picture of the human body. Wait a minute, color is, in fact, a characteristic of light (or electromagnetic radiation to be scientifically accurate) as your common sense may alarm you. The color spectrum of visible light rays is way off from that of x-ray. The visible light comes with the range of wavelengths humans can perceive approximately from 390 to 700 nm. Within it, red is somewhere between 700 and 635 nm, and blue at the other end between 490 and 450 nm. Yet, the spectrum of x-ray is nowhere close: from 0.01 to 10 nm. So how can a "color" x-ray be possible? You can get a hint from an airport or security x-ray scanner. In those images, items of different densities are assigned with different colors by computing algorithms: blue and black suggest the material could be metal, hard plastics, or alloys; orange indicates organic or even biological materials like cotton fabrics, food, or explosives; and green is for thin plastics and rubber. In general, the denser the material, the more radiation gets absorbed and blocked. A similar principle applies in this color x-ray scanner. When x-rays of various spectra get beamed at a human subject, the Medipix chips which are "high-resolution, high-contrast" cameras capture individual photonic particle that goes through the body and hit their pixels. The electronic shutter allows the detector to identify photons of different energy level, whose energy signature enables the scanner to differentiate and assign colors to a variety of tissues such as muscle, fat, water, and bones. Measurements of the photons are then processed with computer algorithm for the construction of a 3-D color image. Color is a powerful indicator. Compared to grayscale x-ray images, full-color images allow doctors to conduct more accurate diagnoses. When discussing the advantage of using Medipix3 chip in medical diagnostic imaging, Phil Butler a co-developer of the x-ray scanner and a scientist of MARS Bioimaging Ltd said: "Its small pixels and accurate energy resolution mean that this new imaging tool is able to get images that no other imaging tool can achieve". The Medipix technology was initially designed for particle tracking purpose at the Large Hadron Collider. After two decades of work and improvement, the chips have demonstrated a great potential for applications outside of high-energy physics. Preliminary studies have been conducted in oncology, bone and joint disorder, cardiovascular diseases using a smaller version of the new technology. Clinical trials of this revolutionary technology on rheumatology and orthopedic patients are expected to happen later this year. Scientists develop 3D, full-color x-rays (Engadget) Source: Engadget/CERN

Concrete is the second most widely consumed resource on the planet (after water), and it has a massive carbon footprint. It's been estimated that concrete is responsible for about eight percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. Scientists have now taken a step towards more sustainable construction by creating a way to use microorganisms to make building materials. In this research, the scientists engineered a scaffold from sand and a hydrogel that retains moisture, contains nutrients, and serves as a bacterial growth environment. The bacteria in that hydrogel then multiply and release calcium carbonate, which is also the main ingredient of cement. That acts to mineralize the gel and bind the sand. Thus, a brick is created. The work has been reported in the journal Matter. "We use photosynthetic cyanobacteria to biomineralize the scaffold, so it actually is really green. It looks like a Frankenstein-type material. That's exactly what we're trying to create: something that stays alive," said the senior author study Wil Srubar, head of the Living Materials Laboratory at the University of Colorado Boulder. "It's a lot like making rice crispy treats where you toughen the marshmallow by adding little bits of hard particles." Because these bricks are made of live materials, they can also be broken in half so additional bricks can be made with the addition of hydrogel, sand, and nutrients. The team was able to use one brick to generate up to eight bricks over three generations. This technology has many potential benefits, apart from the obvious use for construction and home or garage renovation work. "What we're really excited about is that this challenges the conventional ways in which we manufacture structural building materials," said Srubar. "It really demonstrates the capability of exponential material manufacturing." The bricks have to be dried out completely to have structural integrity, but the microbes can't lose too much water. Humidity and temperature can be altered based on whether the material is dormant or has to be used structurally. "This is a material platform that sets the stage for brand new exciting materials that can be engineered to interact and respond to their environments," said Srubar. "We are just trying to bring building materials to life, and I think that is the nugget in this whole thing. We're just scratching the surface and laying the foundation of a new discipline. The sky is the limit." This type of material might be useful if we have to construct habitats on places like Mars, for example. "In austere environments, these materials would perform especially well because they use light from the sun to grow and proliferate with very little exogenous material needed for their growth," Srubar explained. "It's going to happen one way or another, and we're not going to be trucking bags of cement all the way to Mars. I really do think that we'll be bringing biology with us once we go." Sources: AAAS/Eurekalert! Via Cell Press, University of Colorado at Boulder, Matter

Scientists have found traces of life in mantle rocks in core samples taken from the seabed near the famous Lost City hydrothermal field. Gretchen Bernasconi-Green, a professor at ETH Zurich and co-leader of the IODP (International Ocean Discovery Program) expedition to the Atlantis Massif in the Atlantic Ocean, recently discussed the findings with university writer Peter Rüegg. The discovery sounds like a scientific sensation. Is it? First, I should say that we did not find the signs of life in the earth’s mantle itself, but rather in rock that originates from the earth’s mantle. This rock is found on the seabed at the Atlantis Massif near Lost City. Here the tectonic plates are drifting apart and large active faults have formed that carry mantle material towards the surface, just like a conveyor belt. We were able to obtain samples of the mantle rock through boreholes, and a microbiologist on the research ship managed to isolate cells from a few of these samples. What kinds of cells? For now, all we know for sure is that they are microbial cells. Whether these are bacteria or archaea, it’s too soon to say. What we do know is that they differ considerably from cells found in ocean sediment. The next step is for the cells to be examined more closely in the laboratory. What’s unusual, and quite exciting for us, is that these cells are present in mantle rock and most likely do not originate from the seawater. Do you think it’s really possible for life to occur in rock? Yes, I think it is quite possible. Mantle rock contains a mineral called olivine, which turns into serpentine when it comes into contact with water at low temperatures. This produces hydrogen and methane. Both these gases provide a source of energy for microorganisms that have to manage without sunlight. Perhaps the cells we found are capable of using these gases, which are present inside the rock, to carry out their metabolic processes. But life in the rock is tough and the microbes are exposed to some very hostile conditions. The fluids that seep out of the vents at Lost City are extremely alkaline—they have a pH value of 11. Thus, both the vents and their environment are difficult to colonize, even for very resistant microorganisms. What is the significance of finding cells in rock like this? The conversion of olivine to serpentine may occur on other planets too—on Mars, for example, where the presence of methane and hydrogen has already been established. Some scientists believe that would be sufficient in itself to allow the emergence of basic life forms. What other goals did you set for the expedition? Mainly, we wanted to find out how mantle rock ended up on the sea floor and how it reacts with seawater; the primary focus was on the serpentinization process. We also wanted to find out more about the carbonization process that led to the formation of the vents at Lost City. The chimneys are made of calcium, or rather calcium carbonate, which precipitates from the alkaline fluids. This is a natural form of carbon dioxide fixation. We wanted to better understand how much carbon is stored as carbonate in these rocks and the potential of this sequestration, especially in terms of an artificial CO2 sequestration on the sea floor or on land, aided by the serpentinization reaction that led to the formation of alkaline hydrothermal vents. Have you come to any conclusions about this potential yet? We have not finished analyzing the core samples yet, but I see the potential as being quite limited. It may be feasible, but the effort required to fix significant quantities of CO2 in places like the mid-ocean ridges would be very great—too great for it to be successful. What other findings resulted from the expedition? This expedition was the first time that we used a new kind of drill, a seabed rock drill, to extract core samples. These drills sit right on the seabed and can drill 50 to 70 meters into the rock. The advantage over the conventional method is that the drill is not as disturbed by heavy seas. The drill heads are finer, too, which is less damaging to the rock. As the boreholes are often left open for long periods, thus letting in seawater, we used a new technique to seal up four of the boreholes. This is another example of innovation in sea drilling. In a year’s time, the area in and around the boreholes will have recovered from the disturbance of drilling and we will be able to remove the plug and take measurements and water samples. We also equipped the drills with a number of different sensors, which, for the first time, were able to measure the water temperature, oxygen reduction potential, methane concentration, and the pH of the water before, during, and after the drilling process. So what happens next? The core samples were taken to the Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM) in Bremen, and over the last two weeks have been examined by the team of 30 participating scientists. Incidentally, women are in the majority on that team—another first on an IODP mission! They will each take small samples and continue their analysis. The microbiologists will also conduct detailed genetic investigations and make incubation experiments. In about two years, we will reconvene to discuss the results. Source: ETH Zurich This article was originally posted on futurity.org.

The Artemis 2 crew (clockwise from top): Pilot Victor Glover, Missions Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Commander Reid Wiseman and Mission Specialist Christina Koch. (Credit: NASA) On April 3, 2023, NASA announced the crew of the Artemis II mission, which will launch aboard NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) and orbit the Moon on the Orion spacecraft for approximately 10 days. The mission is currently scheduled for launch in November 2024 and marks the first crewed mission beyond low-Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. This four-person crew will include the first woman and person of color to travel to our nearest celestial neighbor and consists of Commander Reid Wiseman (NASA), Pilot Victor Glover (NASA), Mission Specialist Christina Hammock Koch (NASA), and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen (Canadian Space Agency). Labroots recently had the honor of speaking with retired NASA astronaut and physician, Dr. Scott Parazynski, about his excitement and thoughts on this historic mission and its promise for the future of space exploration. Dr. Parazynski is a highly decorated NASA astronaut who was selected in 1992 and flew on five Space Shuttle missions (STS-66, STS-86, STS-95, STS-100, and STS-120), cataloging over 57 days in space and more than 47 hours of extra-vehicular activity (EVA). “I'm ‘over the moon’ excited that we're going back to the moon, and the crew they've selected is certainly up to the challenge,” Dr. Parazynski tells Labroots. “They're all tremendous professionals, wonderful both individually and as a team. All four of them arrived at NASA after my departure in 2009, but I'm so glad to have met each of them at various events in recent years.” Artemis II follows the success of Artemis I, which was an uncrewed, 25-day mission to the Moon that launched on November 16, 2022, and marked the maiden flight for SLS. The purpose of the mission was to test the Orion spacecraft, and specifically its heat shield, the latter of which is responsible for returning future astronauts through the heated reentry of the Earth’s atmosphere and successfully paved the way for the upcoming crewed mission. “Artemis II is what we call a shakedown cruise for Orion with crew aboard, so they'll be rigorously testing all of the major subsystems on the craft in preparation for a lunar landing in the months that follow,” Dr. Parazynski tells Labroots. “I'd liken this mission to a blend of Apollo 7 and 8, when the first-generation lunar astronauts did many similar tasks getting ready for the eventual lunar landing on Apollo 11 in July 1969.” Much like Artemis II, the Apollo 7 mission was the first crewed flight of NASA’s Apollo program launched on October 11, 1968, and consisted of a three-person crew tasked with testing the Apollo command and service modules in low-Earth orbit for over 10 days in preparation for future Apollo flights to the Moon and was a resounding success. This was followed by the Apollo 8 mission that was launched on December 21, 1968, and was the first crewed mission to the Moon in history, lasting just over 6 days and returning breathtaking images of the lunar surface and the famous “Earthrise” photo on Christmas Eve 1968. “The most important takeaways: this isn't Apollo Part II,” Dr. Parazynski tells Labroots. “The Artemis Program isn't driven by geopolitics as it was in the Apollo era, aiming to get boots and American flags on the moon above all else. This is humanity truly beginning to move off of Planet Earth to first establish an outpost on the Moon, ultimately leading to extensive human exploration of Mars (and subsequent colonization). It'll be soul stirring to one day see astronauts from all over the world working together in lunar and Martian outposts for the betterment of humankind.” With this, the world anxiously awaits the launch of Artemis II and the fantastic science and wonder it will bring to space fans all over the world. What new science will Artemis II teach us about traveling to the Moon and about humans working in space? Only time will tell, and this is why we science! Sources: NASA, NASA (1), NASA (2), NASA (3), NASA (4), NASA (5), NASA (6), NASA (7), NASA (8), NASA (9) As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

Today is officially designated as Pluto Demoted Day, which commemorates when the International Astronomical Union (IAU) voted on August 24, 2006 to rewrite the definition of a planet, resulting in Pluto being demoted from full-fledged planet to dwarf planet. This move was met with heavy criticism from both the scientific community and general public, resulting in nationwide protests taking place to denounce the demotion. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Alex Parker The new definition from the IAU states a planet much possess three criteria: 1) It needs to orbit a star, 2) Its size must result in enough gravity to form it into a spherical shape, and 3) Its size must result in its gravity also clearing away other similar-sized objects within its orbit. While Pluto met the first two criteria, it was the third one that doomed it as a full-fledged planet, with both the definition and Pluto’s status holding to this day. The reason why Pluto doesn’t meet the third criteria is because it still has many asteroids and other objects within its orbit that it never gobbled up during its formation. This is also because Pluto resides within the Kuiper Belt, which is a region comprised of icy bodies that orbit beyond Neptune. This region is estimated to contain hundreds of thousands of icy bodies with diameters potentially exceeding 62 miles (100 kilometers), and another trillion-plus comets that are also estimated to be there, as well. In short, the Kuiper Belt is a much larger version of the asteroid belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter. Pluto was discovered in February 1930 at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, by Clyde W. Tombaugh. While ground-based telescopes were able to show it as a point of light, very little was ever known about Pluto until more powerful telescopes slowly discovered it had moons, which currently stands at five: Charon, Hydra, Kerberos, Nix, and Styx. For over 75 years, Pluto proudly stood as a full-fledged planet, until astronomers began discovering other similarly-sized objects throughout the solar system, specifically Eris and Ceres, and the definition of a planet started to be questioned. This was when the IAU voted in 2006 to rewrite the definition of a planet, causing Pluto, Eris, and Ceres to be reclassified as dwarf planets. While the flyby of Pluto by NASA’s New Horizons revealed both new and startling details about this intriguing world that orbits far from the Sun, Pluto still stands as one of a handful of dwarf planets within our solar system, and there’s no indication this will change anytime soon. As always, keep doing science & keep looking up! Sources: National Today, International Astronomical Union, New Scientist, International Astronomical Union (1), NASA, Library of Congress, NASA (1), NASA (2)

NASA recently used its James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to identify a thin atmosphere on TRAPPIST-1 c, which is a rocky exoplanet approximately 40 light-years from Earth. These findings were recently published in Nature and hold the potential to help scientists better understand rocky exoplanets and their atmospheres. Artist rendition of TRAPPIST-1 c based on this study. (Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)) “We want to know if rocky planets have atmospheres or not,” said Sebastian Zieba, who is a PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany and lead author of the study. “In the past, we could only really study planets with thick, hydrogen-rich atmospheres. With Webb we can finally start to search for atmospheres dominated by oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide.” For the study, the researchers used JWST’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to observe the emission spectra and the secondary eclipse of TRAPPIST-1 c, which is when the planet passes behind its parent star. The findings suggest that TRAPPIST-1 c possesses a dayside brightness temperature of approximately 224 degrees Fahrenheit and wavelengths of 15 microns, which helps determine the atmospheric composition of the planet. The researchers note how this same method was used to observe TRAPPIST-1 b in a previous study. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI) Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI) “Our results are consistent with the planet being a bare rock with no atmosphere, or the planet having a really thin CO2 atmosphere (thinner than on Earth or even Mars) with no clouds,” said Zieba. “If the planet had a thick CO2 atmosphere, we would have observed a really shallow secondary eclipse, or none at all. This is because the CO2 would be absorbing all of the 15-micron light, so we wouldn’t detect any coming from the planet.” As noted, the TRAPPIST-1 system is located approximately 40 light-years from Earth and possesses seven Earth-sized planets, three of which have been determined to reside within the star’s habitable zone, and several past studies suggest all the planets possess terrestrial (rocky) surfaces to some extent. For the next steps, the researchers plan to conduct follow-up observations on the full orbits for TRAPPIST-1 b and c to help paint a clearer picture of their atmospheric compositions. Do TRAPPIST-1 b and c contain suitable atmospheres for life, and what new discoveries will scientists make about the TRAPPIST-1 system in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science! Sources: NASA, Nature, NASA (1), NASA (2), NASA (3), Wikipedia, NASA (4), JWST Proposal 3077 As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

In 2007, NASA launched the Dawn mission to explore the Asteroid Belt between the planets of Mars and Jupiter. The Dawn spacecraft was employed to study two of the Asteroid Belt’s largest-known objects, including Vesta in 2011 and the dwarf planet Ceres in 2015; it has remained at Ceres ever since. Image Credit: NASA In September, NASA reported that the Dawn spacecraft was running precariously low on hydrazine fuel – this is what the probe uses to maintain its orientation such that its communication antennas can communicate with Earth. NASA knew the end was rapidly approaching, but the space agency had no definite ETA at the time. Sometime between Wednesday, October 31st and Thursday, November 1st, NASA got its answer. The Dawn spacecraft failed to phone home with NASA’s Deep Space Network communications system, signaling that the spacecraft had used up all its fuel and was no longer capable of orienting its communication antennas toward Earth. "Today, we celebrate the end of our Dawn mission – its incredible technical achievements, the vital science it gave us, and the entire team who enabled the spacecraft to make these discoveries," said Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. "The astounding images and data that Dawn collected from Vesta and Ceres are critical to understanding the history and evolution of our solar system." Related: Why does Ceres only have one ice volcano? During its 11 years of service to the scientific community, Dawn provided scientists with valuable data about two very different objects in the Asteroid Belt throughout four separate missions and enabled many breakthrough discoveries that wouldn’t have been possible without getting up close and personal. "The fact that my car's license plate frame proclaims, 'My other vehicle is in the main asteroid belt,' shows how much pride I take in Dawn," added Dawn Mission Director and Chief Engineer Marc Rayman. "The demands we put on Dawn were tremendous, but it met the challenge every time. It's hard to say goodbye to this amazing spaceship, but it’s time." Despite the Dawn mission coming to an unfortunate end, those involved with Dawn believe we still have much to learn from the data it collected and beamed back to Earth previously. NASA says the Dawn spacecraft will continue to orbit Ceres for at least 20 more years – but spacecraft engineers are around 99% certain that it could keep orbiting Ceres for up to 50 more years. The spacecraft won’t send any additional data information to Earth during this time, but it certainly will leave behind a legacy that will remind us all of a successful era of space exploration and inspire future innovations. Source: NASA

A rocket carrying NASA’s Endurance Mission launched successfully on May 10, 2022 from Andøya Space’s Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard Launch Facility in Norway. Glyn Collinson, principal investigator and space scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, wants to understand the conditions that allow a planet to support life – i.e., what are the differences between planets like Earth that can support life and planets that currently do not, such as Venus and Mars. Collinson believes that a global electric potential may be the answer to this question. The purpose of the Endurance Mission is to measure the Earth’s global electric potential – or how much Earth’s electric field pulls at electrically charged particles in our air. In 2016, the European Space Agency’s Venus Express Mission detected a 10-volt electric potential surrounding Venus. Currently, water does not exist on the surface of Venus, but it may have billions of years ago. We believe that water is one of the key components to support life on the surface of Earth. The strong electric potential detected around Venus may be the reason why it no longer exists on Venus. The electric potential of Venus is a result of its ionosphere – the electrically charged outer layer of its atmosphere. Recall that water – or H2O – is a molecule composed of two hydrogen molecules and an oxygen molecule. Scientists believe that radiation from the Sun could rip water molecules on the surface of Venus apart, splitting its hydrogen atoms away from oxygen, leaving oxygen positively charged. Then, the electric potential surrounding the planet would pull these positively charged particles away from the surface of the planet, sucking Venus’ oxygen up to space. Over long periods of time, this could leave Venus waterless. Collinson and his team believe that since Earth also plays host to an ionosphere in its atmosphere, it should also have an electric potential. But, if this is the case, why do we still have water on Earth? Collinson suspects that Earth may still be host to water, and therefore habitable, because our electric potential could be much weaker than the one present in Venus’ atmosphere. In fact, Collinson suspects the Earth’s electric potential is not even as strong as a watch battery! The team estimates the Earth’s electric potential to be approximately 0.3-volts – compared to Venus’ 10-volts – making it 25 times weaker and much more difficult to detect and measure. This very weak electric potential could be the crucial difference between Venus and Earth that allows Earth to support life. NASA’s Endurance Mission will be the first to measure the Earth’s global electric potential. This can be determined by measuring the speed at which electrons are leaving the Earth’s atmosphere. The atmospheric escape of electrons is a gradual process that has been happening for millions of years. Electrons are predicted to escape from Earth’s atmosphere at a very specific speed, but will be slowed if a global electric potential exists. Measuring the difference between the expected speed of these electrons and their actual speed will allow the team to determine the strength of Earth’s electric potential and perhaps start to refine the conditions for habitability of a planet. Sources: nasa.gov

There are a number of questions that remain about how long-term space travel affects the human body. One of the most critical parts of the human body is the cardiovascular system, and we don’t fully understand how long-term space affects this system. To find out, scientists are preparing to send a large batch of fruit flies and their eggs to the International Space Station, where they will be subjected to the conditions of the space for long period of time. In terms of numbers, it’s estimated some 400 fruit flies and 2,000 eggs will be shipped; the latter will hatch and fully develop while in orbit. Why fruit flies? Well, as it turns out, their heart pumps blood at about the same speed as a human’s does. This means there’s a lot of potential to see if space eventually speeds up or slows down their hearts. We can also learn more about how the long-term space travel affects heart muscle. Related: Fruit flies lay fewer eggs in response to bacterial infection In addition to the fruit flies, about 40 lab rats will be joining the ISS astronauts for a completely separate, but related, health experiment. While researchers will study the fruit flies for cardiovascular abnormalities, they’ll focus more on bone abnormalities in the rodents, which can happen when subjected to microgravity for too long. Since the health of our astronauts is so important, these insect and rodent test subjects will help us learn about the most dangerous health risks that are imposed on astronauts and help space agencies to compensate for them with medications or procedures as necessary. Advancements in technology may also be possible. These flies and rats were expected to launch on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that was carrying a previously-used Dragon cargo capsule and was scheduled for launch on Thursday. It was supposed to be the date of the first commercially-reused space cargo ship. Weather conditions, however, started to become unfavorable closer to the launch expectancy, so the nearly 6,000 pounds of supplies were delayed. Related: Watch SpaceX successfully land a Dragon capsule with a parachute system The next open window for launching the rocket is Saturday at 5:07 P.M. EDT, and if successful, not only will the International Space Station staff have fresh food and brand-new supplies, but they’ll also get new science experiments to keep them busy for a little while longer. For what it’s worth, this wouldn’t be the first time that fruit flies or rats have been sent to the International Space Station. Previously, we learned about both bone and heart abnormalities. It’s hoped that we might be able to extend our research into what exactly is going on with this batch of fruit flies to better prepare for future long-term space missions, such as those to Mars. It ought to be interesting to see what becomes of the health research and how it could benefit mankind as we yearn to explore other planets in the Solar System. Source: New York Times

Many people who think of the Sun quickly imagine a ball of fire in space, but the Sun isn’t fire at all. It’s a glowing ball of nuclear fusion, and it has its own physical properties that we’re still only beginning to understand. One of those properties has to do with strands of plasma material that appear to eject and loop across the Sun’s surface, known as coronal loops. These look a lot like jump ropes that slither out of the Sun’s surface and move in peculiarly suave motions along the star’s magnetic fields. Now, for the first time, scientists from Caltech have reportedly recreated scale models of these kinds of coronal loops in the lab in which they are bound to a surface made to simulate the Sun. These scale models give scientists a way to study their physical and chemical effects in ways we’ve never been able to before and may spark additional discoveries. Image Credit: P. Bellan/Caltech Understanding how these coronal loops work is a big mystery that scientists can’t wait to crack. When they erupt from the Sun’s surface, they can sometimes dematerialize and eject charged particles from the Sun’s surface at speeds of more than 2,000 miles per second. These particles, which then travel through space, can often bombard the Earth, where our magnetic field is known to protect us from it. On the other hand, we know our magnetic field was recently weakened from a very intense solar storm, and so it’s important to better understand how we can protect ourselves in the future such that our planet never becomes like Mars; a barren wasteland with a weak magnetic field. Fortunately, these lab-made coronal loops do offer some insight as to what exactly happens when the loops break apart and particles erupt. The findings are published in the Geophysical Research Letters and can help us better understand the energy behind them. "Studying coronal mass ejections is challenging, since humans do not know how and when the sun will erupt. But laboratory experiments permit the control of eruption parameters and enable the systematic explorations of eruption dynamics," says Bao Ha, the lead author of the paper. "While experiments with the same eruption parameters are easily reproducible, the loop dynamics vary depending on the configuration of the strapping magnetic field." What makes this coronal loop model different from other lab-created models in the past is that the researchers have been able to reproduce the Sun’s unique strapping effect inside of a vacuum chamber. Special electromagnetic coils reportedly made this possible. Although the coronal loops are only about 5 feet long and never travel more than a few centimeters away from the simulated solar surface, the model does allow the researchers to study the critical point in time where the corona breaks apart and unleashes its energy. The next order of business, according to the Caltech blog, is to take careful measurements of the simulated corona to learn more about it. They’ll be measuring things like the magnetic field and the waves of particles that get released whenever the corona breaks apart, just like it does on the Sun in our solar system. Source: Caltech

Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt, which means it's not particularly difficult to observe. Even more convenient is that it’s not very far away; residing just between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. These key qualities are not only convenient for astronomers, but they’ve also made it possible for Ceres to be observed up close via NASA’s Dawn mission and with Earth-based observatories. During these observations, experts have noticed that Ceres sometimes exhibits an atmosphere-like layer near its North and South poles, but it seems to fade away after about a week worth of time. How Ceres gets its ‘temporary’ atmosphere has eluded scientists for a while, but one of the most commonly-accepted theories is that because Ceres orbits the Sun in an elliptical manner, it warms up as it gets closer to the Sun during its orbit. This, in turn, evaporates surface ice into vapor particulates that make up what we sometimes see, similarly to what happens on a comet. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA/PSI On the other hand, scientists are now proposing a new theory that places the blame for the temporary atmosphere on solar activity rather than the placement of Ceres in its elliptical orbit around the Sun. The theory is described in a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. "We think the occurrence of Ceres' transient atmosphere is the product of solar activity," said study lead author Michaela Villarreal from the University of California, Los Angeles. "Sublimation probably is present, but we don't think it's significant enough to produce the amount of exosphere that we're seeing." As accelerated particles from the Sun’s own solar winds strike the ice that's embedded in Ceres’ surface, the ice evaporates, forming the atmospheric clouds that are sometimes observed for temporary periods of time. Related: Ceres is a lot icer than originally thought Interestingly, because experts have observed the temporary atmospheric formations even when Ceres isn’t at its closest point to the Sun, solar activity would have to be one of the only logical explanations for why this occurs. Because the Sun is currently entering a lull period that’s expected to be of a scale similar to that of the Maunder minimum, experts are more interested than ever to study Ceres to find out if solar activity is truly the cause behind its temporary atmosphere. Theoretically, because solar activity is in the midst of slowing down as indicated by the absence of sunspot activity on our Sun, we should see less atmospheric changes occurring on Ceres over the next few years, which would tell us once and for all whether solar activity is responsible for much of the confusion. The Dawn mission is studying Ceres up close, and the study authors also recommend other observatories keep their eye on Ceres as well for the sake of accurate data and the possibility of uncovering important discoveries. Source: NASA

For almost a decade, thanks to an increased effort in exoplanet hunting such as NASA's Kepler mission, astronomers have identified a lot of Earth-like planets outside our solar system. However, they had a problem explaining why a significant number of these exoplanets, usually in pairs, have unstable orbits. There seemed to be an invisible force pushing them apart from each other. A team of Yale researchers thinks they might have found an answer to that mystery: according to their calculation, the pole of these planets could be over-tilted. In astronomy obliquity, also known as axial tilt, describes the angle between a body's rotational axis and its orbital axis. All planets exhibit axial tilt to a certain degree. Currently, Earth has an axial tilt about 23°, while the one of Mars is 25°. An oddball in the solar system, Uranus has an axis tilts of 82°, making it look like a tipped-over barrel that rotates on its side. Related reading: Why Uranus is so tilted? Scientists had previously suspected that the tides on these planets, caused by their host star, could nudging them out of the regular orbits by draining their orbital energy. But the problem is that later calculation revealed the tides aren't strong enough to pull off such a feat. Sarah Millholland and professor Gregory Laughlin, the Yale astronomers behind the latest study, added their ingenious tweak to the original theory: they proposed that if these exoplanets have a substantial obliquity, similar to the case of Uranus, then the tides would have sufficient kinetic energy to affect their orbit. In a press release, Millholland explained their idea: "When planets such as these have large axial tilts, as opposed to little or no tilt, their tides are exceedingly more efficient at draining orbital energy into heat in the planets. This vigorous tidal dissipation pries the orbits apart." The probable over-tilting feature of these exoplanets will have board implications in the planet's physical characters, such as their climate and atmosphere. Earth's current obliquity allows our planet to have a gradual switch between distinct seasons. Hypothetically, if a planet has a perfect 90° tilt angle, it would always be summer and day time at one pole, and winter and night time at the other. And also thanks to the Moon, which has a stabilizing effect on Earth's obliquity, our poles only oscillate in a small range (22°-24°) in the past 5 million years. Otherwise, scientists suspect that Earth's obliquity might reach near 90° over several billion years. For their next step, the astronomy duo will be looking into the effect of substantial obliquity on planets' structures over time. Their study was recently published in the journal Nature Astronomy. What Knocked Over Uranus? And Two Other Mysteries (SciShow Space) Source: Science Daily

So, how's it going up there? Scott Kelly, NASA astronaut, identical twin and current International Space Station resident is three months into his year long stay at the ISS and took time to check in with a curious public. In an interview with CBS News, he talked about some of the challenges he's facing and the experiments that are being conducted. The medical research that is being done on board the ISS is significant because of the length of the mission and also because researchers have a rare opportunity to study identical twins. For the first time, the body changes, blood tests and other evaluations have a control factor: Scott Kelly's twin brother Mark, who is on Earth and going through all of the same evaluations. Researchers are looking closely at several kinds of medical factors. Genetics of course, since they have two sets of the same DNA to work with. Specifically, tests are being conducted to measure telomeres, which are found at the end of chromosomes and tend to shrink as we age. Gut bacteria is also a concern. In the normal human digestive tract there are trillions of bacteria, some good, some not so good. NASA will be looking at both brothers to see if the time spent in space changed any of the microscopic make up of the gut. Eyeballs and arteries will be closely studied as well. Zero gravity can affect both of these body systems. Previous ISS astronauts have had had permanent changes in the shape and function of their eyeballs and this could be a major issue for future missions. Kelly, in his interview with CBS News, stated, "You wouldn't want some astronauts to get on Mars after a year and a half, or longer when they're coming home, and not be able to see. It's something we don't understand, but it's something we're working hard at understanding and mitigating the effects. We've done a lot of research up here since I've been here to better understand that."Aside from the science and medical parts of the mission, Kelly was asked about the general day-to-day life on board. What does is sound like? Does it smell bad? He had no complaints about the noise or the smell, telling CBS anchor Scott Pelley, "It doesn't smell too bad." The smell of outer space however, was something else Kelly explained, saying "whenever a vehicle docks or if guys are out doing a spacewalk, the smell of space when you open up the hatch is very distinct. It's kind of like a burning-metal smell, if you can imagine what that would smell like. And as far as the sounds on the space station, it's pumps, fans, motors, certain modules are louder than others, but it's generally a pretty nice working environment. It's not too loud or too smelly."When Kelly was asked if being onboard was similar to being in prison he made some comparisons, but concluded by telling CBS News, "The big difference, though, is we're here by choice. So that makes, I guess, the situation a little bit better." Check out the video below to see the entire interviewSources: Dallas News, CBS, NASA

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Kibble balance. Credit: J.L.Lee/NIST Together with six other units – meter, second, ampere, kelvin, mole, and candela – the kilogram, a unit of mass, is part of the International System of Units (SI) that is used as a basis to express every measurable object or phenomenon in nature in numbers. How did scientists come up with these SI units? What exactly does a single SI unit mean? Well, the kilogram (nicknamed Le Grand K) is the platinum and iridium cylinder in a high-security vault outside Paris. And an imaginary experiment involving the force between two infinite wires defines the ampere, the unit of electrical current. The mole is the amount of substance in a system with as many elementary entities as there are atoms in 0.012 kilograms of carbon-12, the most prevalent isotope of carbon. The kelvin relates to the temperature and pressure at which water, ice, and water vapor coexist in equilibrium, known as the triple point of water. For decades, scientists have strived to retire “Le Grand K”. After all, using the 19th-century artifact-defined concept in the 21st-century is like trying to get to Mars on a rocket powered by a steam engine. It just isn't going to work. On top of that, the current standard kilogram is losing weight. About 50 micrograms, at the latest check. Enough to be different from its once identical copies stored in laboratories around the world. To solve this weight(y) problem, scientists have been looking for a new definition of the kilogram. Scientists have been experimenting and collecting data needed to replace the cylinder with a definition based on mathematical constants. One method, led by an international team known as the Avogadro Project, entails counting the atoms in a silicon-28 sphere that weighs the same as the reference kilogram. The second method involves a sort of scale known as a Kibble balance, named after the renowned physicist and metrologist Bryan Kibble. Instead of balancing the scale with weights, scientists used electromagnetism. An electrical current is sent through a coiled wire, generating a magnetic field that creates the upward force needed to balance the scale. Scientists can figure out the strength of that field by pulling on the coil. If you know the voltage, the current and the velocity at which the coil was pulled, you can calculate the Planck constant with extreme precision. In 2014, at the quadrennial General Conference on Weights and Measures, the scientific community resolved to redefine the kilogram based on Planck's constant, a value from quantum mechanics that describes the packets energy comes in. If physicists could get a good enough measure of Planck's constant, the committee would base a kilogram on that value. On June 30, the day before the deadline to submit a value to the weights and measures committee, the team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) was finally ready to release its result. Based on 16 months' worth of measurements, it calculated Planck's constant to be 6.626069934 x 10−34 kg m2/s. Don't be alarmed by this small, strange number. The most important thing about the NIST measurement isn't so much the number (though that's also a big deal) as the uncertainty: just 13 parts per billion. This means that the NIST scientists think their measurement of Planck's constant is within 0.0000013 percent of the correct number. In the end, the scientific community rejoiced, because the quest to redefine the iconic SI unit has reached its goal. How We're Redefining the kg. Credit: Veritasium Source: CERN

Did life originate with RNA? Scientists are still trying to learn more about how life orignated on our planet, and how molecules in the 'primordial soup' gave rise to the first cells. One question is whether genomic material like DNA came before what we now think of as an intermediate molecule like RNA. In the cells we know, RNA transmits a 'recipe' for a protein from the genome to the cellular complex that translates it, the ribosome. Enzymes known as RNA polymerases are used to transcribe a DNA sequence into an RNA sequence. Reporting in Science, researchers have added support to the RNA world hypothesis, which suggests that the first life on our planet used self-replicating RNA molecules. Such molecules would, in theory, not only carry genetic information now stored in DNA, but would also act like proteins to trigger the biochemical reactions that cells rely on to live. DNA and proteins themselves would, therefore, come along later as cells became more complex. In this study, the scientists isolated a RNA polymerase ribozyme that can generate new RNA molecules from an RNA template. "This RNA polymerase has many of the features of modern protein polymerases; it was evolved to recognize an RNA promoter, and subsequently, to copy RNA processively. What our finding implies is that similar RNA enzymes early in the evolution of life could also have manifested such sophisticated biological features," explained study leader and Simon Fraser University molecular biology and biochemistry professor Peter Unrau. Proteins called enzymes now catalyze reactions, but ribosomes, which are made from RNA, make proteins. This could indicate that RNA came first; the ribosome may have been created during the RNA world but never abandoned during evolution because it worked. RNA can perform many functions, including making DNA, and sometimes it functions more like a protein since it can bind to other molecules and affect reactions. This work also showed that it can clamp. The research team is going to engineer a system that can evolve in the lab on its own; the aim is to make a ribozyme that acts like an RNA polymerase, and can self-sustain and self-replicate. If that's possible, it may provide insights into the earliest RNA-based organisms. "If we are able to create a living and evolving RNA-based system in the laboratory we'd have made something quite remarkable, something that has probably has never existed since the dawn of life on this planet," said Unrau. "By understanding the fundamental complexity of life, in the laboratory, we can start to estimate the chances of life on other planets and determine the likelihood that planets such as Mars either had or still have the potential to harbor life." Sources: AAAS/Eurekalert! via Simon Fraser University, Science

There’s no doubt that there’s interest in sending a probe to Europa, one of the 67+ known moons that orbit Jupiter, and as a mission to send one or two probes there comes into focus, NASA is starting to think hard about what kinds of data they want to collect while they’re there. Europa is of interest to space researchers because it’s believed to have a subsurface ocean underneath its icy crust that might be capable of harboring life. Although the subsurface ocean idea is certainly just a theory based off of geysers observed by the Hubble Space Telescope at this point in time, we will never know for sure unless we go there and look for ourselves. Missions to reach Europa have been well-accepted by Congress and this means NASA’s mission could come to fruition as soon as the 2020’s. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Because we know very little about Europa, NASA wants to make sure we can collect as much information about the moon as possible. This means we need to equip our probes and landers with as many useful scientific instruments as we can without going over the budget. Related: Europa could be our best shot at finding life in our Solar System "The possibility of placing a lander on the surface of this intriguing icy moon, touching and exploring a world that might harbor life is at the heart of the Europa lander mission," said NASA’s Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. "We want the community to be prepared for this announcement of opportunity, because NASA recognizes the immense amount of work involved in preparing proposals for this potential future exploration." Choosing exactly what instruments to outfit a lander with is tough – we want the instruments that might be able to take measurements of the subsurface ocean, but we also want to take high-quality photographs and search for microbial life while we’re there as well. Chemical measurements that determine the makeup of the moon are also just as important, as this will allow us to compare the moon’s composition to the Earth and other bodies in the Solar System. Related: Europa might be hotter than originally thought Because all these things are necessary, NASA is now beginning to request proposals for what the Europa lander should come equipped with. The goal is to obtain about 10 different proposals and then pick the best of the bunch. What we do know at this point in time is that Europa’s lander will probably have four legs and behave a lot like the Phoenix lander that dropped on Mars almost a decade ago in that it will have a special saw for penetrating below the super-hard and radiation-processed ice so that we can get virgin samples to learn more about Europa’s composition. There’s still quite a bit of time to come before the Europa lander mission(s) is realized and budget is still something that remains flaky at this point in time, but the way NASA sees it, there’s no harm in trying to get a head start so that we’re ready when the time comes. In the meantime, Juno is probing the Jovian system to help us learn more about Jupiter. It’s just too bad it can’t get closer to Europa. Source: Space.com

After spending almost 186 days in space, and 184 of those days onboard the International Space Station (ISS), the SpaceX Crew-6 mission consisting of four astronauts safely splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean on September 4, marking a successful end to the sixth commercial crew mission to the ISS as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The international crew consisted of NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, along with Roscosmos astronaut Andrey Fedyaev and United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi, who all flew to NASA’s Johnson Space Center after their SpaceX Dragon capsule was safely ashore. SpaceX Crew-7 Dragon capsule seen spalshing down just after 12am EDT on September 4, 2023 after their six-month stay on the INternational Space Station. (Credit; NASA) “After spending six months aboard the International Space Station, logging nearly 79 million miles during their mission, and completing hundreds of scientific experiments for the benefit of all humanity, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 has returned home to planet Earth,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in an official statement. “This international crew represented three nations, but together they demonstrated humanity’s shared ambition to reach new cosmic shores. The contributions of Crew-6 will help prepare NASA to return to the Moon under Artemis, continue onward to Mars, and improve life here on Earth.” Along with the multitude of scientific and technological experiments they carried out during their six-month residence on the ISS, three of the four astronauts conducted several spacewalks to prepare the ISS for installing two new International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays (IROSAs), which will contribute to improved power production on the orbiting laboratory. In total, Bowen conducted three spacewalks, Hoburg conducted two, and Al Neyadi conducted one. This mission also marked Bowen’s fourth time to space, as he previously flew on STS-126, STS-132, and STS-133, along with being the first spaceflight for each of the other three crew members. While onboard the ISS, the astronauts examined how plant genetics adapt to space, assisted in a student robotic challenge, and released the first satellite from Saskatchewan, whose goal will be to test a new radiation identification and shielding system procured from melanin, which exists in humans and a myriad of other organisms. The return of Crew-6 occurs mere days after the arrival of SpaceX Crew-7 at the ISS, which occurred on August 27. This arrival/return sequence runs in tandem with previous SpaceX Crew Dragon missions to the ISS in that the previous mission embarks the ISS once the next crew arrives. As always, keep doing science & keep looking up! Sources: NASA, Wikipedia, NASA (1), NASA (2), NASA (3), NASA (4), Wikipedia (1), Wikipedia (2), NASA (5), NASA (6), NASA (7), NASA (8), NASA (9), NASA (10), NASA (11), Labroots

Research published in Frontiers in Marine Science paper describes the discovery of a soft coral garden in the waters off of west Greenland. As the first of its kind found in the region, the research team responsible for the discovery hope that the 486 square kilometers that encompass it will be named a 'Vulnerable Marine Ecosystem' under UN guidelines in order to protect it. The research was carried out by scientists from UCL, ZSL, and Greenland Institute of Natural Resources who utilized a deep-sea video camera that they developed in order to explore the ocean floor. First author Stephen Long commented: "The deep sea is often overlooked in terms of exploration. In fact, we have better maps of the surface of Mars, than we do of the deep sea. The development of a low-cost tool that can withstand deep-sea environments opens up new possibilities for our understanding and management of marine ecosystems. We'll be working with the Greenland government and fishing industry to ensure this fragile, complex, and beautiful habitat is protected." The soft coral garden that they found lies about 500 meters below the ocean’s surface and exists at a pressure 50 times greater than at sea-level (ouch, my ears hurt just thinking about that!). The camera that Long and fellow colleagues developed in order to explore it consists of a towed video sled, which uses a GoPro video camera, lights, and lasers in special pressure housings, mounted on a steel frame. Long said: "A towed video sled is not unique. However, our research is certainly the first example of a low-cost DIY video sled being used to explore deep-sea habitats in Greenland's 2.2million km² of sea. So far, the team has managed to reach an impressive depth of 1,500m. It has worked remarkably well and led to interest from researchers in other parts of the world." This inexpensive DIY system allowed the researchers to observe 44,035 annotations of various fauna, the most abundant of which were anemones (15,531) and cauliflower corals (11,633), with cauliflower corals observed at a maximum density of 9.36 corals per square meter. Other fauna included feather stars, sponges, brittle stars, and hydrozoans bryozoans. While the soft coral garden lives in nearly complete darkness, its diversity is undeniable. Dr. Chris Yesson (ZSL), the last author on the study, said "Coral gardens are characterized by collections of one or more species (typically of non-reef forming coral), that sit on a wide range of hard and soft bottom habitats, from rock to sand, and support a diversity of fauna. There is considerable diversity among coral garden communities, which have previously been observed in areas such as northwest and southeast Iceland." The researchers hope their discovery of the soft coral garden will encourage its protection, especially given that it sits directly adjacent to economically important deep-sea trawl fisheries. “Despite knowing so little about these seafloor habitats, the Greenlandic economy depends on a small number of fisheries which trawl the seabed. We hope that studies like this will increase our understanding of ecological relationships, and contribute to sustainable fisheries management," concludes Dr. Martin Blicher. Sources: Frontiers in Marine Science, Science Daily

The World Economic Forum (WEF) took place in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday and brought positive news for the environment: Norway, backed by Nestle, Mars, and Unilever, is launching a $400 million fund to reform farming practices in Brazil so as to combat deforestation. Norway got the fund up and running with a contribution of $100 million; the other donors are expected to give the balance of the $400-million by 2020. "We applaud the fund as we are a strong believer in governments and companies working together to protect the environment while feeding the world," said Everton Lucero, Brazil's junior minister for Climate Change. According to the WEF, about 2.3 million square kilometres of rainforest were cut down between 2000 and 2012, wiping out one of the world's only natural mechanisms to absorb greenhouses gases. “The future of the planet depends on our common ability to both protect and restore forests at unprecedented scale, while simultaneously increasing agricultural production to meet growing global needs,” Erna Solberg, Norway’s prime minister, said on Jan. 18 according to a press release. “Through this fund, we will work with forest governments, the private sector and civil society to make this happen in innovative ways,” he added. WEF reports that the Norwegian government will work in partnership with the Global Environment Facility, UN Environment Programme, the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) and major food companies and environmental NGOs to reach their financial commitment goal. Together, they aim to protect over 5 million hectares of forests and peatlands by 2020, an area equal to that of Costa Rica. Referencing that proposed teamwork between governments, companies, and organizations, Paul Polman, chief executive officer of Unilever, stated “This unparalleled public-private partnership will leverage the commitment of Consumer Goods Forum companies to meet our shared goal to eliminate deforestation, while supporting enhanced livelihoods for farmers in our supply chain.” Norway has created the fund under Tropical Forest Alliance 2020, an organization which unites leaders of public institutions and private companies to divest deforestation from supply chains. The action is in part due to attempts to keep promises made by both developed and developing countries in the Paris Climate Agreement, each looking to support the other and come together for the global cause. “As part of the Paris Climate Agreement our country has committed to 12 million hectares of forest restoration and 20 million hectares of sustainable intensification of agriculture,” said Roberto Jaguaribe, the president of the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, in the release. “This fund will help us to develop scalable models to achieve that.” Actions like these are imperative in order to hold governments and big companies accountable for their investments and subsequent actions around the world. The hope is that other countries and companies will follow, making similar comittments to transparency in resource management and environmentally-conscious development practices. Last year Norway also made the national comittment to banning deforestation, as explained in the video below. Sources: Mongabay News, WEF, Phys, The Local

Possessing the ability to refuel spacecraft in outer space isn’t just something you’ve seen in your favorite science fiction movies, it’s a real eventual goal of NASA’s. Fortunately, the American space agency is already hard at work in transforming this concept into reality. Image Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Gunn Refueling a spacecraft in outer space is no easy task. Doing so necessitates much care and precision, not only because of the meticulous tangoing between two spacecraft but also because of the volatile qualities of cryogenic fuel. In an effort to learn the intricate art behind spacecraft refueling, NASA employed the Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM), an initiative intended to prepare spacecraft engineers for the precise maneuvers necessary for conducting this procedure in outer space. The first two phases of the Robotic Refueling Mission – named RRM and RRM2 respectively – involved perfecting the process of remotely removing a spacecraft’s fuel caps and interacting with its valves. But the third phase of the Robotic Refueling Mission, perhaps unsurprisingly entitled RRM3, will involve the storage and transfer of cryogenic fuel in space for the first time. Humankind would benefit significantly from having space-centric gas stations present in the near and distant stellar neighborhood because it would enable scientific missions to endure long beyond the contents of a spacecraft’s limited fuel reserve. NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, for example, recently ran out of fuel and scientific operations were ceased permanently. "Any time we get to extend our stay in space is valuable for discovery," explained Beth Adams Fogle, NASA’s RRM3 mission manager. "RRM3's ability to transfer and store cryogenic fluid could alter our current fuel constraints for human exploration." Related: NASA reveals plans for sending astronauts to Mars When launched, RRM3 will attach to the International Space Station where it will conduct its business. The module will purportedly store 42 liters’ worth of cryogenic fuel onboard for six months, and it’s being challenged to do so with without even the slightest amount of fluid loss. NASA engineers integrated valuable lessons learned from the first two phases of the Robotic Refueling Mission to prevent any of RRM3’s cryogenic fuel stores from boiling away. If the storage technique works, then it could help pioneer future space mining projects, as many planetary bodies are thought to harbor compounds that could be exploited for space fuel. "Any time you try something for the first time, there is an element of risk," added Jill McGuire, the project manager for RRM3. "We hope our technology demonstration helps drive down the risk of refueling in space for future exploration and science missions." Related: Lockheed Martin shows off new deep-space habitation module concept Without a doubt, it will be interesting to see this piece of equipment in action. With a little luck, perhaps the techniques we learn from it will drive humankind farther out into the solar system than ever before. Source: NASA via Phys.org

In space exploration of new planets, researchers use advanced rovers to get data and photos. These specially equipped vehicles roam around discovering the geography, taking samples and sending back information. From the Lunar Rover that was used to examine the surface of the moon, to today’s Mars Rover, these remotely operated vehicles can go where humans can’t. They can be exposed to atmospheres that could not support life, they can work 24/7 and they can be left behind when no longer needed. Undersea exploration is another area where these high-tech contraptions can be valuable to scientists looking to probe the depths of the sea. Remotely operated vehicles that go to the ocean floor have come a long way since the DSV Alvin explored the Titanic. That mission was manned, and attached to its support boat via air hoses and cables, but today’s rovers are independent and operated remotely. Recently, researchers from Australia used a Remotely Operated Vehicle or ROV to explore the deep undersea world of Wilsons Promontory, an area that forms the southern most part of Australia, in the state of Victoria. Much of the area is preserved as Wilsons Promontory Marine National Park and while the area is well known for it’s beautiful landscapes and forests, the undersea world may now eclipse that in terms of interest. The recent discovery of a large coral reef has scientists rushing to find out if this reef could be even bigger than the Great Barrier Reef. The ROV used by the team from Parks Victoria is capable of diving as deep as 328 feet. It comes equipped with cameras that sent back photos and video that no one was expecting. As the ROV went further into the sea, it found sponge gardens in colors not seen before, large coral fans and walls, as well as possibly hundreds of species of exotic fish and other sea creatures. The area explored by the ROV hasn’t been looked at much because of the depth and difficulty of getting to some parts of the ocean floor there, but there had been previous studies that mapped the region and scientists were hopeful they could reach what the maps were showing. In a press release Dr. Steffan Howe, a Parks Victoria science manager said, “The exciting discoveries follow previous research that mapped the park’s sea floor in detail. The maps identified some amazing underwater structures very deep beneath the ocean, but we did not know what sort of marine life was there. These latest expeditions used cutting-edge technology including underwater video cameras and a robotic vehicle to record the spectacular marine life found in many of the deeper areas of the park for the first time.” In addition to the coral, sponge gardens and other plant life, the ROV was able to capture video of holes as deep as 295 feet which were home to large schools of sea perch, a species that can grow to just under 3 feet in length. Other species found included the Longsnout Boarfish (Pentaceropsis recurvirostris) and the Australian barracuda (Sphyraena novaehollandiae) two species that are the subject of active conservation and preservation programs led by the Australian government. Dr. Howe believes this new discovery will bring Victoria’s marine life to the attention of the world. He went on to say “It is important for us to have a comprehensive understanding of the habitats and inhabitants in Wilsons Promontory Marine National Park to help guide how we manage this important area in the future. The discoveries and footage will also enable us to showcase Victoria’s spectacular marine environment to the thousands of visitors who come to this park each year.” Check out the video of this amazing undersea discovery

Some scientists dedicate their lives to hunting for meteorites, and may have to brave some harsh conditions to do so. An international team of researchers recently went to Antarctica to search for these “space rocks.” They found five new meteorites, one of which weighs a massive 16.7 pounds (7.6 kg)! Meteorites periodically fall to Earth from space and represent some of the original material that formed our Solar System and its bodies billions of years ago. For example, they can come from asteroids leftover from when the Solar System formed, or they can be pieces of the Moon or Mars. In general, they can be composed of rocky material, metal, or a combination of both. Scientists can learn a lot about the early conditions of the Solar System by studying these objects. So why would a group of scientists need to go to Antarctica to find meteorites? Most of the landscape of the world is affected by weathering and other changes due to plants and humans, but not the desert. Believe it or not, Antarctica is a desert, so there is a limited degree of weathering that affects the landscape due to the dry climate. Thus, the landscape of Antarctica does not change drastically over short periods of time and therefore, anything that falls onto the landscape – i.e., a meteorite – would not be affected much. In addition, the landscape of Antarctica is fairly uniform in color, white, while meteorites are black, so there is a large contrast between the landscape and the target, making the meteorites much easier to spot. The international team of researchers was made up of Vinciane Debaille (the Universite Libre Bruxelles; FNRS-ULB), Maria Valdes, (the Field Museum and the University of Chicago), Maria Schonbachler (ETH-Zurich), and Ryoga Maeda (VUB-ULB). They were the first to explore potential new meteorite sites that were mapped using satellite imagery. This work was done by Veronica Tollenaar, a thesis student in glaciology (ULB). Although this was no doubt an exciting adventure, Antarctica is a difficult place to work with how wild and remote it is, as well as its bitterly cold temperatures. The team planned their trip for late December, which happens to be summertime in Antarctica, but they still had to battle temperatures of only 14 degrees Fahrenheit (-10 degrees Celsius). Imagine spending days riding snowmobiles and trekking through ice fields, and then spending your nights sleeping in a tent in these conditions! Roughly 45,000 meteorites have been retrieved from Antarctica over the past century. The team estimates that only about one hundred or so match or rival the size of the largest one they found on their trip (16.7 pounds). This kind of find is quite rare! The team notes that the size of the meteorites does not actually matter, and meteorites of all sizes contain valuable information. The five meteorites that were recovered by the team will be analyzed at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. The team also collected sediment that may contain micrometeorites on their excursion. The sediment was divided among the researchers to study at their home institutions. The team anxiously awaits what the analysis of the meteorites will reveal! Source: The Field Museum

Remember how exciting it was when Neil Armstrong stepped on the Moon? Those footsteps changed the world. It’s been over forty years since anyone’s gone up there to follow in them, but that could change. For the Russians at least, the Moon isn’t some “has been” in the solar system, forgotten in the wake of Mars and Pluto. They are looking to go back, and they might just leave a little more there than footprints. Russian space agency Roscosmos debuted a model of the Luna 25 module, also knows as the Luna Glob Lander at the recent International Air Show in Moscow .The agency hopes to launch it in 2024, once it is complete and tested and along with that task will be building the instruments that will be on board. Much like the United States, during the early years when the Apollo program was leading the race to space, the former Soviet Union was also actively pursuing a manned landing on the moon. While Roscosmos did land mechanical rovers on the surface of the Moon, they were ultimately not successful in getting astronauts to the moon. The program was eventually halted, after difficulties with rockets and some catastrophic explosions made putting a human crew into space a far too dangerous mission to contemplate. Vladislav Tretyakov, a researcher in nuclear planetology at the Russian Space Research Institute, said in an interview with Sputniknews.com, "The main difference from Soviet missions, which brought back space material to Earth, is that research will be carried out directly on board the probe." Tretyakov also pointed out that previous Soviet missions to the moon had been at latitudes near the equator of the planet and this mission will aim to land on the south pole of the Moon in 2024. The new module will run on Plutonium 238, which is not weapons grade material and is less dangerous to humans than other forms of nuclear material. As it decays, it produces heat, which is then converted into electricity which will power the spacecraft. The equipment fitted onto the spacecraft will be focused on the composition of the soil and the atmosphere. In addition to eight video cameras, the module will have a complex digging tool to collect soil samples as well as an infrared spectrometer and neutron gamma and laser mass spectrometers. Tretyakov, in the same interview with Sputniknews.com, stressed the goal of reclaiming and relearning some of the technology of lunar survival saying, "This mission is a scientific-technological one. We want to carry out scientific experiments there, but this is a technological mission in the sense that we need to return to the Moon, learn how to land, and survive the lunar night, since a lot of what was achieved in the 1970's has been forgotten." The Luna 25 mission is the beginning of a long-range proposal to establish a Russian lunar base on the moon. Plans call for the base to have a landing and launch area, solar power generators and a long-distance research lunar rover for collecting soil samples and images of the Moon’s surface. Check out the video below to learn more about the futuristic lunar mission.

Following several months’ worth of failed attempts to reestablish a communication line with the Martian Opportunity rover, NASA officially terminated the near-15-year mission less than two weeks ago; but just when everyone thought things couldn’t get any worse, they did. Image Credit: NASA According to a statement released on Friday by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the space agency’s Curiosity rover haphazardly entered safe mode just two days after the Opportunity rover mission came to an end. As the timeless expression goes, ‘when it rains, it pours.’ Engineers responded to the unexplained safe mode event by resetting the Curiosity rover last Tuesday, and thus far, everything seems to be working as expected. That aside, NASA isn’t taking any chances. The space agency downloaded critical diagnostic data over the weekend to discern what might’ve caused the sudden glitch, but the investigation continues. "We're still not sure of its exact cause and are gathering the relevant data for analysis," noted Steven Lee, the deputy project manager of the Curiosity rover mission. "The rover experienced a one-time computer reset but has operated normally ever since, which is a good sign. We're currently working to take a snapshot of its memory to better understand what might have happened." Related: Here's what NASA's Curiosity rover looks like from the perspective of a satellite The Curiosity rover has purportedly rebooted more than 30 times since the safe mode event without entering safe mode again, so engineers are currently dissecting the rover’s onboard memory to delve deeper into the investigation. Curiosity’s scientific operations have halted until NASA gets the bottom of things. "In the short term, we are limiting commands to the vehicle to minimize changes to its memory," Lee added. "We don't want to destroy any evidence of what might have caused the computer reset. As a result, we expect science operations will be suspended for a short period of time." Related: NASA's New InSight lander is providing daily Martian weather reports It was only recently that the Curiosity rover arrived at a clay-covered region of Mount Sharp called Glen Torridon, and NASA has reason to believe that it might hold clues about the red planet’s habitability, among other things. Unfortunately, NASA hasn’t provided an ETA for when the Curiosity rover will be roadworthy again (we know, Mars doesn’t have roads… just go with it). For now, NASA says Curiosity mission team members will analyze existing images of Glen Torridon to learn more about the region in preparation for future drilling sites. Related: The Curiosity rover's wheels are starting to break Assuming everything’s as kosher as NASA seems to think, Curiosity should be ready to explore Glen Torridon sooner rather than later. We'll have to wait and see what becomes of it. Source: NASA/JPL

An ongoing problem for NASA, SpaceX, and other entities involved with space travel is packing as much equipment as possible into a single rocket to reduce launch costs and make space exploration more readily accessible. One of the ways we can do this is by reducing the size of scientific instruments. While this is already happening in the form of cubesats and smallsats, NASA is also experimenting with an ancient Japanese art form known as origami to accomplish similar results. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Although you’ve probably tinkered with origami on your own with a few sheets of loose paper before, NASA is taking things to the extreme by folding various kinds of materials to make them more friendly for space travel The Starshade is just one example; it’s a piece of equipment that, as the name implies, blocks out a certain amount of starlight against an object in space (like a satellite or a telescope). Because such a large object would be a magnet for meteorite strikes that would render it useless, researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California are experimenting with origami methods to make the shade fold or unfold on demand. Doing so actually reduces its surface area and mitigates the chance of a meteorite striking it. "We use multiple layers of material to block starlight, separated by some gaps so that, if we do get hit, there's a good chance that there won't be a line-of-sight puncture," said Manan Arya, one of the technologists working on the Starshade project. NASA notoriously uses origami methods in their spacecraft, such as in folding solar arrays and inflatable modules. These objects stay small during storage in space transportation but expand once in outer space to take up as much volumetric space as they need to. Related: New folding solar array system sent to the International Space Station for testing "Once I realized this is how you fold spacecraft structures, I became interested in origami," Arya continued. "I realized I was good at it and enjoyed it. Now I fold constantly." Arya works with JPL intern Robert Salazar, who also develops new and innovative ways to fold larger things into smaller things for the sake of science. "With most origami, the magic comes from the folding. You can't design purely from geometry. You need to know the qualities of the material to understand how it will fold," Salazar explained. "There are so many patterns to still be explored. Most designs are for shapes that fold flat. Non-flat structures, like spheres or paraboloids, largely haven't been done." While origami might seem easy on paper (no pun intended), it's these guys’ jobs to find out how to make the technique work with more complex materials and surfaces. Origami-based spacecraft is still a relatively new idea that still needs extensive field-testing. Nevertheless, advancements in this sector are imperative. Not only will it make future spacecraft more versatile, but it could also help humankind achieve crewed missions to Mars sooner than previously imagined. It should be interesting to see how else origami will contribute to the realm of space exploration as time and research progresses. Source: NASA

It's taken more than 100 days since its launch, but NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory, (referred to as the DSCOVR satellite) has reached its final orbit. Another satellite in orbit, you may think. Big deal. Well, DSCOVR is unique. Other satellites orbit the Earth at a distance of no more than a few hundred miles. DSCOVR is orbiting the sun, at what is known as Lagrange point 1, about a million miles from Earth. There it will be able to study the Sun, monitor the solar wind, the stream of charged particles coming off the Sun, as well as providing early warnings of solar flares and other solar radiation headed for Earth.So, you may be wondering, what is a lagrange point? Are cattle or ZZ Top involved. No, incidentally, to both. A lagrange point is the point between two gravitational bodies, in this case the Earth and the Sun, where the gravitational pull of each of those bodies will hold an object, in this case the DSCOVR satellite, in balance between the two. So in its current orbit DSCOVR will require very little station keeping course corrections because it is being held in place by the gravitational pull of the Earth on one side and the gravitational pull of the Sun on the other. Get it?Why do we care about the weather from the Sun? Do you like using your GPS enabled device? Do you like talking to someone on the phone who's more than a few hundred miles away? How about the internet, or for that matter any electrically powered device? Well, the thing is, a solar flare can interfere with any or all of them. If it's intense enough, a solar flare could even fry them. And let's not forget astronauts. Even aboard the International Space Station, though they do get some protection from the Earth's magnetosphere, astronauts there have a lot less protection than we do down here on the surface. With enough early warning that a super intense solar flare was on its way from the surface of the Sun, we could make the necessary changes the courses of satellites, or the ISS, or, if necessary, have astronauts bug out and return back to Earth. Advanced warning of solar flares will also be extremely important once we start sending people to the Moon or Mars. Remember that aside from whatever kind of shielding technology we can come up with for them, astronauts out in space, away from the Earth's magnetic field have no protection from solar radiation or solar flares.DSCOVR is not all about the Sun. While one side of the satellite will be facing the Sun all the time, the other side will be facing Earth. On that side DSCOVR has two NASA Earth-observing instruments that will gather data on things like ozone and aerosol amounts, and changes in what is called the Earth's radiation budget. This is the balance between incoming radiation (largely from the sun) and that which is reflected from Earth. This is important balance it affects our climate.(Sources: phys.org, NOAA, Wikipedia)

When it comes to spacesuits, NASA only has so many. In fact, NASA just might be running out of them. The high cost that comes with manufacturing them, as well as the difficulty of repairing them when they break, has backed NASA into a corner of relying on the current inventory. On the other hand, that may have been a mistake. Out of a grand total of 18 spacesuits that were originally made for space exploration in 1981, just 11 of those remain today, despite their supposed 15-year shelf life. The other seven were destroyed or lost in some way; five of them were lost in first stage explosions from rocket and shuttle launches and were never replaced. Image Credit: rahfaldt/Pixabay For the 11 spacesuits that remain, there are problems in a couple pertaining to their internal systems and they still need to be repaired. These problems have caused water to leak into the helmets of various astronauts over the years while performing spacewalks. Unfortunately, the spacesuit’s complexity means repairs are not only costly, but they’re difficult to diagnose and to repair. Additionally, because an astronaut’s life depends on the repair, this isn’t exactly something you want to just slap a ‘bandaid’ on and then hope it works; it needs to be done right. Related: Here's how a spacesuit works Four of the spacesuits are on the International Space Station right now, while the rest are back on Earth either being repaired or preserved. Unfortunately, with at least 17 spacewalk missions planned before 2020, the few remaining spacesuits have quite a few missions to complete, and NASA is worried that they might not last. Developing new spacesuits is very expensive, unfortunately that’s where NASA really needs to invest their time and money. The current spacesuits aren’t optimal for deep space exploration, as their incredible weight and inflexibility makes them ideal for external International Space Station exploration on spacewalks, but not for other planets where there’s going to be gravity. NASA’s International Space Station program is expected to last through to 2024, but if that’s going to be the case, then the existing spacesuits really have to last the extent of the mission. If they don’t, then NASA may have to retire the International Space Station sooner than expected due to budget and time restraints that are keeping them from producing new spacesuits. Another problem is that NASA has at least three different designs for spacesuits: one for lunar travel, one for extravehicular travel, and one for Martian travel. Splitting their funding into three separate departments certainly isn’t helping the situation any, and as Mars becomes the main focus for future missions, NASA might have to nix lunar suit development going forward. More than $200 million has been invested in the development of new spacesuits over the last decade thus far, but there’s still far more work to be done to make it possible. Until then, NASA will have to ‘limp’ forward on the remaining spacesuits. Source: OIG, NASA via Science Alert