invites Archives - usatoday24

NASA invites you to send your name to the Moon for free. Behind it there is something more than a simple symbolic gesture

November 28, 2025 by usatoday24

That your name travels around the Moon no longer belongs to the realm of fantasy. NASA has once again opened a door so that anyone can register it and watch it travel aboard Artemis IIthe first manned mission of the Artemis program. It will be stored on a memory card inside the Orion spacecraft, which will circle our satellite and return to Earth. But what is relevant is not just the gesture. The agency has been inviting the public to be part of its missions for years. Now, with Artemis, he is renewing that pact between exploration and participation. NASA does not ask you to register or create an account. Simply enter three basic details on an official website and the system automatically generates a personalized digital pass associated with Artemis II, with the participant’s name. The PIN is the only way to access that pass, and the agency warns that you cannot recover it if it is lost. According to the information available, all the names will be compiled on a digital medium that will travel on the Orion spacecraft during the mission. It has not been confirmed if these names will be consulted or reviewed at some point, but they will be part of the lunar journey in a symbolic way. A tradition that began with a golden record and is still alive in Artemis NASA has been looking for ways to leave a human mark on your missions. One of the best known examples is the Voyager Golden Recorddesigned in 1977 under the scientific direction of Carl Sagan. It was a metal disc covered in gold with sounds, greetings and images that represented life on Earth. Years later, with Cassini, transferred to a CD-ROM with scanned signatures, and in Stardust and OSIRIS-REx microchips with names sent from all over the world were used. Artemis II takes another step: a digital memory card, much more similar to the ones we use today in any device. These initiatives are not understood only as gestures of participation. NASA operates with public funds and needs to justify, year after year, that programs like Artemis make sense beyond scientific interest. Connecting with citizens is a way to keep that support current, especially in missions that take place over decades and require budget continuity. When numerous educational centers, families and fans share their symbolic boarding passes, what they actually do is make visible that space exploration continues to have social, cultural and political relevance. While Apollo was an unprecedented milestone, it also left a lesson for the future of exploration. After the global impact of the first moon landing, public attention began to fallr, and with it, political and budgetary support. The book “Moonport”, published by NASAdescribes how enthusiasm became routine, and how subsequent missions stopped generating interest outside the scientific field. In the early 1970s, Congress reduced funding and thousands of employees were laid off. The program had won the space race, but it lost something just as important: the sustained attention of society. Artemis advances in a very different context than Apollo, but with a clear lesson: space exploration needs both political continuity and social legitimacy. Today the challenges are no longer only technological, but also strategic. The program is accumulating technical delays and Artemis II is now scheduled for launch between February and April 2026. At the same time, China has accelerated its plans and is developing its own manned program with the aim of sending astronauts to the Moon. Everything seems to indicate that we are facing a new competition, this time more open and prolonged, where public support is once again a decisive element. As we can see, signing up does not change the course of a mission, but it is part of something broader. It’s not about seeing your name circle the Moon, but about knowing that space exploration continues to involve society and not only to the control centers. Artemis does not only seek to return to our satellite, but rather to build a shared story about why to go, what to go for, and who is invited to take part. It is a way of remembering that this trip also needed an audience, and that perhaps awakens enthusiasm in those who, from a young age, begin to look upward. Images | POT | THAT | Screenshot In Xataka | The biggest mystery in science today is dark matter. And a Japanese scientist believes he has detected it

Maybe it’s time we stopped answering “maybe” to calendar invites

October 26, 2025 by usatoday24

Science has just demonstrated something that we all intuited but no one wanted to admit: when you respond “maybe” to an invitation, You are not being polite. You are being selfish. A study published in Science Direct and brought by Causes and Chances explains that hosts prefer a firm “no” to an ambiguous “maybe.” The reason is simple: the “maybe” forces them to plan for two simultaneous scenarios: Should I reserve a table for five or six? Should I buy food for eight or nine? Do I leave time for questions from twelve people or eighteen? That uncertainty is not courtesy. It is a burden that we transfer to others. Those who answer “maybe” operate under a systematic illusion: They think they are showing interest, that their indecision is better than rejection. But the data shows the opposite: Hosts feel more respected with a “no” than with a “maybe.” There’s something telling here: we confuse keeping our options open with being thoughtful, when in fact we are exporting our own indecision as a problemoblivious ma. We transfer our problem (I’m afraid of sounding rude, I don’t want to have to choose yet) to the other (how the hell am I going to plan the event if there are 10 yeses and 24 maybes). The study identifies a classic case of motivated reasoning here: We answer “maybe” because it suits us (we reserve the freedom to decide later). And then we rationalize that selfish decision as if it were what the other person prefers. It is such a common self-deception that we don’t even notice it. We project our preferences over othersand thus we save ourselves the discomfort of recognizing that we are prioritizing our flexibility over your planning. The practical implication is clear: if you’re going to answer “maybe,” it better be because you really need time to figure something out, not because you want to wait to see if something better comes along. Not because it’s hard for you to say no. The “maybe” has a cost that is paid by whoever sends the invitation. The next time we get a calendar invitation, we should ask ourselves if we are being thoughtful or just covering our backs. The answer probably makes us uncomfortable. In Xataka | This is how I use the calendar to organize my entire life Featured image | Xataka with Mockuuups Studio

the first plasma produced by the SMART reactor invites us to optimism

January 23, 2025 by usatoday24

We have news of the experimental reactor of nuclear fusion from the University of Seville. Very good news. The SMART Tokamak plan aims to develop a type reactor tokamak extraordinarily compact. In fact, the acronym SMART comes from the English name ‘SMall Aspect Ratio Tokamak’. Building a compact fusion energy reactor is not easy. In fact, ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), the experimental fusion reactor that an international consortium led by Europe is building in the French town of Cadarache, is gigantic for several good reasons. The most relevant is that a large vacuum chamber together with high intensity magnetic fields allow the plasma to be stabilized more effectively. And the other advantage is that This design minimizes energy loss. The SMART experimental fusion reactor that the engineers at the University of Seville are working on does not have the titanic size that ITER will have in its favor, but this does not mean that it will not come to fruition. In fact, its strategy is radically different from that of ITER and its design is surprisingly innovative. In any case, the development of SMART is being carried out within the international initiative Fusion2Gridso Seville researchers are not alone in this adventure. They work side by side with scientists from the Plasma Physics Laboratory at Princeton University (USA). SMART has generated the first plasma with negative triangularity The vacuum chamber in which the fusion of the deuterium and tritium nuclei, the two isotopes of hydrogen involved in the fusion reaction, occurs does not need to be as large in the SMART reactor as in ITER or other experimental fusion machines because because it has negative triangularity in its favor. Broadly speaking, triangularity identifies the geometry of the plasma within the tokamak by being confined inside the magnetic field. SMART’s negative triangularity causes the plasma cross section to compress toward the center By adopting positive triangularity, which is common in experimental fusion reactors of the type tokamakthe widest part of the triangular section of the plasma is outside the center of the vacuum chamber. This geometry is very well known, and it works, although it is not optimal to control plasma turbulence. In contrast, SMART’s negative triangularity causes the plasma cross section to compress toward the center, so the widest part faces the inside of the vacuum chamber. Negative triangularity has two major advantages. On the one hand, it is very effective in controlling plasma instabilities. And, in addition, it helps to distribute the heat at the base of the reactor in a more homogeneous way. Its biggest problem is that this technology is still young and requires much more research. Fortunately, researchers at the University of Seville are on the right track. On a very good path. And they have already done the first plasma testa milestone that marks the beginning of the experimental phase of the SMART reactor. “We were all very excited to see the first magnetically confined plasma, and we look forward to harnessing the capabilities of the SMART reactor together with the international scientific community (…) SMART has attracted enormous interest around the world“, Eleonora Viezzer has declaredphysicist and professor at the University of Seville. The initial investment in this project has been slightly more than five million eurosbut over its estimated 10 years of development it will presumably require a total investment of about 500 million euros. Image | University of Seville More information | Nuclear Fusion | University of Seville In Xataka | “We are already on the last step”: how Spain has obtained the key to making nuclear fusion a reality

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