moon

In 1178 a monk realized that the moon “was beating as a wounded snake.” Today we know what those flashes are

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The current tools They allow to see the universe surrounding us with An unimaginable detail Just a few years ago, but humanity has millennia lifts the sky and wondering things. What we have closer is the moon, and almost a thousand years ago someone wondered why it shone as if it were an emergency light. Today we have the answer. More or less. Flash. Although we have always looked at the sky, it was not until 1608 when we could do it with some detail. At the same time, several lens manufacturers fought to become the Telescope inventorswhich was a tube with a convex lens as a goal, a concave as ocular and … it ends. In 1609, Galileo Galilei learned about the invention and decided to build his version, to which He took advantage of good. Discovered the Jupiter satellites And, among many other things (dangerous for its time) He also documented lunar craters. In those first observations in more detail, astronomers began to wonder something: why do the moon emit flashes? What they probably did not know is that they were not the first to realize those fleeting lights. Luna beats. Let’s go back half a millennium, until 1178, the year in which Canterbury Gervasioa monk, wrote The following: “On the afternoon of June 18, 1178, after sunset, when the moon had just become visible, a wonderful phenomenon was witnessed by five men or more. There was a bright new moon, their horns were inclined to the east and sudden sparks ”. He continued: “Meanwhile, the body of the moon, which was below, twisted, so to speak, with anxiety … the moon throbbed as a wounded snake. Then, it recovered its usual state. This phenomenon was repeated a dozen times or more, adopting the flame various random twisted forms. After these transformations, the moon, from horn to horn … acquired a blackish appearance” What does this say? “The author of this letter received this report from men who saw him with his own eyes, and are willing to put his honor under oath that they have not added or falsified anything in the previous story.” Quiet, Gervasio, we believe you. What he described is Know Like TLP, ‘Transient lunar phenomena“or” transient lunar phenomena. “ This is something that has fascinated astronomers for centuries, and basically it is flashes, brightness located somewhere in the lunar surface or even darkening of it. Its duration is brief, and there are several theories. Riddled. One of them points, directly, to the constant meteorite bombardment experienced by the satellite. It is the explanation most supported by evidence, and it makes all the meaning. It is estimated that the moon receives the direct impact of tens of thousands of meteorites every year. NASA Calculate That 33,000 meteorites hit the moon every year, with about 100 the size of a Pinpong ball reaching its surface with a force equivalent to about 3.2 kilos of dynamite. Studies like Neliota They have achieved relate Those impacts to the flashes we see from Earth. The frequency is about eight flashes per hour, but in times when there is a greater meteoric activity, the figure increases to twelve per hour. Impacts on the moon collected by Neliota and related to ‘flashazos’ Alternatives. There are currents of alternative thinking that relate these ‘flashazos’ with gas emissions of the lunar subsoil -as they can be radon emanationsgas that has a presence in the satellite- or by geological fluctuations. The bombardment remains the most accepted theory, but there are ‘flashazos’ than They would not be related With impacts. Whatever it is, and if that English monk of 850 years ago could find out about this, it would surely feel relieved to know that those beats of the moon, those palpitations as a wounded snake, were not the product of their imagination. Images | University of CanterburyNASA, THAT In Xataka | A meteorite fell in the Sahara in 2023. It has turned out to be the piece of moon that we needed to solve an old enigma

We are sending cannabis samples to space. They will be key to knowing if we can colonize the moon or Mars

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Throughout our short space race we have sent the most diverse things to space: from golf balls up to 2,000 small jellyfish (that returned being 60,000), going through latea piece of the Wright brothers, an electric car, a gorilla costume and a pizza. Today to this peculiar list we have to add about 150 cannabis seeds. The reasons? Strictly scientific. Mayasat-1. That is the name they receive both the mission (Integrated within Mission Possible 2025) as the incubator on board which have traveled seeds, algae and human DNA, among other things. In total, 980 samples of 11 different customers. The incubator has been developed by the Genoplant Research Institute in Slovenia, but who has decided to send cannabis seeds to space has been Martian Grow. Transport-14 | Image: Genoplant Mayasat-1 | Image: Genoplant Three laps. Before addressing the why of cannabis, it is convenient to understand what the mission has consisted, whose duration has been three hours. Mayasat-1 took off on Monday 23 at 23:50 aboard a Falcon 9 from Spacex from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. It reached a height of 520 kilometers (120 kilometers more than the International Space Station) and completed three laps around our planet. Specifically, through polar areas. Because? Because at the North and South poles exposure to radiation is very, much higher than that of Ecuador due to the magnetic field. The objectives. There are several, but they can be summarized as follows: Observe the survival of samples to radiation, microgravity and temperatures of space to have an idea of ​​its ability to resist extreme conditions. Investigate possible adaptations, such as genetic or structural changes, which may have occurred in response to the environmental stress factors. Study the possible implications for the cultivation of plants in space or advances in medicine. Serve as proof of concept for the realization of biological experiments in space. And now yes, cannabis. Božidar Radišič leads the initiative Martian Grow and works as a consultant at the Research Nature Institute in Slovenia. In statements collected by WiredRadišič believes that “sooner or later, we will have lunar bases and cannabis, with its versatility, it is the ideal plant to supply those projects.” In his own words, cannabis “can be a source of food, proteins, construction materials, textiles, hemp, plastic and medicines. I don’t think many other plants give us all these things.” But cannabis … Yes, it is associated with a very different recreational use, but its potential as a plant is tremendous. The Cannabis sativa l produces THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive compound) and CBD (Cannabidiol, has no psychoactive effects), but these are only two of the More than 550 chemical compounds found to date. And although we do not know what effects each and every one of them has, we do know that the plant is surprisingly resistant. Image | Crystalweed Cannabis Hold on what you throw. Cannabis sativa is a plant that resists ultraviolet rays and gamma radiation (in fact, it is used in its industrial production to decontaminate it). It is also extremely versatile, being able to grow both in Mexico and India, Nepal, Netherlands or Afghanistan despite the fact that its origin is in the Himalayas. Nor is it a plant that needs too much water and can be grown in different types of soils. Their ballots to be a successful space crop are, therefore, abundant on paper. And why send seeds to space? We know that radiation and genetic mutation is able to generate new varieties of species with different properties. “So far more than 3,400 new varieties of more than 210 species of plants using genetic variation induced by radiation and improvement by mutations, “they explain from the International Atomic Energy Agency. For Radišič, that is precisely the key: “It’s about finding out if cosmic conditions affect cannabis genetics, and how they do it, and we may only discover it after several generations.” Radiation exposure can cause mutations, not all negative, not all positive. The key is to detect those that can play in favor of humanity. The problem, of course, is that we need more information. Image | Genoplant Further. We have already cultivated lettuce at the International Space Station, Thalian Arabidopsis on lunar soil and Sent seeds to spacebut all radiation exposure has been in low orbit (up to 2,000 kilometers high). The responses to the radiation of a plant at the International Space Station may not be the same as those of a plant on the moon (at 38,400 kilometers away) or on Mars (54.6 million kilometers). One of the projects that seek to explore how plants cultivated on the moon respond is Leafa NASA mission that will travel to our satellite in the mission Artemis III In 2027. Next steps. When the capsule returns, the Božidar Radišič team and the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Ljubljana will study the seeds, their possible mutations and adaptations to obtain results and see which compounds have altered and how. “Whether there are changes as if not, both results will be important for the future, so that we know how to grow cannabis in the space environment,” says Radišič to Wired. An important job. Colonizing the moon or Mars is not only a technological challenge, but also logistics. It is not viable to transport food to keep the population of another planet, so it is capital to learn to cultivate in lunar and Martian soils, completely inhospitable and hostile. There have been advances and research with different proposals For many yearsbut there is still no solution that seems perfect. Images | Genoplant In Xataka | We have found a plant capable of producing 40 cannabinoids. A closer plant evolutionarily to lettuce that to hemp

NASA set out to send a woman to the moon before China does. It is getting more and more

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While the possibilities for NASA to step on the moon again in 2027 fades, China advances with a firm and methodical step without changing its goal: sending astronauts to the lunar surface in 2030. Any of the two countries could end putting the first woman on the moonthe symbolic objective that the United States had marked with Artemis III. Another blow to Artemis. NASA depends on Spacex to achieve the first moaning manned since 1972. In the Artemis III mission, scheduled for mid -2027, two astronauts descend to the lunar surface in a starship ship adapted to land and take off on the moon. But Spacex has delay. He could not Demonstrate fuel transfer in orbit With a cistern starship, much less a loan without crew. With the catastrophic explosion of the starship 36 During a motor test, the program trial zone will have to be repaired. It is the fourth consecutive failure for the Spacex ship-cohete, which will undoubtedly add new delays to its commitments to NASA. Move the goal. The rumors of which Artemis III It could be reconfigured as a mission without alunsing They return to the fore. I would leave NASA with less maneuvering margin to arrive before China does it for the first time. Maybe that’s why the narrative has changed under the new administration: now the political objective is to plant a flag on Mars before China does. With the excuse of eliminating the diversity programs of federal agencies, the references to send to the first woman and the first man of color to the moon They have been erased of the NASA website. China follows its roll. For its part, the Crewing Space Agency of China (CMSA) has completed this week a crucial test of the ship that will take its astronauts to the moon. The early morning of June 17, in the Gobi desert, the Mengzhou ship’s escape system furiously turned on its solid fuel engines. The ship without crew was propelled at full speed from the platform, as it would do if there was an emergency with the rocket. At 20 seconds, He separated from the escape system and opened his parachute To perch again on land. It was a perfect abortion test. China did not perform a since 1998, with its current Shenzhou ship, which routinely carries astronauts to the Chinese space station. The second country on the moon. China wants to become the second country to step on the moon, before one of NASA’s partners in the Artemis missions, such as Jaxa or ESA. The calendar is clear And it has remained so far: in 2027, China will first launch the new heavy rocket CZ-10. In 2028, he will make a manned mission around the Moon (in this case, as a third country to do so, because Canada has a seat on the Artemis II mission). The first moonwill is scheduled by the end of 2030. The Mengzhou ship It will take three Chinese astronauts to the lunar orbitwhile the Lanyue ship, designed to be coupled with Mengzhou in orbit, will descend to the surface in the role of Alunizer. The firm steps of CMSA towards this objective reinforce the image of a robust program, well financed and with an immovable political objective, which increasingly contrasts with NASA Artemis. Image | CMSA, Xinhua In Xataka | After three failures, Spacex needed the new Starship to work out well. I was waiting for the worst explosion of all

A group of scientists has proposed to infect another world and see what happens as an experiment. His candidate: The Enced Moon

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While NASA’s rovers are still looking for clues on Mars, Jupiter, and Esturno, Saturn’s icy moons, of Jupiter, of Jupiter, They have become the main candidates to house microbial life outside the earth in the solar system. But what will we do if we discover that they are not inhabited? A controversial idea. Encard, with Your subsurface ocean and confirmed presence of crucial elements for lifeIt is a usual focus of scientific fascination. The European Space Agency Plan to send a probe there which would arrive in 2054. Anticipating a disappointment, a group of astrobiologists has launched a bold proposal: if it turns out to be uninhabited, we can consider “infecting it” deliberately with terrestrial microbes to observe how life spreads in a habitable but virgin world. An unprecedented experiment. Since they began to explore the solar system, large space agencies have taken very seriously not to contaminate other planets and satellites, building their probes in clean rooms to reduce the number of bacteria that could survive on board. This experiment would be to do the opposite. It would be the first planetary scale attempt to build a biosphere. It would force us to learn how to assemble complex ecosystems from scratch, which organisms are the most appropriate to do so and how they behave in extraterrestrial conditions. Why sow life in another world. Charles S. Cockell, Holley Conte and M. Dale detail their idea in an article published By Space Policy magazine. The group argues that, if future missions confirmed the absence of native life in Encela, the deliberate inoculation of the satellite would help us understand how life spreads in permanently dark oceans. Inoculation would allow to investigate how bacteria ecosystems were organized On the ground snowball or even If hydrothermal chimneys From a primitive land they could be the place where life arose on our planet during the early or early archaic times. A multiphendary economy. Entering a more speculative field, an inhabited brain could, in theory, become a source of materials for the exploration of the exterior system if humanity would become a multiparaneary species. The authors even mention the engineering of organisms as an option to make the new biosphere, transforming the ocean of the Saturn moon into a “biofuel production plant”, once our metanogenic bacteria have prospered. It could even resort to synthetic biology to design optimized organisms. Faster than terraft Mars. The experiment would, of course, a multigenerational company, but unlike Mars the terraftwhich would take centuries, the inoculation of an extraterrestrial ocean could be achieved with current technology and would be “much simpler and less expensive.” But there are also ethical implications. How many missions are needed to be sure that it is really uninhabited? Is such an experiment more valuable than studying the geological and geochemical processes of a virgin world? And perhaps it is also possible to ask: will we be able to guard a second biosphere, in addition to that of the earth, for multiple generations? It is worth thinking in the long term, but we must previously intensify our sense of responsibility for the Earth’s biosphere. Image | POT In Xataka | We have been looking for “habitable” places in space for decades. The Encelado Ocean paints better

Blue Origin now has a golden opportunity to advance Spacex on trips to the moon. And he is taking advantage of it

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The Lunar exploration panorama has changed with the new US administration. Blue Origin, the Jeff Bezos space company, is strategically positioning to capitalize on the recent turbulence of the NASA Artemis program. Short. With Boeing and Lockheed Martin outside the future lunar missions after the Cancellation of the SLS Rocket and the Orion shiptwo companies are the clear favorite to reconfigure the NASA Artemis program. Although Spacex has led the commercial narrative so far, its focus centered on Mars and the Technological developments of competition They could offer Blue originated a window to, if not advance, at least equate forces in the race towards our natural satellite. First flight this year. John Couluris, the leader of Blue Origin’s lunar efforts, has revealed New details about architecture and The road map From the company’s missions to the moon. In a presentation of the Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative Conference, Couluris said Blue Origin planned to do A demonstration flight without crew from its lunar module Blue Moon Mark I to the South Pole of the Moon before the end of the year. Blue Moon Mark I. Blue Origin’s first lunar module was designed to launch aboard the new Glenn rocket. Driven by a single be-7 engine of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, can transport up to 3.9 tons of load anywhere in the lunar surface with a precision in the alun of less than 100 meters, according to Blue Origin. The Mark I will not only serve as a test bench for technologies of the future Blue Moon Mark II ship, Yes with the ability to carry astronautsbut it will transport commercial and NASA useful charges to the Moon, including an experiment to measure the impact of the BE-7 engine on the lunar surface. Blue Moon Mark II. Blue’s true bet for dominating trips to the Moon is its Blue Moon Mark II, capable of taking four astronauts or between 20 and 30 tons of load to the Moon, depending on whether it is the reusable or disposable version. Here the newly announced Cislunar Transporter comes into play, a key piece that improves Blue Origin’s strategy with that of Spacex and its gigantic Starship ship. This vehicle, also driven by BE-7 engines, is designed to transport up to 100 tons of load from the low terrestrial orbit to a lunar orbit. Cislunar Transporter. Blue Origin’s lunar architecture begins with a New Glenn rocket by placing the transport in the low terrestrial orbit. Additional rocket launches would take advantage of the upper stage of the New Glenn to fill the liquid hydrogen and oxygen tug tanks. Once full, the Transporter southern would travel to an almost rectilinear halo (NRHO) next to the moon. The Blue Moon Mark II lunar module, thrown into another New Glenn, would go to that same orbit, where it would be attached to the transport to recharge its tanks, obtaining the necessary fuel to alunize and return to the NRHO. Simpler than Starship. Blue Origin’s architecture is easier than the HLS system of Spacex, in which a starship stays in terrestrial orbit and has to be coupled with several starship-cysterna (a maximum of eight, a maximum of eight, a maximum of eight, According to Elon Musk) Before recovering enough fuel to travel to the moon. On the other hand, Blue Origin is moving forward in the storage technology of cryogenic propellants without evaporation (“Zero Boil-Off”) that he hopes to demonstrate in June 2025 to solve one of the main problems of liquid fuels in long-term missions. An opportunity. These Blue Origin advances charge special relevance to the drastic cuts proposed for NASA. The 2026 budgets propose the cancellation of the SLS rocket and the Orion ship after the Artemis III mission, scheduled for 2027, which will use a Spacex starship to transport astronauts from the lunar orbit to the satellite surface. This dismantling of the Artemisa program As we know it leaves a vacuum that the White House intends to fill with rockets and commercial ships that allow more ambitious subsequent lunar missions. Although Spacex with Starship is an obvious candidate, Blue Origin is making it difficult. Images | Blue Origin In Xataka | The last eeuu slap to Europe has sounded up to space: NASA has just left ESA with Artemis

NASA has revealed why no astronaut has left the Earth’s atmosphere. Not even when they went to the moon

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From time to time, NASA reminds us with some anecdote or study that things are never how they seem or, failing that, that can always be questionable or have more than one answer. Recently they gave us such a simple explanation about our inability to find extraterrestrial signs that scared. They also clarified why We hadn’t returned To the moon before. The latest: remember that, technically, no human has ever left the earth’s atmosphere. And yes, I don’t even want when we went to the moon. A technically true provocation. To say that no astronaut in history has ever left the earth’s atmosphere may sound to a joke or little less than a conspiracy theory, but, from a scientific perspective and following what atmospheric models say, it is more than us A correct statement. To place ourselves in perspective and following this line of explanation, even iconic figures Like Yuri Gagarin either Neil Armstrongor contemporary space travelers Like William Shatnerhave remained, in physical terms, within the most extreme (although diffuse) limits of the Earth’s atmosphere. The key lies in how the end of that atmosphere is defined: a more complex and expansive issue of what is commonly believed. The atmosphere does not end where we imagine. All this reasoned recently Doug RowlandNASA heliophysics expert. Contrary to the popular idea that the atmosphere ends in a finite layer that dissipates before reaching the terrestrial orbit, the reality is that the atmosphere does not have a clearly defined “roof”. On the contrary, it becomes progressively more dim, but continues to spread. As Rowland toldeven hundreds of kilometers on the surface, where the International Space Station (EEI) orbits, there is still a sufficient air density to gradually stop the station. In fact, if it were not periodically driven with rockets, the EEI would end up falling by atmospheric drag. The artificial border: Kárman. For practical reasons (such as spatial treaties or legal definitions) an international convention has been adopted: The karm linelocated 100 kilometers above sea level, which marks the point where the space begins theoretically. This line serves as a technical threshold, since 99,99997% of atmospheric mass terrestrial is below. Said that, and how Explain the space agency itselfthis definition is useful for regulations and classifications, not so much to describe with physical precision the real limits of the atmosphere. The geocorone: atmosphere that reaches the moon. In 2019, A study based on data from Soho Solar Observatory (NASA/ESA), revealed that the exosphere of the Earth (specifically, a diffuse cloud of known hydrogen atoms Like geocorone) extends to about 629,000 kilometers, that is, beyond the orbit of the moon. What happens? That on that limit there are still about 0.2 hydrogen atoms per cubic centimeter. That means that, technically, even the Apollo missions that alunizarized in the 60s and 70s did not abandon the earth’s atmosphere. “The moon flies through the Earth’s atmosphere,” Igor Baliukin came to saymain author of the study, referring to the unsuspected magnitude of this invisible layer. The sun also contains us. The thing is even more complicated when both the Earth and the Moon are Inside the solar atmosphere. This extends to the edge of the helosphere, the limit beyond which the interstellar space begins. At this point it must be remembered that between the atmosphere of the earth and that of the sun there is no emptiness, but a structure of progressive and overlapping layers that contain particles, energy and electromagnetic dynamics. Therefore, and seen thus, the concept of “being in space” is less a matter of abrupt border and more a matter of progressive gradient. So where the space begins? As Rowland explainedthe answer depends on the point of view. If you ask where the atmosphere ends in a practical sense, probably about 400 kilometers, where air density ceases to have significant effect on objects. But from a more rigorous scientific perspective, that atmosphere does not disappear: it only dissipates and dilutes to barely measurable extremes, without disappearing at all. Therefore, “exterior space” is not an empty place, but a continuous environment full of particles, fields and subtle structures. In that sense, all space trips made by humans have elapsed within that extended wrapping that is still part of the planet that launched them. Image | Jasbond007 In Xataka | The last eeuu slap to Europe has sounded up to space: NASA has just left ESA with Artemis In Xataka | NASA is being very complicated to return to the moon. Your auditor no longer trusts that it can fly over for 2025

NASA will cancel the SLS rocket and look for a cheaper alternative to colonize the moon and Mars

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It was seen comingbut the impact is not less. The Trump administration has presented its budget proposal for fiscal year 2026. And in regards to NASA, it is a true earthquake. Goodbye to SLS. The huge and very expensive lunar rocket SLS of the NASA, whose development has led the Boeing spatial division for 14 years, will be removed after the Artemis III mission, scheduled for 2027. There will be no block 1B version, and therefore the ML-2 mobile launch tower (whose budget had been sentenced) will be presumably without using. Justification is economical. The own Budget document Openly criticizes the SLS, noting that it has a cost of 4,000 million dollars per launch and has exceeded its budget by 140%. Demolish figures that not only They have sentenced the heir to the legacy Apollo and space transforders, but to all NASA’s lunar architecture. Goodbye to Orion and Lunar Gateway. Designed to launch aboard the SLS, the Lockheed Martin’s space capsule now has the same expiration date: it will be removed after taking astronauts to the lunar orbit in the Artemis II and Artemis III missions. NASA will choose a more modern and affordable architecture for Artemis IV onwards. But the cuts do not stop here. The Lunar Gateway Space Station, a key international project in the now truncated plans of the Artemis program, is also canceled. This leaves NASA’s international partners in a very delicate position that participated in the station: the European Space Agency (ESA), Japan (Jaxa), Canada (CSA) and United Arab Emirates. ESA, which supplies the European Ship Module Orion and develops The I-Hab and Esprit modules of Lunar Gatewaysee how your investment and astronaut places (including a seat to travel for the first time to the lunar surface) are in the air. As Daniel Marín points out in Eurekathe “ugly” to the partners is considerable. Especially to Europe. The bet: commercial ships and Mars. According to a NASA statement, the objective of these cuts is “to accelerate human exploration to the moon and Mars with a tax portfolio.” In other words, the blank checks for usual partners of the space agency are over. The White House wants to “return to the moon before China and put an American on Mars.” The budget allocates more than 7,000 million dollars to lunar exploration, but focused on “next generation commercial systems, more profitable” to replace the SLS/ORion architecture. Starship/HLS of Spacex and New Glenn/Blue Moon of Blue Origin have, as is logical, many ballots. The budget also introduces an investment of 1,000 million dollars to start a program focused on Mars. Although the details are scarce, it is taken for granted that will also pivot the SLS to the Spacex Starship, following Elon Musk’s vision. However, it is a very long -term bet, with little chances of seeing fruits before the current presidential mandate ends. Less science, less flights to ISS. The budget is especially devastating for NASA’s Space Science Division, which suffers a cut of 2,265 million dollars. The Mars Sample Return mission is explicitly canceled to recover the Martian soil samples from Rover Perseverance, arguing that the same objective will be achieved with future manned missions. Emblematic projects such as the new Nancy Grace Roman (which is almost finished), the historic Hubble space telescope and even, According to Eric Berger of Ars TechnicaNASA’s participation in the Rosalind Franklin European mission. The International Space Station, although it will remain operational until 2030, is not fought. NASA will reduce the size of the American crew and on-board research (-508 million budget), decreasing “significantly” loading and crew flights, gradually leaving the low terrestrial orbit in the hands of commercial stations (and China). A cycle change. While the proposal has yet to go through Congress, the Republican majority makes it difficult to take great modifications, although programs such as SLS/ORION have important support within the giant lobby as Boeing. The big question is whether this bet will work to win the space race against China. The abrupt cancellation of the SLS could leave a vacuum that China would take the opportunity to establish a sustained lunar presence before commercial alternatives are ready. And it is that getting to the Moon is not easy for private companies, as the failed launches of the NASA Clps program have demonstrated. Needless to say how risky it is to bet on an accelerated arrival to Mars. Image | POT In Xataka | China is getting closer to overcoming NASA in its Martian mission. And just invited other countries to join

In 2028 they will build a nuclear power plant on the moon

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Yuri Ivanovich Borísov, former Vice Minister of Defense of Russia and currently at the head of Roscosmos, the Russian Space Agency, confirmed in March 2024 that China and the country led by Vladimir Putin planned to install a nuclear reactor on the surface of the moon. Russia’s long experience in the development of nuclear infrastructure is beyond doubt. And China, although it has later reached this industry, has scientific capacity and resources necessary to get airy. Its plan is to have the International Lunar Research Station (known as Ilrs for its acronym in English). Russia and China will operate it jointly, but for this installation to come to fruition it is essential to develop an energy source that guarantees a stable and sustained supply over time. This is the need that precisely aims to solve these two nations building A small nuclear power plant On the lunar surface. The starting gun will arrive in 2028 Pei Zhaoyu, the chief engineer of the Chang’e-8 mission, has confirmed This week how relevant Russia’s participation is in this project: “An important issue for the Ilrs is the energy supply. In this field Russia has a natural advantage because in regard to nuclear facilities, and especially sending them to space, leads the world even ahead of the US.” The Chang’e-8 mission will give the authentic departure gun to this very ambitious program. The International Lunar Research Station will be permanently inhabited from 2030 And it is that China plans to launch it in 2028 with a double purpose: initiate the preparation of the lunar base that will be permanently inhabited from 2030 and explore the construction of the nuclear reactor that will be responsible for the main delivery of energy to the station. As we have seen some lines up, both facilities They should be finished in 2035. Interestingly, the Chinese government has not yet officialized its approval of this plan, but the statements of Pei Zhaoyu corroborate that The collaboration of Russia and China is already underway. In any case, the country’s nuclear scientists led by Xi Jinping already have a preliminary design of their nuclear reactor ready. And it has some novel features. To elaborate it have been inspired by both NASA’s design and the old Soviet nuclear reactor Topaz-II. Your proposal will use Fuel bars Ring -shaped uranium dioxide; A double cooling system that will use liquid metal (NAK-78), and that, on paper, will be able to maintain the reactor core below 600 ºC; And finally, a moderator of Ititrio hydride neutrons that according to Chinese technicians is more efficient than conventional zirconium hydride moderators. Meanwhile the US is preparing His return to the moon through the NASA Artemis program. Its purpose is to place two astronauts on the lunar surface in 2027 and start from this milestone the construction of a sustainable lunar base. This installation will have large solar panels, but photovoltaic energy It is not enough to ensure supply Because on the moon the night endures for between fourteen and fifteen terrestrial days. For this reason The US is also developing a nuclear reactor known as FISION SURFACE POWER (FSP) that will be able to deliver 40 kW of power. Image | China National Space Administration More information | Interesting Engineering In Xataka | We are building nuclear spacecraft again. NASA believes we will need them

There was a time when we thought the birds migrated to the moon. Until an arrow released in Africa fell in Germany

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Spring is a time that I always liked. Not for the Horrible processionarybut for the return of the swallows And, above all, of the storks. After a long winter, They return home to nest. Imagine the surprise if, one day, one of those stork appears in your locality with the neck crossed by an 8 -centimeter arrow. Stop imagining because that happened in 1822 in a German city. And far from being an anecdote, it became a key event to unravel the mystery of why birds They disappeared in winter. The doubt. Now it is no mystery and it is something that we learn at school since childhood, but not so many centuries, people did not know why, good at first, the birds were in autumn and reappeared in spring. Those Migratory processes in which even the smallest of the birds rEcorren thousands of kilometers without stopping They were not understood, which forced the thinkers of the time to launch hypotheses and theories that, in the absence of evidence, since they were accepted without further ado. One of the answers was evident. And it could be none than … Alien birds. That is what thought Charles Morton, a Harvard academic who, in the seventeenth century, suggested that the reason why some birds disappeared in winter was because they migrated … to the moon. Most likely you have raised your eyebrow thinking something like “impossible, they could not be so illusory”, but you have to put into the skin of someone who had no way to check the phenomenon and it was still an answer to a real mystery. Because what they knew was that they disappeared for months, but not the place they were going to. And as they saw the moon from Massachusetts, but not Colombia, because the answer was clear. But don’t believe it was the only crazy theory of the time. Aristotle, already in the IV AC theorized about the possibility of being transformed into other species or even shuffled over his hibernation underwater. Morton rejected this idea because it was too fantasy (not like his, of course). The arrow. Morton even calculated that the trip to the moon had a month away and another back, sleeping much of the time and surviving thanks to his body fat. The truth is that, in the absence of better theories, it was not bad (despite my jocular tone, we talked about the seventeenth century and the media they had). However, little by little the idea that these European birds were going to other places during the winter. And the definitive test was brought by a stork. A good day of 1882, north of Germany, someone shot a stork, who fell down and with a capital surprise for those present: he had an 8 -centimeter arrow through his neck. The question was no longer how I could fly with such a breakdown, but where the arrow had come from. Brava PFEILSTORCH. Thus, they took the body of the stork to the University of Rostock, where the researchers examined the projectile and concluded that it was an arrow belonging to some group in the center of Africa. As it was impossible, or tremendously unlikely, that someone launched something like that on European soil, the response became evident: that stork had traveled more than 3,000 kilometers from the point in Africa in which winter had passed and where it was killed in Germany. Baptized as PFEILSTORCHIt was dissected and preserved in perfect condition in the Zoological Collection of the University of Rostock thanks to its undeniable importance in the world of science and ornithology: it was confirmation to the suspicions that, indeed, migratory birds or became anything else, nor slept four months underwater or went to the moon: they traveled to the warmest places during the European winter. Clue. After Pfeilstorch (which means “Flechy stork” or “storks crossed by an arrow”), they found more specimens In Europe with the same characteristics: arrows stuck somewhere in your body. This is not so uncommon in large birds, which show great resilience to wounds that do not compromise flight or its basic functions. Once they are injured, if not seriously, the wound stabilizes and the bird can continue with its life. With the inclusion Of the rings on the legs of the birds by the Danish HC Mortensen in 1899, the researchers systematized the study of specimens to verify that those who flew from Europe before winter, disappeared and then returned, were the same. Thus, we can say that this arrow launched in Africa that landed in Germany was the first bird monitoring system, a coincidence that allowed obtaining the first conclusive data on the migratory practices of the birds. Images | Thula Na In Xataka | Modern cities have become authentic “headlights.” For thousands of birds it is a problem

2024 YR4 is not going to kill us, but could collide with the moon

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The James Webb space telescope has been observing the smallest object of all its history. For a good reason. It is about Famous Asteroid 2024 YR4 That, at the beginning of the year, it appeared in NASA’s planetary defense systems and ESA as a potentially dangerous object. First measurement. The images taken with the near infrared chamber (NIRCAM) of the Webb Telescope show the light reflected by the asteroid. Those taken with the Middle Infrared Instrument (Miri) show their thermal light. The set of these data has allowed astronomers Determine that 2024 YR4 measures 60 meters in diameterapproximately the height of a 15 -story building. However, the asteroid shares thermal properties with larger bodies, perhaps due to the rapid speed at which it is rotating or the lack of fine sand (regolito) on its surface. It is probably formed by rocks the size of a fist or even larger. It will not collide with the earth. Webb’s first observations, which began on March 8, have also confirmed what they had been saying NASA and ESA: 2024 YR4 is not a threat to our planet. The probability of crossing with the Earth in December 2032 is now 0.0011%. All relief, taking into account that It became 3.2% when there were not enough data yet to close the range of uncertainty in the calculations of his career. The UN will no longer have to coordinate with space agencies to try to divert it or to evacuate cities at risk. I could impact the moon. On the other hand, the Webb has confirmed a 2% chance that 2024 YR4 clash with the moon. It is still a very small probability (seen otherwise, there is a 98% probability that it does not happen), but in this case astronomers are in favor of the impact. That the asteroid clashes with the moon would not put us in danger, and instead would allow astronomers to document the impact of a meteorite, their effects on the satellite and the lunar surface material that would be triggered. While natural asteroids that impact the moon are not so rare, they are difficult to predict even after being observed, when their mass and speed are unknown. 2024 YR4 would be a perfectly controlled experiment thanks to all the data that scientists have collected about it. In favor of the impact. “Part of our motivation to continue observing this asteroid in particular is to find out if that number (the probability of impact with the moon) will also be reduced to zero,” he told New Scientist Andrew Rivkin, one of the astronomers of the Johns Hopkins University who asked for hours of the Webb Space Telescope to observe 2024 YR4. “We cross our fingers so that there is an impact on the moon,” added Alan Fitzsimmons, of the Queen’s University of Belfast. “It would have no effect on Earth, but it would allow us to study for the first time the formation of a lunar crater by a known asteroid.” Images | NASA, ESA, CSA In Xataka | In 2011, a collector bought in Morocco a meteorite. It has turned out to be a direct test of thermal water on Mars

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