space

NASA puts astronauts from the International Space Station on evacuation alert

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It could have been just another day of work aboard the International Space Station, but the situation has taken a delicate turn. NASA has put in evacuation alert to several astronauts after an air leak in the Russian part of the orbital laboratory worsened, prompting the agency to order them to take precautionary shelter in a docked spacecraft. The order came from NASA mission control at 9:04 a.m., East Coast time of the United States (3:04 p.m. Spanish peninsular time). Several crew members were instructed to enter the ship SpaceX Crew Dragon and put on their corresponding space suits in case the situation led to an emergency evacuation. There are currently seven crew members on the ISS, but the preventive measure does not affect all of them. Bethany Stevens, of the NASA communications team, explains that The order reaches Americans Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway and Chris Williams, from NASA; to the French Sophie Adenot, from the European Space Agency, and to the Russian Andrey Fedyaev, from Roscosmos. The leak is located in a very specific area of ​​the Russian segment: the Zvezda service module transfer tunnel, known as PrK. According to Stevens, that part of the station has been showing cracks and leaks for some time, an issue that NASA has closely monitored and that Roscosmos has tried to contain until now with operational measures and partial repairs. In development. Images | POT In Xataka | Western scientists have been debating the origin of Kamo’oalewa for years. China went looking for him

Space data centers seem crazy. They make a lot more sense than it seems

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“Space, the final frontier” became a classic pop culture phrase thanks to the series Star Trek. Now there are those who complete it with “… data centers”, because that is what Elon Musk certainly wants to achieve, and he has a plan to achieve it. At first glance it seems crazybut it turns out that the idea is not at all crazy. Free cooling, nothing. As explained in a very deep report in Semianalysismany analysts support the idea by defending erroneous premises. The space, for example, does not offer free cooling. Since there is no atmosphere, heat is not dissipated by convection, and huge and expensive thermal radiators are necessary. Solar energy is also interrupted in low orbits (LEO), so satellites must be placed in sun-synchronous orbits, a resource that is beginning to become saturated. The current cost does not compensate. The analysis carried out in this study for the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for a currently standard 30.5 kW cluster (with two servers with 16 Nvidia B300 GPUs) does not add up. Deploy this infrastructure In space it is necessary to invest 4.1 million dollars, when doing the same on Earth costs 1.4 million dollars. Space data centers are currently 260% more expensive than on the planet’s surface. Bad business. Space transportation makes everything more expensive. He biggest problem What affects these costs is the costs of transporting the material to space. In that proposed example, of the $3.1 million total cost of space infrastructure, $1.6 million is due to launch. But there is also the problem of the useful life of this data center: on Earth these facilities pay for themselves in 15 years, but in space wear and radiation in orbit reduce the operational life of the particular satellite to only five years, which multiplies those capital expenses dedicated to the project almost by 20. The first bottleneck is the chips. Even solving these problems, the main obstacle is simply semiconductor manufacturing capacity. The demand for TSMC’s N3 wafers and the supply of HBM memories is much higher than the supply even without this idea of ​​​​space data centers. That would add even more demand to an absolutely saturated system. But there is also the (lack of) energy. The reason why Musk wants to promote this idea as soon as possible is that obtaining power supply for terrestrial data centers is increasingly complicated. Thus, getting a connection to the electrical grid in Virgnia (USA) already takes seven years. Companies are creating their own power generation plants to solve this problem. Even so, according to the study, it will become increasingly more expensive to access this supply: they estimate that the cost of “terrestrial energy” will be above 20 million dollars per MW when this decade ends. That’s why Terafab. To solve this first bottleneck, Elon Musk has launched its colossal Terafab project in Austin. It is a huge chip manufacturing factory that will need 10 GW of electrical power to produce one million semiconductor wafers each month. The plan takes into account that 80% of the chips produced are destined precisely for space data centers. Starship changes the equation. But Starship stands in front of all these problems. SpaceX hopes to be able to reduce launch costs significantly in the coming years, going from the current $1,400-1,800 per kilo for the Falcon 9 to just $250 per kg for the Starship. This, together with the improvement in radiator and solar panel technology, will reduce the cost gap with terrestrial infrastructure. Now it is 260% more expensive, but at the beginning of the next decade it will be only 30% more expensive and will achieve economic parity by 2040. But. The accounts could therefore come out in the medium term, but it is necessary to take into account other factors as the so-called long-term computing cost. On Earth, between 3% and 6% of GPUs in data centers fail each year and require manual replacement by a technician. In space that option disappears, so it is necessary to oversize the satellites with 20% chips to provide redundancy and thus absorb potential radiation failures. In Xataka | Aragón is quietly becoming a data center “powerhouse” – now it has taken a crucial step

A scientist wants to build a space shield against solar storms. Your secret weapon: lithium and barium

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Predict the arrival of very strong solar storms It is important for many reasons. Not only to keep an eye out and not get lost the most beautiful auroras. Also because these could affect satellites or terrestrial communications systems, so it is important to take precautions. The problem is that, no matter how much prevention methods have improved, we cannot do much more than be prepared for what is coming. Today there are no ways to stop these solar storms. However, a scientist from Boston University has announced that it is working on a method to strengthen the Earth’s natural shield against this type of phenomena. A stronger shield. The scientist in question is called Brian Walsh and is working in what he himself has called a wall against solar storms. Its objective is to send six ships to strategic points in a geostationary orbit, so that they release chemical elements capable of strengthening the magnetic field. These should be elements such as lithium or barium, since they are easily converted into positively charged ions when solar ultraviolet radiation hits them. At that point, the cargo released by the ships is converted to plasma. Precisely, what reaches Earth with solar storms is also plasma. However, there is a big difference. The one that comes from the sun consists of charged particles that move at very high speed, with great energy. On the other hand, what would be released into the magnetosphere would be cold, static plasma, which acts as a kind of wall, preventing this high-speed plasma from passing through the magnetosphere. A good shield when the activity is not too intense. The Earth has a great shield against solar storms. Generally, our magnetic field prevents these charged particles from the Sun from crossing into our atmosphere. This is because the magnetic field generally acts as a kind of rail on which the plasma circulates. The electrically charged particles are retained on these rails, but do not cross to the other side. They can only reach the atmosphere at the poles, where the inclination of the magnetic field lines acts as a kind of funnel. Even so, the charged particles that come from the surface of the Sun may already arrive somewhat weakened there. They interact with the gases in the atmosphere, exciting the atoms and causing the release of the light that makes up the auroras. But there are usually not very detrimental effects on communications. On the other hand, if the solar storm is very intense, the particles may be able to deform the rails of the magnetic field, filtering at the poles, but also in other places in the magnetosphere. Historical consequences. The consequences of these types of events have been seen numerous times throughout history. The most dramatic case was possibly that of Carrington eventwhich took place in 1859. It is considered the most powerful solar storm that has been recorded in history with consequences on Earth. Because of this large release of plasma from the Sun, auroras were seen in places as far from the poles as Hawaii and Cuba, but there were also less noticeable consequences, such as the burning of telegraph lines in many parts of the world. Another very notorious and dangerous case took place during the Vietnam War, in 1972, when a solar storm caused the accidental detonation of several magnetic underwater mines. And much more recent is the Gannon Storm, which in 2024 affected the GPS systems of planting tractors in several locations in the United Statescausing losses of 500 million dollars among farmers. But the situation could be worse. It is estimated that a major storm like Carrington’s could occur once a century. There hasn’t been one this big since then, so it could happen in the not too distant future. And today we depend much more on technologies than then. It is estimated that the losses could be more than 2 billion dollars. A natural process. This artificial wall that Walsh wants to create is inspired by a process that occurs naturally. And the thing is that, from time to time, small fragments of the Earth’s atmosphere break off and join the magnetic field, reinforcing it before the arrival of charged particles from the Sun. Lithium and barium would do something similar, artificially. Simulations only: For now, Brian Walsh has only made simulations of his invention, he has not tested it in space by any means. He himself recognizes that it is a complex process, so it must be done perfectly so that it causes more benefits than problems. Releasing ionizable elements at random could be harmful if not done in the right place. In addition, ways must be found to put ships in the correct place in their orbit before the storm arrives, so it is important to speed up the process while improving prediction methods. Handicaps. Although it may seem like a lot of mass is required to carry out this procedure, Walsh insists that the payload needs fall within current launch capabilities. However, he recognizes that it is an expensive process. Therefore, it would be necessary to look for ways to optimize it so that the necessary investment is not so large. For example, you want to work on pulsed release so that ionizable material is not wasted. In short, this method of controlling space weather is not at all something that will be used imminently, but it is clear that in the future we will need something like this. If not this method, another, but we greatly need something that protects us from the harshest elements of the Sun. Image | NASA | Walsh et al. In Xataka | A sunspot 17 times larger than Earth caused red auroras across half the world. It is a very rare event

We will run out of space on dry land one day. So Spain is already putting solar panels into the sea

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Filling the field with solar panels has a physical limit. It is very likely that, while reading this, you have heard the debate that in our landscapes there are beginning to be more panels than crops. Faced with this growing land saturation, the alternative is already floating in the water: The San Enrique de Vigo Shipyard has just launched the first floating marine solar platform with purely Spanish technology. Named “Paiporta”—a tribute to the victims of the deadly DANA in Valencia in October 2024—this pioneering modular structure marks an industrial milestone. Its destiny is not to stay in the Galician estuary, but to be towed in the coming weeks to the Valencian coast to undergo its final test: validate its operability and generate electricity in the open sea. The sea as a technological ally. The saline and hostile environment of the sea offers conditions that multiply the efficiency of the panels. Traditional solar panels lose efficiency when they reach high temperatures. However, in these floating installations, seawater acts as a powerful natural coolant. By heating up less, the panels perform more and are capable of producing more electricity than their twins installed on the ground or on roofs. Added to this cooling effect is an intelligent design decision. Those responsible for the project They detail that the panels installed on the platform they use bifacial technology. This means that the installation not only absorbs direct solar radiation falling from the sky, but is also capable of capturing and generating energy from light bouncing off the sea surface. In the near future, they are expected to operate jointly with offshore wind farms (offshore), sharing evacuation infrastructure and maximizing the amount of clean energy that can be extracted from the same ocean coordinate. Mass-produced photovoltaic catamarans. The “how” is as important as the “what.” PV-bos (PhotoVoltaic-BlueNewables Offshore Solutions) technology has not been conceived to create unique and artisanal prototypes, but to revolutionize the assembly line. The project – called Renovar – pursues the development of platforms manufactured through industrialized and modular processes, directly inspired by mass manufacturing models. The objective is clear: reduce costs, cut production times and make photovoltaics offshore be competitive at a global level. To achieve this, the technological solution is based on an innovative catamaran-type design, specifically optimized to withstand harsh ocean conditions. This format allows the plates to be raised to a safe height above sea level, which not only improves energy performance, but also greatly facilitates maintenance work. The overall project contemplates a floating system of one megawatt of total power, divided into two PV-bos units of five hundred kilowatts each. Bringing this steel and silicon giant to the water was no easy task. From BlueNewables They explain that the launching It required a complex tandem lifting maneuver, using the emblematic and colossal cranes of the Vigo shipyard to place the structure with millimeter precision on the estuary. The industrial muscle. Behind this technological advance there is a powerful business and institutional alliance. The initiative combines the vast experience in marine structures of Astilleros San Enrique (belonging to the Meridional Group), the technological specialization of the Canarian engineering BlueNewables, and the technical collaboration of Soermar (Society for the Study of Maritime Resources). In addition, the project has the strong financial support of the Ministry of Industry and Tourism, and the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE) through its RENMARINAS program. On the other hand, it is a breath of fresh air and an opportunity for reinvention for the naval industry. José Luis Torres, general director of the San Enrique Shipyard, emphasizes that this success demonstrates the capacity of the traditional Spanish naval sector to lead cutting-edge developments. Far from remaining anchored in the construction of conventional ships, shipyards demonstrate that they can compete at the highest international level in the new markets opened by the energy transition. Next station: open sea. With the “Paiporta” now afloat, the Spanish industry sends a clear message to the world. In the words of Bernardino Couñagoco-founder and CEO of BlueNewables, this launch places his company “among the world leaders in the marine floating solar sector” and clearly demonstrates the enormous “industrial and technological capabilities that exist in Galicia and Spain to lead innovative energy solutions at an international level.” But the work is not finished. This successful maneuver in Vigo is just a decisive step. Now, the platform leaves behind the safety of the manufacturing phase in the shipyard to head towards the final stages: commissioning, connection and monitoring. When the “Paiporta” reaches the coasts of Valencia, it will have to demonstrate that the engineers’ mathematics can withstand the onslaught of waves and salt. The limit of the earth has already been surpassed; Now it’s time to conquer the horizon. Image | Bluenewables Xataka | Many towns oppose wind farms. In Euskadi they want to solve it the hard way: giving them 7% of their profits

the holy grail of space propulsion is closer thanks to plasma

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For many years, the aerospace industry has worked on the development of rockets powered by solid fuels. These have many advantages, such as simplicity, long life and high thrust-to-weight ratio. However, they have a huge drawback. Once these fuels start burning, they continue to do so until they are spent. There is no way to stop and restart the reaction, as is normally done in space maneuvers. Despite everything, a group of scientists from the Aerospace Corporation, the University of Southern California and the Naval Postgraduate School has been working in the development of new generation solid fuels, in which there are solutions for each of these drawbacks. At the moment, they only have a proof of concept in the laboratory, but that first experimental development has given very good results. The problem. Solid fuels are blocks of solid propellant that already include within them the oxidizing substance that, with the necessary spark, starts the combustion reaction. The problem with these fuels is that, once they start burning, there is nothing to stop them and restart them. It would be useful to use electricity to dictate when combustion starts and stops, but until now that has not been possible. An ingredient and a mechanism. These scientists have developed their solid fuel with the help of an ionic liquid polymer. Although this is manipulated to form part of a solid matrix, it retains the electrical conductivity properties of the molten salts with which it was manufactured. On the other hand, this new solid fuel undergoes a process known as nanosecond pulsed plasma discharge (NPPD). In this process, very short, very high voltage pulses are generated, lasting less than 100 nanoseconds, giving rise to an ionization process in which we obtain plasma as a product. Then what? NPPD plasma is generated in the gas of the combustion zone. During ionization, electrons and free radicals are generated that, thanks to the ionic conductivity of the propellant, can interact with the flame front and control combustion. This can be stopped or reactivated by activating or interrupting the electrical pulses. Other advantages. Other great advantages of these fuels is that, due to their compact shape, they can be integrated into all types of space platforms, from CubeSats even large ships. The most benefited. Although many agencies and companies could jump on the solid fuel bandwagon if they become viable, the small ones will benefit the most. satellite operatorssince they normally cannot afford a complex liquid propellant-based upper stage in their rockets. Although they are simpler, they also need to maneuver, turning combustion on or off in steps such as orbit insertion. Solid fuel engines are simpler and can be cheaper. If the problems they already have are solved, they will become a real revolution for big and small fish. Image | 中央通訊社 In Xataka | 2023 was the year with the most space launches in history. The vast majority of SpaceX and China

We’ve spent years unraveling a signal from space that shouldn’t exist. And finally we have a “Rosetta stone” to decipher it

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It was the year 2018 when a team of Australian scientists detected a strange radio signal in the plane of the Milky Way. The radio pulse was too slow for any known astronomical object. It seemed more like some kind of anomaly or error in the telescopes than a new discovery. However, in 2025 another similar signal was located. And then another and another. Currently, there are at least 12 of these signals recorded, which have been named long-period radio transients (LPTs). Each of them includes a new feature that makes it impossible to find a common thread. Or at least it had been that way until now, since a new group of Australian researchers has located a sign that brings together several of the pieces of the puzzle. It has been so useful that it has been colloquially dubbed a space Rosetta stone. All the pieces together. The signal located in 2018 (although it was published in 2022) occurred every 18.18 minutes. With this periodicity, a star in the Milky Way increased its brightness for 30-60 seconds, and then decreased it again. Later a similar phenomenon was located, in which it was possible to see further. A binary system consisting of a white dwarf and a red dwarf was identified. The interaction between the two produced the emission of radio waves. However, when another LPT was detected, the emissions were not radio waves, but X-rays. How was a single phenomenon going to be defined if each one was different from the previous one? The key, finally, has been another LPT, initially located by the ASKAP telescope, of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). With it, and with the collaboration of other telescopes, a binary system composed of a white dwarf and a red dwarf has been identified, whose interaction gives rise to a periodic change in brightness, accompanied by the emission of radio waves and X-rays. All in one. With all the pieces, it has now been possible to reconstruct the event. Four telescopes to reconstruct history. The new LPT has been named ASKAP J1745-5051. It is not possible to know exactly how far away it is, although estimates place it between 1,300 and 30,000 light years away. Observations made with the ASKAP radio telescope made it possible to locate a periodic emission of radio waves every 81 minutes, which corresponded to a possible LPT. In order to check if the rest of the conditions that had been observed individually were met, it was observed with three other telescopes. On the one hand, space telescopes Swift and Einstein Probewith which X-ray emissions were detected. On the other hand, with the Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope (SOAR). With this, a binary system composed of a white dwarf and a red dwarf that orbit each other with a period of 81 minutes was identified. Everything fits. The full story. The conclusion when putting all the pieces together is the following. On each orbit, the white dwarf, which has a large mass concentrated in very little space, gravitationally attracts the red dwarf and extracts material from it. This is channeled by the magnetic field of the white dwarf itself until it reaches its surface, where it collides, producing a temperature increase of millions of degrees Celsius. Furthermore, this very violent interaction causes the release of energy in the form of X-rays. On the other hand, the gas accelerated by the colliding magnetic fields of both stars is what appears to produce the radio signals. A Rosetta Stone. The principal investigator of this new study It’s called Kovi Rose. We might think that this has had to do with the fact that the discovery is referred to as a space Rosetta stone. And maybe it has had a little influence, but the reality is that there are more reasons. The original Rosetta stone It was a fragment of Egyptian rock in which there was a text written in three different languages: ancient Greek, hieroglyphics and demotic writing. Because archaeologists of the time knew how to speak Greek, they were able to use it as a basis for understanding hieroglyphs. One language allowed them to reconstruct another. In this case, the new discovery is also in three languages: radio waves, detected by ASKAP, X-rays, with which Swift and Einstein Probe work, and visible light from SOAR. Three languages, three pieces that, when read together, can help to understand the whole much better. With this Rosetta stone, the authors of the study hope to be able to unravel many of these mysterious signals from the Universe. Image | Hans Hillewaert (Wikimedia Commons)/Magnific In Xataka | We believed that the pyramids of Giza did not hide any more secrets. we believed wrong

the brutal explosion of 12 megatons that in 1908 put us in front of the horrors of space

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On June 30, 1908, an H-bomb-sized explosion destroyed millions of trees for dozens of miles around. This is how Tunguska, a remote Siberian region, entered the history books. Colossal dimensions. The explosion was so wild that there was talk of antimatter in 1965 or even a tiny black hole in 1973. But those are not by far the most “interesting” explanations. There has been talk of UFOs crashing by accident or, attention, of a proof of concept of the famous ““death ray” by Nikola Tesla. However, the reality is much more prosaic and, today, scientists debate whether it was a small asteroid or the fragment of a comet. Because neither in 1921 (when the first expedition was sent to the place), nor in any of the subsequent expeditions, has anything resembling a crater been found. what happened. How then do we know that something happened in Tunguska that June morning? Well, because the whole world found out: seismographs throughout Asia and all of Europe captured the explosion; The Greenwich Observatory captured variations in atmospheric pressure due to the amount of air put into circulation; and, to top it all off, the suspended dust made the night in northern Eurasia so bright that it seemed like day. 12 megatons. That is to say, something happened in those uninhabited lands of the Irkutsk Oblast, there is no doubt about that. The most accepted theory is that this small meteorite caused a thermonuclear explosion at about 8 kilometers in altitude and with a power of 12 megatons. Everything after was death and destruction. Could it be repeated? The short answer is yes. In fact events like of the Eastern Mediterranean, Vitim’s or even that of Chelyabinsk show that it is possible to repeat itself. The long answer is that it is unlikely. Not only because these types of events are already something quite rarebut because (as in all these cases) when they occur, they usually occur in depopulated areas. It’s not a coincidence. The vast majority of the Earth’s surface is unpopulated. However, we must not let our guard down. years ago, the people of Microsiervos rescued a text of Arthur C. Clarke where I imagined what would happen if Tunguska happened in the heart of Europe: At 9:46 (Greenwich Mean Time) on the morning of September 11, in the exceptionally beautiful summer of the year 2077, most of the inhabitants of Europe saw a dazzling fiery ball appear in the eastern sky. In a matter of seconds it became brighter than the Sun and as it moved across the sky—at first in complete silence—it left behind an undulating column of dust and smoke. At some point over Austria it began to disintegrate, producing a series of explosions, so violent that more than a million people were left with their hearing damaged forever. They were the lucky ones. Moving at fifty kilometers per second, a million tons of rock and metal fell onto the plains of northern Italy and destroyed the work of centuries in a flash of seconds. The cities of Padua and Verona were swept from the face of the Earth; and the last glories of Venice sank forever into the sea when the waters of the Adriatic thundered towards land after that devastating blow from heaven. The cultural impact. In the story, 600,000 people died, and the material damage was estimated at more than a trillion dollars.. Date with Rama It was published in 1973 and is, evidently, pure fiction. However, the story is suggestive: the capacity of outer space to compromise life on this planet is as certain as the dinosaurs were, 66 million years ago. That is why every year, on June 30, the Asteroid Day with the intention of raising awareness about this problem and discussing the possibilities we have to protect the Earth. Since this year, in addition, is recognized by the UN. Space is a wonderful place, but, like the nightis also dark and harbors horrors. It doesn’t hurt to remember it, at least once a year. In Xataka | Mysterious lights have been appearing in a remote valley in Norway since 1811. And we still don’t know what they are In Xataka | In 2011, something strange happened inside the Earth. We’ve been investigating it for years and we still don’t know what it was.

The most ambitious US military project in space has a new owner: SpaceX

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The United States Government has hired SpaceX to act as the backbone of its military telecommunications system. After several delays of an initial system, based on the participation of multiple companies and entities, it has now been decided to bet all data transport on Elon Musk’s request. Starshield satellites. Although the technical details have not been announced at the moment, this agreement between the Pentagon and SpaceX is possibly based mainly on the contracting of Starshield services, satellites with technology similar to that of Starlink, but adapted to military applications. The space company It already has hundreds of these satellites in low Earth orbit, some of them involved in actions such as attacks on Iran. A system made up of layers. The hiring of SpaceX, in which 2.29 billion dollars have been invested, is aimed at the development of the backbone. That is, the central layer of the data transport system used by the United States for military purposes. This system consists of more layers, in which more companies will intervene, which will be in charge, for example, of tracking. However, everything revolves around the axis constituted by Elon Musk’s satellites. The functions. With all these contracts, the United States intends to facilitate the tactical communications of the US Army thanks to access to broadband communication services worldwide. In addition, the aim is to work on the detection and tracking of missile launches and, in turn, connect sensors and shooters. In short, SpaceX must provide the backbone of a system composed of sensors that detect possible threats and a network that communicates these threats as quickly as possible to anti-missile systems and shooters so that they act accordingly. Other companies. While SpaceX will focus on data transportation and the cohesion of all actors involved in the United States military plan, other companies will be in charge of tracking. In recent years, the Space Development Agency hired for it to L3Harris Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Rocket Lab, all companies that have already begun developing satellites for this purpose. On the other hand, the last three, together with York Space Systems, they had been hired also for transportation purposes, similar to those that have finally been entrusted to SpaceX. At the moment it does not seem that the development of its own satellites has been cancelled, but the change in strategy, much more focused on SpaceX, is clear. Concerned legislators. Despite the intervention of other companies, legislators have expressed concern about the decision to put all the transportation and telecommunications eggs in Elon Musk’s basket. Given this situation, the spokesperson for the United States Space Force has assured who are already looking for a second contractor to build Space Data Network satellites. At the moment it is only SpaceX’s task, but they intend to increase competition. SpaceX’s duties. As they point out from Ars TechnicaElon Musk’s company is obliged to deliver a “prototype of fully operational capacity” for its telecommunications system before the end of 2027. With this, SpaceX diversifies its work, entering fully into the military field. Is this surprising? The truth is, not too much. Now all that remains is to see how it swims in these waters in which He had already made his first dives. Image | US Space Force photo by Gwendolyn Kurzen/Diego González (Unsplash) In Xataka | Once again, Ukraine has opened a missile launched by Russia. Once again, surprising manufacturers have been found

Tomorrow the spin-off of one of the best space uchronias of recent years arrives, and it comes with an unexpected twist

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On May 29 Apple TV+ does two things at the same time: closes the fifth season of ‘For All Mankind’ and premieres its spin-off, ‘city ​​of stars‘, from its own creators. The original series has been telling the alternative space race from Houston for seven years, and the new project contemplates it from Moscow, within the Soviet space program that in this uchronic universe reached the Moon first. ‘For All Mankind’ started in 2019 with a simple premise: what would have happened if the Soviets had put a man on the Moon before the Americans? The series This parallel vision has been escalating until it lands on Mars and extends beyond, accumulating five installments and a sixth (already confirmed as the final one) that will close the complete narrative arc. ‘Star City’ is a prequel that returns to the seventies, to the founding moment of that alternative universe, but with the perspective reversed. Where ‘For All Humanity’ assumed the Soviet triumph as a starting point and contemplated it from the United States, the spin-off is installed within the USSR space program: laboratories, cosmonaut barracks, corridors guarded by the KGB… An excellent setting for a proposal maintained by the team from the last seasons of its predecessor, among which stands out Ronald D. Moore, screenwriter remembered for ‘Galactica’, ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ and ‘Deep Space Nine’. The cast is led by Rhys Ifans in a role inspired by the Soviet engineer Sergei Korolev (who died in 1966 but survived in this universe and took the space program to unknown heights). And the tone of this ‘City of Stars’ clearly diverges from that of its mother series: if in ‘For All Mankind’ we had a humanist drama of space adventure, here we go to the espionage thriller also inspired by the real Soviet project, where ships less reliable than those of the Americans, deaths hidden from the outside and the presence of the KGB in mission control itself met. In Xataka | Today on Prime Video, a series with a superb Nicolas Cage that is already said to be Marvel’s best proposal in years

NASA has looked at Torrevieja from space and has seen a huge mass of pink water essential to finding life on Mars

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From space everything looks different. In fact, distance allows us to distinguish strange shapes, such as the Great Dam of Zimbabwe or the eye of the saharabut also colors that go more unnoticed at ground level. Thus, on June 7, 2021, an Expedition 65 astronaut aboard the International Space Station pointed his camera toward the southeast of Spain and took a photograph that looks like a watercolor: Mediterranean blue, a muted green and an intense pink reminiscent of quartz. The color palette is finished off by the white reflection of the sun. The three colors correspond to bodies of water a few kilometers from each other, in Alicante: the Mediterranean, and the saline lagoons of La Mata and Torrevieja. What seems like an aesthetic coincidence is actually chemistry visible from orbit. Each tone reveals something: the degree of salinity, which microorganisms dominate the water, and in what fragile balance they coexist. The lagoons of La Mata and Torrevieja. The Torrevieja lagoon has been used as a salt mine since the 13th century and today are the largest salt producer in Europe, with an average of 650,000 tons per year, a figure that varies depending on solar radiation, wind and precipitation. It does not function as a natural lagoon, but as an industrial system where water moves according to production needs. The La Mata lagoon acts as a prior concentration chamber: receive sea ​​water through artificial channels and runoff from intermittent streams of the Sierra de San Miguel de Salinas. From there, the water is pumped to the Torrevieja salt mine, where brine from the Pinoso salt diapir through a 55 kilometer pipeline. The result is that the concentration of salt in the Torrevieja lagoon can overcome 260 grams of salt per liter, much more than the 38.5 g/liter Mediterranean that bathes its coast. Two adjacent lagoons but with completely different chemical worlds. Why do they have such different colors?. Each time water of different composition is pumped to produce salt, the chemistry of the system is altered, which determines What organisms can live and in what quantity. Two lagoons a kilometer apart, two different microbial communities and two opposite colors. The pink color of the Torrevieja lagoon is produced by microorganisms. More specifically, in conditions of high salinity and intense solar radiation, the microalgae Dunaliella salina accumulates β-carotene as protection against light. The halophilic archaea that share the lake reinforce that tone: they have red pigments distributed throughout their cell membrane, which makes them visually more decisive in the final color of the water. In La Mata, the lower concentration of salt favors a different microbiota where chlorophyll predominates over carotenoids: that explains the green color. Context. The salinity gradient between both lagoons goes beyond chemistry: it is what allows a different and exceptional biodiversity. The wetland houses up to 400 taxaten species of threatened birds and one of the most important Audouin’s gull breeding colonies in the Mediterranean. Without that difference in salinity, many of those ecological niches would disappear. The NASA image is also more than a photograph: it portrays the fragile balance between industry, microbiology and conservation that climate change is already testing as temperatures rise and salinity fluctuations alter the living conditions of Dunaliella salinaor what is the same, that that striking pink color seen from space could disappear. Why is it important. Dunaliella salina is the organism that supports the base of the food chain in hypersaline lakes around the world. Since 1966 it has been grown commercially to produce β-carotene, which has applications in pharmacology and cosmetics. But it is also an organism that NASA has on the radar because it constitutes a form of life in extreme conditions. It should be remembered that the data from the Perseverance rover indicates that there were hypersaline waters in the Jezero crater of Mars. Studying life in these types of lakes helps understand the potential in these old Martian lakes. What makes Torrevieja pink is the best laboratory we have to know what to look for on another planet. In Xataka | 60 years ago, NASA took a look at the Sahara from space and found a very strange “perfect eye” In Xataka | Europe has been watching Colombia for a decade from space and what it has seen is a tragedy: the death of a glacier Cover | POT

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