Even Rocket Launches Can't Escape COVID

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September 30, 2021

Dear Reader,   Pondering the universe and watching rocket launches often feels like a welcome reprieve from pandemic news on the ground, but it turns out that even these activities have been heavily affected by the global struggle against COVID-19. Irene Klotz reports that rocket launches have been backed up because they can’t get enough liquid oxygen for propellant—a result of hospitals worldwide requiring oxygen to treat coronavirus patients. The pandemic has also affected space activities through the related computer chip shortage, as well as other supply chain issues.  In other news this week, scientists mull untraditional ways to reach the Red Planet, astronomer Avi Loeb writes about rethinking our approach to finding ET, and blogger John Horgan unpacks why wishful thinking may be behind physics theories like the multiverse.

Clara Moskowitz @ClaraMoskowitz

Space Exploration Even Rocket Launches Can't Escape COVID Pandemic-spawned supply-chain disruptions are delaying launches and development of satellites, lunar rovers and interplanetary missions By Irene Klotz

Space Exploration Mars on the Cheap: Scientists Are Working to Revolutionize Access to the Red Planet The concepts include souped-up Mars helicopters and inexpensive orbiters and landers By Leonard David,SPACE.com

Consciousness Death, Physics and Wishful Thinking Fear of mortality might underlie physicists’ fondness for the anthropic principle, multiverses, superdeterminism and other shaky ideas By John Horgan

Sponsor Content Provided by Oxford University Press Colliding Worlds: How Cosmic Encounters Shaped Planets and Life Simone Marchi presents the emerging story of how cosmic collisions shaped both the solar system and our own planet, from the creation of the Moon to influencing the evolution of life on Earth.

Extraterrestrial Life How to Search for Life as We Don't Know It Much of astrobiology is focused on looking for organisms with chemistry similar to ours—but there could well be other kinds By Avi Loeb

Computing An Unsung Female Pioneer of Computer Simulation A mid-20th-century computer experiment created a new field of science—and programmer Mary Tsingou Menzel is finally being given credit for her role in making it happen By Virginia Grant

Space Exploration The Power of the Headline By Andrea Gawrylewski

Engineering Winged Microchips Glide like Tree Seeds The tiny sensors could gather and transmit environmental data as they drift through the air By Nikk Ogasa

FROM THE STORE Scientific American Space & Physics, Volume 4, Issue 5

QUOTE OF THE DAY "When trying to imagine something we've never seen, we often default to something we have seen. For that reason, in our search for extraterrestrial life we are usually looking for life as we know it. But is there a path for expanding our imagination to life as we don't know it." Avi Loeb, astronomer

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FROM THE ARCHIVE The Cosmological Constant Is Physics' Most Embarrassing Problem Physicists have new ideas about why the energy of empty space is so much weaker than it is predicted to be By Clara Moskowitz | February 2021

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