The First Rocket Launch from Mars Will Start in Midair

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March 10, 2022

Dear Reader, This week, we're looking at how to launch a rocket from Mars—something that experts at NASA and the European Space Agency are feverishly studying in prep for next decade's plans to return Red Planet samples to Earth. The preferred approach, it turns out, involves tossing the rocket into the air before igniting its engines. Elsewhere, we have stories about quantum mechanics versus free will, revolutionary women in mathematics and a new light-based way of making time crystals. Plus updates on the nuclear dangers of Russia's war in Ukraine. Until next time, stay safe!

Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Space & Physics @LeeBillings

Space Exploration The First Rocket Launch from Mars Will Start in Midair NASA's Mars Ascent Vehicle will attempt a wildly unconventional liftoff to bring Red Planet samples back to Earth By Jonathan O'Callaghan

Quantum Physics Time Crystals Made of Light Could Soon Escape the Lab A new, more robust approach to creating these bizarre constructs brings them one step closer to practical applications By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

Quantum Physics Does Quantum Mechanics Rule Out Free Will? Superdeterminism, a radical quantum hypothesis, says our "choices" are illusory By John Horgan

Mathematics 3 Revolutionary Women of Mathematics Everyone knows that history's great mathematicians were all men—but everybody is wrong By Avery Carr

Energy The Risks of Russian Attacks near Ukraine's Nuclear Power Plants Commercial plants have built-in safety systems but aren't designed with warfare in mind By Andrea Thompson

Pollution Military Action in Chernobyl Could Be Dangerous for People and the Environment Vehicles can kick up radioactive dust, and fighting risks igniting a wildfire in the exclusion zone By Timothy A. Mousseau,The Conversation US

Defense 'Limited' Tactical Nuclear Weapons Would Be Catastrophic Russia's invasion of Ukraine shows the limits of nuclear deterrence By Nina Tannenwald

FROM THE STORE Mars: A New Era of Exploration Was there ever life on Mars? Could life exist there? The latest of nearly 50 missions, NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover is the opening shot of an ambitious plan to find answers. In this eBook, we look at the Red Planet: what we've learned from past rovers, the challenges of space travel and searching for life, proposals for how to make Mars livable and how Perseverance could change everything we know for decades to come.

QUOTE OF THE DAY "We want to make sure we have a robust design so that, even on the worst possible day on Mars, we know the system is still going to work." Chris Chatellier, lead engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the Mars Ascent Vehicle

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FROM THE ARCHIVE The Exquisite Precision of Time Crystals Exotic new states of matter contain patterns that repeat like clockwork By Frank Wilczek | November 2019

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