Artemis I Launches U.S.'s Long-Awaited Return to the Moon

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November 17, 2022

Dear Reader, This week, we're over the Moon. Well, not quite yet, but soon. After multiple previous failed attempts, early Wednesday morning NASA's Artemis I mission finally lifted off for an uncrewed 26-day voyage to lunar orbit and back. Composed of the mammoth Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew module, the mission is a test run for future crewed missions using the same architecture, and is the most significant step so far in the space agency's long-awaited return of astronauts to the lunar surface. Our lead story has all the details. Elsewhere this week, we have stories about the deeper realities behind gorgeous space-telescope images, newfound artifacts from the space shuttle Challenger on the ocean floor, a potential prime-number breakthough, and more. Enjoy!

Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Space & Physics @LeeBillings

Space Exploration Artemis I Launches U.S.'s Long-Awaited Return to the Moon The first flight test of the world's most powerful rocket will send an uncrewed spacecraft to lunar orbit and back By Nadia Drake

Space Exploration Are the James Webb Space Telescope's Pictures 'Real'? How the JWST's cosmic images are made By Jen Christiansen,Clara Moskowitz

Astronomy Invisible Numbers Are the Most Beautiful Part of Every 'Space' Image We are drawn to breathtaking images of the heavens, but there is beauty in the numbers those images hold By Fabio Pacucci

Sponsor Content Provided by Templeton World Charity Foundation Program Announced! 50+ Speakers at the Human Flourishing Conference Hear from leading researchers and policymakers on what the science reveals about how humans can flourish and how we can apply it to improve lives at the upcoming conference on Nov. 29 & 30.Preview the schedule and register to attend virtually at humanflourishing.org.

Space Exploration Filmmakers Find Section of Destroyed Space Shuttle Challenger on Ocean Floor Divers working on a television documentary were searching for a downed World War II aircraft when they instead discovered the NASA artifact By Robert Z. Pearlman,SPACE.com

Diversity The Feminist Test We Keep Failing: Lost Women of Science Podcast, Season 3 Bonus Episode There's a test that we at Lost Women of Science seem to fail again and again: the Finkbeiner Test.  By Katie Hafner,Carol Sutton Lewis,The Lost Women of Science Initiative

Space Exploration Is Space-Based Solar Power Ready for Its Moment in the Sun? Around the world, researchers are betting that beamed power from space could be the next big thing for clean energy on Earth By Leonard David

Ecology How the Moon Devastated a Mangrove Forest In 2015 the moon's wobble and an El Niño teamed up to kill off tens of millions of Australian mangroves By Joanna Thompson

Space Exploration Keep Looking Up As a dismal year on Earth draws to a close, milestones in space exploration offer much for the whole world to celebrate By The Editors

Mathematics Geometry Reveals the Tricks behind Gerrymandering Some voting districts are tilted intentionally toward one party or another—a factor in the midterms. Geometry plays a critical role in gerrymandering By Manon Bischoff

Astronomy Milky Way Census Shows Stars Take Varied Paths The Gaia satellite is making the most detailed and complete map of the stars in our galaxy By Clara Moskowitz,Nadieh Bremer

Mathematics Mathematician Who Solved Prime-Number Riddle Claims New Breakthrough After shocking the mathematics community with a major result in 2013, Yitang Zhang now says he has solved an analog of the celebrated Riemann hypothesis By Davide Castelvecchi,Nature magazine

FROM THE STORE Scientific American Volume 327, Issue 6

QUOTE OF THE DAY "Well, for once I might be speechless. What you have done today will inspire generations to come." NASA's Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, the flight director of Artemis I, on the historic mission's successful launch

FROM THE ARCHIVE Inside NASA's New $18-Billion Deep-Space Rocket Is NASA's Space Launch System a flying piece of congressional pork or our best shot at getting humans to deep space? By David H. Freedman | June 2015

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