ScientistPankaj: Is it time for a new Outer Space Treaty? Reports of Russian nuclear space weapon raise questions

Friday, March 8, 2024

Is it time for a new Outer Space Treaty? Reports of Russian nuclear space weapon raise questions

Fly me to the moon: NASA accepting astronaut applications | Space Quiz! What does space smell like? | Is it time for a new Outer Space Treaty?

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March 7, 2024

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The Launchpad

Fly me to the moon: NASA accepting astronaut applications

(NASA)

NASA wants a new group of astronauts to explore the moon and maybe even Mars. Astronaut applications to NASA are due on April 2, giving U.S. citizens the chance to fly to the moon and maybe even to Mars if selected. The requirements are steep: A master's degree in science, technology, engineering or math; three years of professional experience, medical residency or 1,000 pilot-in-command hours for pilots; and passing a long-duration physical.

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Space Quiz! What does space smell like?

Learn the answer here!

Is it time for a new Outer Space Treaty?

(NASA)

The Outer Space Treaty was created in response to the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles, which travel through space on their way toward their targets. But since then, space-faring superpowers have developed many other spacecraft and weapon capabilities designed to attack satellites from Earth, threaten other spacecraft from orbit, or even launch attacks on ground-based targets from space. The United States, Soviet Union and United Kingdom were the first three nations to enter the treaty in 1967, and today 114 countries have signed it. In light of these developments, many policymakers and experts are wondering: Is it time for a new Outer Space Treaty?

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Total Solar Eclipse 2024

April 8 solar eclipse boosts ticket sales for United Airlines

(Getty Images/Raqul Lonas/Xuanyu Han)

Delta isn't the only airline in the United States generating business from next month's total solar eclipse. United Airlines has seen a significant increase in travel to destinations in the path of totality of the solar eclipse, which will occur on April 8. As of the beginning of March, the company's bookings have jumped considerably compared to last year.

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Best binoculars 2024: Ideal for the April 8 solar eclipse

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Spaceflight

Big, dead satellite's crash was a space-junk wakeup call

(ESA)

ESA's Space Debris Office predicted that the reentry of ERS-2 would take place on Feb. 21 at 10:41 a.m. EST (1541 GMT). In reality, the craft made its plunge some two hours later, reentering the atmosphere over the North Pacific Ocean. The European Space Operations Center (ESOC), home for engineering teams that control spacecraft in orbit, did note that the earlier prediction came with a plus or minus value of 1.44 hours. Still, in the uncontrolled space debris business, minutes - indeed, even seconds -- count. They can be the difference between a hunk of space junk falling into isolated ocean waters or crashing down within a populated area.

Full Story: Space (3/7)

Science & Astronomy

How do some black holes get so big?

(NASA, ESA, CSA, J. Matthee (ISTA), R. Mackenzie (ETH Zurich), D. Kashino (National Observatory of Japan), S. Lilly (ETH Zurich))

Usually, the most thrilling black-hole news surrounds the biggest, baddest and most violent voids we can imagine. I'm talking about the supermassive black holes boasting billions of times the mass of the sun; the ones called quasars that eat up surrounding matter and spew out the excess so aggressively they create light patterns that outshine even the galaxies they live in. You know the ones. However, on Thursday (March 7), scientists released a study that serves as a reminder: The baddie black holes aren't the only ones worth thinking about. With the help of the trusty James Webb Space Telescope, this team identified a population of those luminescent quasars that aren't characteristically enormous. They are quite huge, to be clear, as they are still supermassive black holes - they're just not that huge.

Full Story: Space (3/7)

SpaceX

SpaceX to push the envelope on 3rd Starship test flight

(SpaceX)

SpaceX will put its Starship megarocket through its paces on its third test flight. The upcoming mission, which could launch as soon as March 14, will be markedly different than its two predecessors, with more numerous and more ambitious objectives for the two-stage, 400-foot-tall (122 meters) Starship. Among the bold goals are "opening and closing Starship's payload door, a propellant transfer demonstration during the upper stage's coast phase, the first ever re-light of a Raptor engine while in space and a controlled reentry of Starship," SpaceX wrote in a mission description.

Full Story: Space (3/7)

Technology

NASA taps Nikon to help astronauts photograph the moon

(European Space Agency / A. Romer)

If all goes to plan, Artemis astronauts will soon be taking their own trips to the moon. As such, NASA plans to equip them with some very 2020s camera technology - and the space agency will do so with the help of Nikon. NASA recently signed a Space Act Agreement with the Japanese camera maker, outlining how the company will build a bespoke camera that astronauts can carry on their moonwalks.

Full Story: Space (3/6)

Entertainment

NASA launches its 1st official tabletop roleplaying game

(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)

Perhaps the last thing RPG enthusiasts would expect out of the serious engineers and scientists at the storied space agency is a fun table-top fantasy adventure game. Yet the geeky folks at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have devised a compelling new amusement centered around a cosmic mystery and the Hubble Space Telescope that space fans can download today free of charge.

Full Story: Space (3/7)