Clues on 3I/Atlas's formation environment, Rocket Lab challenges Blue Origin for Mars infrastructure, science says reading is good for you, special spin feature, taking T. Rex's temperature, and 3D printing with sound
Ideas and Innovations Newsletter – 202609.12
Mathematics of percolation, experiments in quantum gravity, lunar surface technology call for proposals, a singularity in Navier-Stokes, variations on triboelectricity, drugs as the catalyst for civilization, and textured electrodes for better batteries.
Ideas and Innovations Newsletter – 202609.05
Roman Space Telescope launch, Martian asymmetry explained, a possible dark matter particle detection, and NASA selects Blue Origin for Martian telecommunication.
Comment Opportunity – NASA Technology Shortfalls
NASA is working on updating the shortfalls list, and they’ve changed the format in a way that maintains the detail while eliminating some of the overlaps and providing a higher-level basis for the ranking of shortfalls against each other.
Deorbiting the Space Station
Like the Mercury and Apollo capsules, like the space shuttles, the ISS, to borrow a phrase, belongs in a museum.
A Stellar Post
The Parker solar probe, which perhaps we could call the opposite of New Horizons, will attempt to explore some of those mysteries, most significantly the origin of the solar wind.
Fourteen Exciting Engineering Projects
Each of these projects receives $175,000.00 in grants for phase one work - you can read more about the program here, where you will also find links to detailed descriptions of each of the projects.
Energy Storage
If I wanted to make this post extremely short, I could probably leave it at this: we humans are absolutely terrible at energy storage.
Moon to Mars Public Comment Opportunity
There is a public comment period open from now until May 31st for NASA's defined objectives in the Moon to Mars program, which can all be found here: Moon to Mars Objectives. NASA has some details about the public comment period here: NASA Seeks Input. To make comments, go here: Feedback on the draft.
Solar Flares and Aquatic Suction Cups
I couldn't decide between two articles this week, so I decided to just post two. First up, a research paper I came across in Science Advances that studies how suction cups adhere underwater.
