|
|
|
|
Top headlines
Lead story
For the first time since the Apollo era, the United States is sending a crewed mission around the Moon. Launching as early as Wednesday evening, NASA’s Artemis II mission will take four astronauts on a 10-day journey that will start by testing out their spacecraft’s systems in Earth’s orbit and, if all goes well, taking a loop around the Moon.
The mission is part of NASA’s larger Artemis program, which has the goal of setting up a lunar base and a sustained human presence on the surface in the 2030s. The program has moved slowly forward, after both Artemis II and its predecessor, the uncrewed Artemis I mission, faced years of delays. NASA’s new administrator, Jared Isaacman, announced major changes to the program over the past month, including more launches and two lunar landings in 2028.
University of Mississippi space law expert Michelle Hanlon explains how these changes, and the Artemis II mission, reflect the growing strategic importance of space exploration from an economic, scientific and technological standpoint. The first countries to build infrastructure like a nuclear reactor or base will have more say in where on the surface they can conduct research or mining.
One final note: Our daily work is made possible by the support of generous readers like you. Please consider donating monthly to The Conversation to provide us with gifts we can rely on during these uncertain times. Thank you!
|
|
Mary Magnuson
Associate Science Editor
|
|
| |
NASA’s Space Launch System rocket that will take an astronaut crew around the Moon rolls out to the launchpad.
Joel Kowsky/NASA via Getty Images
Michelle L.D. Hanlon, University of Mississippi
It’s about more than just beating China. As a space lawyer puts it, a Moon base would come with strategic, economic and scientific advantages.
|
Health + Medicine
|
-
Kyle B. Enfield, University of Virginia
The current COVID-19 vaccine does not match the strain that’s now becoming dominant in the US, which could lead to a rise in COVID-19 cases.
|
|
Economy + Business
|
-
Will Glovinsky, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Today’s basic income proponents say cash payments would be good for everyone. In the 1790s, the idea’s inventor argued something else: It was owed to everyone.
|
|
Ethics + Religion
|
-
Bryan Kirschen, Binghamton University, State University of New York
For some Sephardic Jews today, holidays provide a rare opportunity to hear the now-endangered Judeo-Spanish language.
-
Mary Thurlkill, University of Mississippi
In Shiite Islam, grief is not only personal but collective − expressed through rituals, pilgrimage and devotion to saints.
|
|
Environment + Energy
|
-
Dan Salas, University of Illinois Chicago
The administration plans to activate a committee with the power to override the Endangered Species Act. There’s a reason it’s called the ‘God Squad.’
|
|
Science + Technology
|
-
Ari Berkowitz, University of Oklahoma
Genetic testing is now required to participate in women’s events in the Olympics. But the new policy oversimplifies biological sex and risks unwitting discrimination against some female athletes.
-
Nara Parameswaran, Michigan State University
When the Trump administration took aim at higher education and the scientific research enterprise, a university dean had to figure out on the fly how to support scientists and their work at his school.
-
Zachary Slepian, University of Florida
While direct evidence of multiple universes is hard to come by, indirect evidence raises intriguing possibilities.
|
|
Politics + Society
|
-
Maya Mueller, Drexel University; Isaac Quaye, Temple University
Researchers are using machine learning models to identify gentrification in imagery. Community insights help keep the models on track
|
|
|
|
|
| | |
