Science & Health: Space, Medicine, Climate Change And Humans
The home of space, archaeology, medicine, physics, climate change and everything else that impacts the planet, our health and the world of science.
-
Layoffs Loom at NASA After Termination of Over 100 Contractors Amid Mars Budget Constraints
NASA is scaling back on its ambitious Mars Sample Return (MSR) program, fearing federal budget cuts to the space agency’s plan to bring back rock and dust from the Red Planet, which has come under heavy scrutiny for having unrealistic costs and timelines. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) reportedly laid off 100 contractors last week…
-
Historic Moon Mission Is Falling Apart After ‘Critical’ Fuel Loss
A mission to land a private U.S. lander on the Moon, and the first U.S. lander since the Apollo era, looks to be ending before it even had a chance to get started. The mission was ticking along nicely, until it wasn’t. Peregrine, perched atop United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur, blasted off to space from…
-
A Trip to Proxima Centauri and Other Far-Out Ideas NASA Is Exploring
NASA, in its relentless pursuit of space innovation, announced on Thursday the selection of 13 new projects for its 2024 Phase I awards under the Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. These awards, totaling up to $US175,000 each, are granted to teams proposing advanced and unconventional space technologies. The NIAC program, known for funding groundbreaking concepts,…
-
A Mountain of Used Clothes Appeared in Chile’s Desert. Then It Went Up in Flames
This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here. This story was produced by Grist and co-published with El País. A Spanish-language version can be read here. Reporting was supported by the Joan Konner Program in the Journalism of Ideas. On the morning of June 12, 2022, Ángela Astudillo, then…