Japan, You Are Either Awesome or Overcomplicating Things

 A Japanese team has designed "artificial gravity living facilities" that would spin on other planets to equal Earth gravity.

I get why they would want to do this, because we evolved for 1G and our bones don't like not having the resistance.

But here are the very real issues:

1. The one for the moon would spin every 20 seconds. Even with no outside cues, can we be sure this won't create vertigo? Maybe even knowing it would make you throw up!

2. How do you get in and out.

Oh, and they are also pipe dreaming about...an...interplanetary space train that will generate its own gravity. They want to put bullet trains in space, because of course they want to put bullet trains in space.

This sounds more like the plot for an anime than real scientific research, but it would be kind of neat if they can pull it off.

Ball pit asteroid?

 It appears that the surface of Bennu, the asteroid we got a sample from two years ago, more resembles a ball pit than anything solid.

In fact, NASA said that if OSIRIS-REx had tried to stay on the asteroid it would have sunk in.

There's a massive plot bunny there. Somebody tries to land on the wrong kind of asteroid, gets stuck, and has to be rescued.

More Pretty Pictures!

 Could I get any more excited about the JWST?

Probably, but not much at this point. This beautiful fine guidance sensor test image is on SciTechDaily.

The things with the pointy ends are stars. The other things in the image? Those are galaxies. Space is awfully big.

We can't be alone. We can't.

Pretty Pictures

 A little stressed today, so I'm just going to redirect everyone to these pretty pictures.

These are the finalists for Astronomy Photographer of the Year.

I'm particularly fond of the Iceland one. The comet is also really cool. Oh, and one of them has the Clifton Suspension Bridge!

No, Tabloids, We're Not All Going To Die

This time it's The Sun saying that the Mars sample return mission will unleash an alien virus and, of course, we're all going to die.

So, here's a few reasons to relax:

1. All samples will be studied in a full biosafe facility. They can't be sterilized before returning them because that would destroy the stuff we're looking for.

2. It's highly unlikely anything in the samples will be alive anyway, due to the heavy radiation. Any remaining life on Mars is going to be pretty deep underground.

3. Anything that evolved on Mars, even if it had a common ancestor with Earth life, is going to be far enough away from us that it is highly unlikely it will be pathogenic.

So, no, not much chance of a Space Plague <tm>, as much as SF authors love them.

Capstone is On Its Way

 The Capstone satellite, which will map out orbits for Lunar Gateway, has broken Earth orbit and is heading for the moon.

Oh, and even more fun, they still have some fuel in the tank of the orbital transfer vehicle that put it on its course. They now have to decide what to do with it, because we can't waste rocket fuel, right? ;).

Mr. Nobody's Rocket

 Many years ago I worked as a part time admin assistant at the National Institutes of Health. I was working lab-adjacent (never actually went into the lab because, ya know, bio-control).

One day I discovered a mouse in my office. This mouse was clearly a lab mouse, of a strain used primarily for gene knockout research.

"Who lost a mouse?"

Not a single scientist on that floor was willing to admit to having lost a mouse. And we never did recapture Mr. Nobody's Mouse. It eventually disappeared. (Threats to bring in a cat were made).

Mr. Nobody's Mouse is probably still a story there. It's certainly one of mine.

Now we have Mr. Nobody's Rocket. Because the rocket that slammed into the moon?

Nobody wants to admit to having launched it.

It made a double crater too, which is really weird.

Maybe it's aliens?

More likely it's somebody's spy satellite launch gone very, very wrong.