From Deep Sea Fossils to Space Propulsion: Science Maps Life's Complex Systems

Physics & Space

• NASA's Artemis III mission, targeted for 2027, will be one of the agency’s most complex missions ever, requiring three giant rocket launches and two private moon landers to test crewed operations [31, 63]. The multi-launch campaign involves NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) launching Orion, followed by SpaceX's Starship and Blue Origin's New Glenn rockets placing their respective landers into orbit [31]. Astronauts—including Randy Bresnik, Luca Parmitano, Andre Douglas, and Frank Rubio—will use the two-week mission to rendezvous with both commercial lunar lander prototypes for technology demonstrations in low Earth orbit before preparing for a planned lunar landing on Artemis 4 by 2028 [31, 63]. ^[31][63]
• MIT engineers are developing a dual-mode spacecraft propulsion system that uses a single propellant to power both rapid chemical movements and slow electric adjustments, potentially enabling small satellites to reach Mars or the asteroid belt [51]. The research demonstrated that an ionic liquid fuel called ASCENT, originally developed by the U.S. Air Force for chemical systems, can successfully operate miniature electrospray thrusters alongside traditional chemical propulsion [51]. This capability will be first tested on NASA's Green Propulsion Dual Mode mission, a CubeSat equipped with one chemical and four electrospray thrusters that draw fuel from a single tank, which is scheduled to launch in November [51]. ^[51]
• JWST observations of the 'little red dot' GLIMPSE-17775, seen 1.8 billion years after the Big Bang while observing the galaxy cluster Abell S1063, provide multiple lines of evidence suggesting it is a black hole star [17]. The data, which represents one of the deepest spectra collected to date, shows emissions from elements that indicate scattering of electrons and signs of fluorescence and helium-absorbing radiation, features expected when a source is enshrouded by dense gas [17]. Furthermore, the detection of spectral lines from iron—dubbed an "iron forest"—is consistent with the high-energy output of a rapidly feeding supermassive black hole, solidifying the model that little red dots are accreting supermassive black holes shrouded by dense gas envelopes [17]. ^[17]