Saturday Space Reads

Because we all need a little space on Saturday

First chickpea seeds to grow in engineered moondust. Image credit: Jessica Atkin

• When it comes to innovation, sometimes, the answer is right in front of you; in other words, the simplest answer can often be the best one. That may be the case with an Israeli team’s space umbrella – er, sunshade – which has the potential to cool the planet enough to keep it stable while we work towards other climate solutions. 

• Between ghastly plasma loops and M-class solar flares – which caused radio blackouts in Australia and Southeast Asia – the sun is having big feelings in 2024. And we’re here for it fearful of it.

• There could be a new moon in our midst – and no, we’re not talking about another installment of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight. Located between Saturn and Uranus, an icy body known as Chariklo likely contains its own small satellite, as evidenced by its unique ring pattern. 

• Take it from us Los Angeles East-siders – the coast isn’t all that, okay? Have you ever tried to walk Santa Monica’s Third Street promenade at 3PM on a Saturday? A New Mexico spaceport is making the same argument for inland launch facilities. As orbital launch demand skyrockets and coastal ports like Canaveral, Wallops and Vandenberg become more overcrowded, the question is: should the FAA be avoiding inland launch licenses because of the danger of the geography, or should the agency be focused on “making launches safe enough to fly over humans,” instead?

• Two weeks ago, we said goodbye to space lettuce. But today, we say hello to moon hummus. Need we say more? Probably not, but we will anyways: scientists have grown the first chickpeas in engineered moondust.

• Speaking of things we probably shouldn’t need to say more about but will anyway: here are the latest ethical questions emerging from the latest commercial and religious endeavors to exploit the moon, including sports drink advertisements, lunar cemeteries and a moon dirt cross. 

• Fragments of the recently exploded BX1 asteroid have been confirmed to be aubrites, a rare type of meteorite believed to originate from the 4.5 billion year-old main asteroid belt – with only 11 samples found so far on Earth.

• The buzz is still buzzing about ESA’s mission to unveil the faint ripples in the fabric of spacetime. Read more about how the precision laser trio plans to prove Einstein wrong. 

• A team of California scientists may no longer be able to use the cliche “it’s not like we’re curing cancer,” after this latest development in their microgravity tumor research.

• As the fate of the Mars Sample Return mission remains in the balance, NASA opens the Red Planet door to commercial vendors. However, it remains to be seen if people are still motivated to settle there. 

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