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Almost half of Moon missions fail. Why is space still so hard?

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gail-iles-761554">Gail Iles</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/rmit-university-1063">RMIT University</a> In 2019, India attempted to land a spacecraft on the Moon – and ended up painting a kilometres-long streak of debris on its barren surface. Now the Indian Space Research Organisation has returned in triumph, with the Chandrayaan-3 lander <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-counts-down-crucial-moon-landing-2023-08-23/">successfully touching down</a> near the south pole of Earth’s rocky neighbour. India’s success came just days after a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02659-6">spectacular Russian failure</a>, when the Luna 25 mission tried to land nearby and “ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the lunar surface”. These twin missions remind us that, close to 60 years after the first successful “soft landing” on the Moon, spaceflight is still difficult and dangerous. Moon missions in particular are still a coin flip, and we have seen several high-profile failures in recent years. Why were these missions unsuccessful and why did they fail? Is there a secret to the success of countries and agencies who have achieved a space mission triumph? <h2>An exclusive club</h2> The Moon is the only celestial location humans have visited (so far). It makes sense to go there first: it’s the closest planetary body to us, at a distance of around 400,000 kilometres. Yet only four countries have achieved successful “soft landings” – landings which the spacecraft survives – on the lunar surface. The USSR was the first. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_9">Luna 9</a> mission safely touched down on the Moon almost 60 years ago, in February 1966. The United States followed suit a few months later, in June 1966, with the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/1966-the-real-first-moon-landing-118785850/">Surveyor 1</a> mission. China was the next country to join the club, with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang%27e_3">Chang'e 3</a> mission in 2013. And now India too has arrived, with <a href="https://amp.theguardian.com/science/2023/aug/23/india-chandrayaan-3-moon-landing-mission">Chandrayaan-3</a>. Missions from Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Russia, the European Space Agency, Luxembourg, South Korea and Italy have also had <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missions_to_the_Moon">some measure of lunar success</a> with fly-bys, orbiters and impacts (whether intentional or not). <h2>Crashes are not uncommon</h2> On August 19 2023, the Russian space agency Roscosmos announced that “communication with the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02659-6">Luna 25 spacecraft</a> was interrupted”, after an impulse command was sent to the spacecraft to lower its orbit around the Moon. Attempts to contact the spacecraft on August 20 were unsuccessful, leading Roscosmos to determine Luna 25 had crashed. Despite more than 60 years of spaceflight experience extending from the USSR to modern Russia, this mission failed. We don’t know exactly what happened – but the current situation in Russia, where resources are stretched thin and tensions are high due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, may well have been a factor. The Luna 25 failure recalled two high-profile lunar crashes in 2019. In April that year, the Israeli <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beresheet">Beresheet lander</a> crash-landed after a gyroscope failed during the braking procedure, and the ground control crew was unable to reset the component due to a loss of communications. It was later reported a capsule containing microscopic creatures called tardigrades, in a dormant “cryptobiotic” state, may have survived the crash. And in September, India sent its own Vikram lander down to the surface of the Moon – but it did not survive the landing. NASA later <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/dec/03/indias-crashed-vikram-moon-lander-spotted-on-lunar-surface">released an image</a> taken by its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter showing the site of the Vikram lander’s impact. Debris was scattered over almost two dozen locations spanning several kilometres. <h2>Space is still risky</h2> Space missions are a risky business. Just over <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/success-rate-of-lunar-missions-is-a-little-over-50-as-per-nasa-database/articleshow/101774227.cms">50% of lunar missions succeed</a>. Even <a href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20190002705/downloads/20190002705.pdf">small satellite missions</a> to Earth’s orbit don’t have a perfect track record, with a success rate somewhere between 40% and 70%. We could compare uncrewed with crewed missions: around <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230518-what-are-the-odds-of-a-successful-space-launch">98% of the latter are successful</a>, because people are more invested in people. Ground staff working to support a crewed mission will be more focused, management will invest more resources, and delays will be accepted to prioritise the safety of the crew. We could talk about the details of why so many uncrewed missions fail. We could talk about technological difficulties, lack of experience, and even the political landscapes of individual countries. But perhaps it’s better to step back from the details of individual missions and look at averages, to see the overall picture more clearly. <h2>The big picture</h2> Rocket launches and space launches are not very common in the scheme of things. There are <a href="https://www.pd.com.au/blogs/how-many-cars-in-the-world/">around 1.5 billion cars</a> in the world, and perhaps <a href="https://www.travelweek.ca/news/exactly-many-planes-world-today/">40,000 aeroplanes</a>. By contrast, there have been fewer than <a href="https://planet4589.org/space/gcat/data/derived/launchlog.html">20,000 space launches</a> in all of history. Plenty of things still go wrong with cars, and problems occur even in the better-regulated world of planes, from loose rivets to computers overriding pilot inputs. And we have more than a century of experience with these vehicles, in every country on the planet. So perhaps it’s unrealistic to expect spaceflight – whether it’s the launch stage of rockets, or the even rarer stage of trying to land on an alien world – to have ironed out all its problems. We are still very much in the early, pioneering days of space exploration. <h2>Monumental challenges remain</h2> If humanity is ever to create a fully fledged space-faring civilisation, we must <a href="https://www.wired.com/2016/02/space-is-cold-vast-and-deadly-humans-will-explore-it-anyway/">overcome monumental challenges</a>. To make long-duration, long-distance space travel possible, there are a huge number of problems to be solved. Some of them seem within the realm of the possible, such as better radiation shielding, self-sustaining ecosystems, autonomous robots, extracting air and water from raw resources, and zero-gravity manufacturing. Others are still speculative hopes, such as faster-than-light travel, instantaneous communication, and artificial gravity. Progress will be little by little, small step by slightly larger step. Engineers and space enthusiasts will keep putting their brainpower, time and energy into space missions, and they will gradually become more reliable. And maybe one day we’ll see a time when going for a ride in your spacecraft is as safe as getting in your car. <hr /> Correction: a typing error in the original version of this article put the Surveyor 1 mission in 1996, rather than its actual year of 1966.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211914/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gail-iles-761554">Gail Iles</a>, Senior Lecturer in Physics, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/rmit-university-1063">RMIT University</a> Image credits: Shutterstock This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/almost-half-of-moon-missions-fail-why-is-space-still-so-hard-211914">original article</a>.

International Travel

"Not my King": Second coronation marred by protestors

King Charles has celebrated his coronation a second time during a ceremony in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh, just two months after being crowned King in London. The monarch was joined by Queen Camilla, and Prince and Princess of Wales, who are known as the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay in Scotland, for a Service of Thanksgiving and Dedication held in his honour. During the service inside St Giles Cathedral, the monarch was presented with the symbols of his authority in Scotland – the Crown, the Sceptre and the Sword of State. The new Elizabeth Sword, named in honour of the late monarch, was commissioned to replace the previous Sword of State as it had become too fragile, having been given to James IV by Pope Julius in 1507. The sword was carried into the cathedral by Olympic rower Dame Katherine Grainger. Despite the grand and emotional service, the ceremony was slightly marred by anti-monarch protestors outside. The protestors stood chanting "not my King" for hours on end so loudly, that the voices could be heard from inside the church during the quieter moments of the ceremony. Four protestors were later arrested for their disruption. Prior to the ceremony, Grant McKenzie from the Republic anti-monarchy pressure group, told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme that his group would be vocal at the event. "It's being forced upon us," McKenzie said. "We've got an unprecedented cost of living crisis. I don't think the public in the UK are particularly interested in their tax payer money being put towards a parade up and down the Royal Mile in Edinburgh - it's tone deaf. "Of course people are going to be able to enjoy it if that's what they want to do. Protests by their very nature are disruptive, we will be making ourselves visible and heard." The King and Queen didn't let the demonstrators get in the way of the proceedings, which was strengthened by the thousands of crowds who lined the streets of Edinburgh in support of the royal family. The tradition of a second coronation taking place in Scotland dates back over 400 years, with the late Queen Elizabeth also celebrating the event just weeks after her coronation in 1953. Image credits: Getty Images

Travel Trouble

Inside the frantic rescue mission to save woman who went overboard

A woman has been saved from waters near the Dominican Republic after going overboard from a Royal Caribbean cruise ship. The 42-year-old American citizen was rescued by the US Coast Guard, after she fell from the 10th deck of the ship. The Mariner of the Seas cruise ship was about 50 km south of Punta Cana on its way to Willemstad, Curaçao, when the passenger went overboard, a statement from the Coast Guard said. “The passenger was recovered alive and reported to be in good health, after reportedly falling into the water from the 10th deck of the ship,” it said. “No medical evacuation of the passenger was requested by the cruise ship.” “The passenger was being kept on the cruise ship’s medical facility and later transferred to the Hospital in Willemstad, Curacao for evaluation.” The Coast Guard said it was investigating the incident, looking into how and why the woman went overboard. Matthew Kuhn, who was on the cruise ship with his family, told a Florida news station that he watched rescue efforts from his balcony. “I think it was amazing to see everyone was on their balcony. Everyone was trying to help, and the crew was very receptive to everyone,” he said. In a statement released on Wednesday, Royal Caribbean confirmed a passenger went overboard but was rescued as was being cared for onboard. “The ship and crew immediately reported the incident to local authorities and began searching for the guest. Thankfully, the guest was successfully recovered and was brought on board. Our Care team is now offering assistance and support to them and their travelling party. Out of privacy for the guest and their family, we have no additional details to share,” the statement said. Image credits: Getty Images

Travel Trouble

Humans are still hunting for aliens. Here’s how astronomers are looking for life beyond Earth

We have long been fascinated with the idea of alien life. The earliest written record presenting the idea of “aliens” is seen in the satiric work of Assyrian writer <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/life-unbounded/the-first-alien/">Lucian of Samosata</a> dated to 200 AD. In one novel, Lucian <a href="https://www.yorku.ca/inpar/lucian_true_tale.pdf">writes of a journey to the Moon</a> and the bizarre life he imagines living there – everything from three-headed vultures to fleas the size of elephants. Now, 2,000 years later, we still write stories of epic adventures beyond Earth to meet otherworldly beings (<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Hitchhikers-Guide-to-the-Galaxy-novel-by-Adams">Hitchhiker’s Guide</a>, anyone?). Stories like these entertain and inspire, and we are forever trying to find out if science fiction will become science fact. <h2>Not all alien life is the same</h2> When looking for life beyond Earth, we are faced with two possibilities. We might find basic microbial life hiding somewhere in our Solar System; or we will identify signals from intelligent life somewhere far away. <div data-id="17"> </div> Unlike in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Star-Wars-film-series">Star Wars</a>, we’re not talking far, far away in another galaxy, but rather around other nearby stars. It is this second possibility which really excites me, and should excite you too. A detection of intelligent life would fundamentally change how we see ourselves in the Universe. In the last 80 years, programs dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) have worked tirelessly searching for cosmic “hellos” in the form of radio signals. The reason we think any intelligent life would communicate via radio waves is due to the waves’ ability to travel vast distances through space, rarely interacting with the dust and gas in between stars. If anything out there is trying to communicate, it’s a pretty fair bet they would do it through radio waves. <h2>Listening to the stars</h2> One of the most exciting searches to date is <a href="https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/initiative/1">Breakthrough Listen</a>, the largest scientific research program dedicated to looking for evidence of intelligent life beyond Earth. This is one of many projects funded by US-based Israeli entrepreneurs Julia and Yuri Milner, with some serious dollars attached. Over a ten-year period a total amount of <a href="https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/initiative/1">US$100 million</a> will be invested in this effort, and they have a mighty big task at hand. Breakthrough Listen is currently targeting the closest one million stars in the hope of identifying any unnatural, alien-made radio signals. Using telescopes around the globe, from the 64-metre Murriyang Dish (Parkes) here in Australia, to the 64-antenna MeerKAT array in South Africa, the search is one of epic proportions. But it isn’t the only one. Hiding away in the Cascade Mountains north of San Francisco sits the <a href="https://www.seti.org/ata">Allen Telescope Array</a>, the first radio telescope built from the ground up specifically for SETI use. This unique facility is another exciting project, able to search for signals every day of the year. This project is currently upgrading the hardware and software on the original dish, including the ability to target several stars at once. This is a part of the non-profit research organisation, the SETI Institute. <h2>Space lasers!</h2> The SETI Institute is also looking for signals that would be best explained as “space lasers”. Some astronomers hypothesise that intelligent beings might use massive lasers to communicate or even to propel spacecraft. This is because even here on Earth we’re investigating <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/the-future-of-laser-communications/">laser communication</a> and laser-propelled <a href="https://www.insidescience.org/news/new-light-sail-design-would-use-laser-beam-ride-space">light sails</a>. To search for these mysterious flashes in the night sky, we need speciality instruments in locations around the globe, which are currently being developed and deployed. This is a research area I’m excited to watch progress and eagerly await results. As of writing this article, sadly no alien laser signals have been found yet. <h2>Out there, somewhere</h2> It’s always interesting to ponder who or what might be living out in the Universe, but there is one problem we must overcome to meet or communicate with aliens. It’s the speed of light. Everything we rely on to communicate via space requires light, and it can only travel so fast. This is where my optimism for finding intelligent life begins to fade. The Universe is big – really big. To put it in perspective, humans started using radio waves to communicate across large distances in 1901. That <a href="https://ethw.org/Milestones:Reception_of_Transatlantic_Radio_Signals,_1901">first transatlantic signal</a> has only travelled 122 light years, reaching just 0.0000015% of the stars in our Milky Way. Did your optimism just fade too? That is okay, because here is the wonderful thing… we don’t have to find life to know it is out there, somewhere. When we consider the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-many-stars-are-there-in-space-165370">trillions of galaxies</a>, septillion of stars, and likely many more planets just in the observable Universe, it feels near impossible that we are alone. We can’t fully constrain the parameters we need to estimate how many other lifeforms might be out there, as famously proposed by Frank Drake, but using our best estimates and <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-astrobiology/article/numerical-testbed-for-hypotheses-of-extraterrestrial-life-and-intelligence/0C97E7803EEB69323C3728F02BA31AFA">simulations</a> the current best answer to this is tens of thousands of possible civilisations out there. The Universe <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-space-infinite-we-asked-5-experts-165742">might even be infinite</a>, but that is too much for my brain to comprehend on a weekday. <h2>Don’t forget the tiny aliens</h2> So, despite keenly listening for signals, we might not find intelligent life in our lifetimes. But there is hope for aliens yet. The ones hiding in plain sight, on the planetary bodies of our Solar System. In the coming decades we’ll explore the moons of Jupiter and Saturn like never before, with missions hunting to find traces of basic life. Mars will continue to be explored – eventually by humans – which could allow us to uncover and retrieve samples from new and unexplored regions. Even if our future aliens are only tiny microbes, it would still be nice to know we have company in this Universe. Images: Getty <em style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: -apple-system, 'system-ui', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Noto Color Emoji'; font-size: 16px; background-color: #ffffff;">This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/humans-are-still-hunting-for-aliens-heres-how-astronomers-are-looking-for-life-beyond-earth-197621" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Technology

Tom Cruise celebrates his 60th!

Tom Cruise has turned 60! In honour of his 60th birthday on July 3, Mission: Impossible director Christopher McQuarrie shared a rare photo of Cruise performing a crazy stunt. The actor, known to perform his own insane stunts, could be seen hanging on from an airborne red biplane. Mission: Impossible movie, Dead Reckoning Part One is due to be released in 2023. Cruise however spent his actual birthday watching the F1 Grand Prix in the UK, with celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay and Lewis Hamilton’s family. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> Anthony Hamilton, Antonio Pérez Garibay and Tom Cruise watching the podium celebrations together is everything ❤️ <a href="https://t.co/KvtgU19ssH">pic.twitter.com/KvtgU19ssH</a> — ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNF1/status/1543665585913008128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 3, 2022</a></blockquote> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> Hamilton and Tom Cruise showed love after the race 🤝❤️ <a href="https://t.co/TDHCHh8FFh">pic.twitter.com/TDHCHh8FFh</a> — ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNF1/status/1543640030354329601?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 3, 2022</a></blockquote> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> The one and only Maverick. Happy birthday, <a href="https://twitter.com/TomCruise?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TomCruise</a>! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TopGun?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TopGun</a> <a href="https://t.co/OWSUMwVWJY">pic.twitter.com/OWSUMwVWJY</a> — Top Gun (@TopGunMovie) <a href="https://twitter.com/TopGunMovie/status/1543640720216510466?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 3, 2022</a></blockquote> Also, an avid Adele fan, Cruise was spotted singing and dancing to Adele at Hyde Park where he was also surprised with a birthday cake backstage. "Tom looked like he had an absolute blast. He was really going for it with his dancing and seemed to know all the words to sing along,” an onlooker said. "After the set finished, staff brought the cake out for him and he couldn't stop saying thank you. He hugged his favourite hostess as they sang Happy Birthday. "Then he gave a speech about how nice it was for everyone to be able to come together for events again after Covid. "And Tom said Adele was phenomenal. He was so upbeat and living his best life." Image: Getty

Movies

NASA’s Perseverance rover sends back Mars soundscape playlist

Nearly two years after its <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/mars-is-the-place-in-space-to-be/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">launch</a>, and almost 18 months after <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/mars-news-all-good/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">landing on Mars</a>, NASA’s Perseverance rover has hours of audio recordings from the red planet’s atmosphere. So, what does Mars sound like? On the whole, it’s quiet. Very quiet. But the recordings did pick up interesting weather events and changes which give us a better overall picture of Mars’s clime. Perseverance’s primary mission is to explore sediments in a dormant river delta on the edge of the 45 kilometre-wide <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/weekly-edition/one-year-mars-perseverance-rover/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jezero Crater</a>, to learn about the crater’s formation and hopefully find signs of ancient life. But microphones are light and cheap, so it made sense to add a couple to the rover’s instruments. The <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/engineering/the-bizarre-acoustics-of-mars/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">first audio from Mars</a> was sent by Perseverance earlier this year. Now, a year’s worth of recording from the Martian atmosphere has been condensed into about five hours of sound. The findings are due to be presented by Baptiste Chide of the Los Alamos National Lab during a seminar, “Mars soundscape: Review of the first sounds recorded by the Perseverance microphones,” at the <a href="https://acoustics.org/world-wide-press-room/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">182nd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America</a> tomorrow, May 25, in Denver in the US. With no large dynamical natural phenomena, extant animal species (that we know of), industrial civilisation, or extreme weather events, you’d expect Mars to be pretty silent. And it is. Under the same conditions on Earth, sounds are 20 decibels louder than on Mars. <div class="newsletter-box"> <div id="wpcf7-f6-p192195-o1" class="wpcf7" dir="ltr" lang="en-US" role="form"> </div> </div> “It is so quiet that, at some point, we thought the microphone was broken!” says Chide. But, like giving a new music album a second run-through, closer listening revealed some fascinating phenomena. The group heard much variability in the wind and abrupt changes in the atmosphere, see-sawing from calm to intense gusts. The team noticed that the red planet’s soundscape is seasonal. During winter, carbon dioxide freezes in the polar caps. This causes changes in atmospheric density, and environmental volume fluctuates by about 20%. Atmospheric CO2 also causes high-pitched sounds in the distance to become fainter. The rover also used laser sparks to calculate the speed of sound’s dispersion, confirming a theory that high-frequency sounds travel faster than low frequencies. “Mars is the only place in the solar system where that happens in the audible bandwidth because of the unique properties of the carbon dioxide molecule that composes the atmosphere,” notes Chide. While the rover will continue to record audio as it travels across Mars’s surface, Chide believes that the technique could be applied to studies of other celestial bodies. Planets and moons with denser and more volatile atmospheres, such as Venus and Titan, may yield even more information as sound waves interact more strongly and travel further. <img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=192195&title=NASA%E2%80%99s+Perseverance+rover+sends+back+Mars+soundscape+playlist" width="1" height="1" /> <div id="contributors"> <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/nasa-perseverance-rover-soundscape/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This article</a> was originally published on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cosmos Magazine</a> and was written by <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/contributor/evrim-yazgin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Evrim Yazgin</a>. Evrim Yazgin has a Bachelor of Science majoring in mathematical physics and a Master of Science in physics, both from the University of Melbourne. Image: NASA </div>

Technology

The bizarre acoustics of Mars

Shortly after NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/perseverance-pays-off/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">landed</a> and unlimbered its instruments, scientists turned on one of the more unusual of them – a microphone system – and for the first time listened in on an alien world: first to the wind, then to the sounds of the rover driving, and later yet to the <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/exploration/ingenuity-helicopter/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ingenuity helicopter</a> on one of its early flights. It was captivating. But it also seemed to be of limited scientific value – the type of thing you’d do because today’s microphones are so lightweight that there’s no real cost to including a couple on the rover (and being able to listen to it might help diagnose mechanical problems if they arose). But it turns out there are a lot of other things you can do with microphones, once you have them. The simplest is to measure the speed of sound. On Earth, says Baptiste Chide, a postdoctoral researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, US, that’s about 340 metres per second. In the thin Martian air, it was expected to be more like 240 m/s. <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/audio/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sounds on Mars</a> were also expected to be about 20 decibels lower than on Earth, Chide said at this year’s Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) in The Woodlands, Texas. The Red Planet, he says, is also the “quiet planet.” The difference, he adds, is particularly pronounced at higher frequencies – something borne out by the muted sounds first released by NASA. <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"> <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> <div class="entry-content-asset"> <div class="embed-wrapper"> <div class="inner"><iframe title="NASA's Perseverance Rover Captures the Sounds of Mars" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GHenFGnixzU?feature=oembed" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div> </div> </div> </div> </figure> To a large extent, Chide says, “you can only hear bass sounds on Mars”. <div class="newsletter-box"> <div id="wpcf7-f6-p185282-o1" class="wpcf7" dir="ltr" lang="en-US" role="form"> </div> </div> Weirder yet, due to strange properties of its thin carbon dioxide atmosphere, sounds on Mars travel at different speeds depending on their frequency, with those above 400 hertz (about that of the G above middle C) travelling 4% faster than those of lower pitch. “Let’s imagine that we have this <a href="https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2022/pdf/1357.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">talk</a> on Mars,” Chide said at the LPSC meeting. “My voice is between 200 hertz and 1000 hertz. You would receive all of the high-frequency tones before the low-frequency tones, so it might [be] distort[ed], not understandable.” But things like that are mere curiosities. The true scientific value of the microphones came into play when Chide’s team realised they could use them to measure rapid fluctuations in the air temperature in the vicinity of the rover. It works, he says, because air temperature is another factor that affects the speed of sound. And one way the rover produces sound is by firing its mast-mounted laser at nearby rocks. The primary purpose of the laser is to vaporise tiny puffs of rock so that other instruments can determine their composition from spectroscopic analysis of the escaping vapor. But the vaporisation process produces an audible pop when the laser hits the rock, and by timing how quickly that is heard after the laser is fired, Chide says, it’s possible to determine the temperature of the intervening air. That makes the microphone a useful complement to the rover’s onboard weather station, because it gives much more rapid readings, repeating each time a laser pulse is fired, which can be as often as three times a second. <img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=185282&title=The+bizarre+acoustics+of+Mars" width="1" height="1" data-spai-target="src" data-spai-orig="" data-spai-exclude="nocdn" /> <div id="contributors"> <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/engineering/the-bizarre-acoustics-of-mars/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This article</a> was originally published on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cosmos Magazine</a> and was written by <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/contributor/richard-a-lovett" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Richard A Lovett</a>. Richard A Lovett is a Portland, Oregon-based science writer and science fiction author. He is a frequent contributor to Cosmos. Image: NASA </div>

Technology

Sheep rescued from 40kg fleece

A bushwalker enjoying a walk along a mountain top came across a sheep burdened by its heavy 40kg fleece. The sheep, named Alex, was found on Mt Alexander in Victoria unable to walk and could hardly lift his head. The walker contacted Edgar’s Mission who came and rescued the sheep who was in a “worse state of health”. "So weak was he that he could not stand. Not even when assisted to do so, and struggle we did to find a passage in through his felt-like fleece to administer life-enhancing fluids,” the rescuers wrote on Facebook. "Truth be told, too, we wondered at first blush with Alex: Could his life even be saved, and would the kindest thing have been to let him pass from this world? “And then we lifted the shroud of wool from his face and our eyes met, and in that instant, it was so strikingly clear he wanted to live.” <iframe style="overflow: hidden; border: initial none initial;" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=476&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fedgarsmission%2Fvideos%2F654275415827887%2F&show_text=false&width=267&t=0" width="267" height="476" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Alex was taken back to the sanctuary where his fleece which was “sodden with rain, urine, twigs, bark, beetles and maggots” was removed. ”A fleece so matted and dense that at first it stubbornly refused to cede to the shears,” they revealed. “But somehow it miraculously did. All 40 kg of it!” Alex will remain at the sanctuary for the rest of his hopefully long life. Images: Facebook

Travel Trouble

False fossils could hamper search for life on Mars

<div> <div class="copy"> If you’re an interplanetary alien hunter scouring the red expanses of Mars for signs of life, you’re more likely to come across <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/looking-for-microbes-on-mars/" target="_blank">microbes</a> than little green men. You’re even more likely to come across fossils of ancient critters that lived billions of years ago. But new research warns that chemical processes can create “pseudofossils”, potentially fooling future exo-palaeontologists. “At some stage a Mars rover will almost certainly find something that looks a lot like a fossil, so being able to confidently distinguish these from structures and substances made by chemical reactions is vital,” says astrobiologist Sean McMahon from the University of Edinburgh, UK. “For every type of fossil out there, there is at least one non-biological process that creates very similar things, so there is a real need to improve our understanding of how these form.” In a study published in the Journal of the Geological Society, McMahon and colleagues from the Universities of Edinburgh and Oxford assessed dozens of known processes that could have created life-like traces in Martian rocks. Many chemical processes can mimic the structures created by microscopic lifeforms, like bacterial cells or carbon-based molecules that make up the building blocks of life as we know it. Stromatolites are one example of fossils that could be impersonated. These rock-like structures formed from layers deposited by communities of blue-green algae. Called “living fossils”, they are still <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/palaeontology/extremely-ancient-lifeform-discovered-in-tasmania/" target="_blank">found</a> in shallow aquatic environments today, and at more than 3.5 billion years old they’re among the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/earth/earth-sciences/earliest-life-found-in-ancient-aussie-rocks/" target="_blank">oldest evidence</a> for life on Earth. But non-biological processes can produce pseudofossils that mimic the domes and columns of stromatolites. Surprisingly, similar deposits can build up in places like factory floors, where cars are spray-painted, as well as more natural processes like the deposition of silica around hot springs, some of which <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13554" target="_blank">have recently been found</a> on Mars. Another example of ambiguous fossils can be found in sandstone beds from the Ediacaran period, 550 million years ago. Animal and plant-like imprints are embedded in “textured” rocks, where the texture actually represents fossilised microbial mats that once covered the ancient sea floor. A joint Australian-US team has <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/earth/earth-sciences/studying-fossils-with-ai-tech/" target="_blank">recently been awarded</a> NASA funding to see if AI can distinguish between rocks that are formed from biological signatures (like these microbial mats) or from purely abiotic chemical processes. The team’s ultimate goal is to apply similar machine learning techniques to geological images taken by Mars rovers. This new paper by UK astrobiologists says that research like this may be key to the success of current and future exobiology missions. “We have been fooled by life-mimicking processes in the past,” says co-author Julie Cosmidis, a geobiologist from the University of Oxford. “On many occasions, objects that looked like fossil microbes were described in ancient rocks on Earth and even in meteorites from Mars, but after deeper examination they turned out to have non-biological origins. “This article is a cautionary tale in which we call for further research on life-mimicking processes in the context of Mars, so that we avoid falling into the same traps over and over again.”  <img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=172969&title=False+fossils+could+hamper+search+for+life+on+Mars" alt="" width="1" height="1" /> </div> <div id="contributors"> <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/astrobiology/false-fossils-on-mars-could-hamper-search-for-life/">This article</a> was originally published on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com">Cosmos Magazine</a> and was written by <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/contributor/lauren-fuge">Lauren Fuge</a>. Lauren Fuge is a science journalist at Cosmos. She holds a BSc in physics from the University of Adelaide and a BA in English and creative writing from Flinders University. Image: gremlin/Getty Images </div> </div>

International Travel

Is a trip to Mars ethical?

<div class="copy"> For the 21st century explorer Mars would have to be the number one travel destination. If that’s you, you might try your luck with Mars One, a privately funded mission to colonise Mars led by Dutch entrepreneur Bars Landsorp. If you’re selected, it’s a seventh-month one-way only trip. The first four human volunteers are scheduled to blast off in 2026 in the hope of setting up a colony. Scientists, engineers and others in the space industry say the mission is not feasible. But it is the ethics of the enterprise that concern me here. Some years ago I was among a group of bioethicists asked to ponder the morality of sending humans into space for several months or years. At the time NASA was considering the idea of sending astronauts to Mars – with no real way of organising a flight home. (Since then NASA has developed plans for a three-year return trip to Mars in 2035.) I told NASA that exploration in situations of terrifying and serious risk was not new. Asking if human long-duration space flight is ethical means asking the same questions that Englishman Robert Falcon Scott should have asked before setting out on his doomed mission to the South Pole. What are the technical constraints and what needs to be invented? What preparedness is needed and what is the cost? What information is needed for the crew to consent? History tells us that Scott arrived at the Pole a month after Roald Amundsen claimed it for Norway. Scott died along with his entire company on the way home. They were hopelessly unprepared – taking French olives and raspberry jam and inadequate gloves. Amundsen by contrast learned survival skills from peoples who lived in the Arctic before setting out. Scott’s example teaches us that bravery is not enough: realistic preparation is crucial. The risks of long-haul human space flight have been known for years. In 2002 a NASA committee wrote a list. These included the health hazards posed by space radiation; the possibility that the crew could sabotage the mission – based on studies of isolated communities and the psycho-social issues that can arise; physiological risk, including bone and muscle loss in microgravity; and medical risk – including the difficulties of treating injuries and illness in space. Several years later, all these factors remain. The Canadians, the European Union and the Japanese conducted studies of their own and reached the same conclusion. Space is the harshest possible human environment, exceeding conditions anywhere on the planet. Crucially, more is unknown about the physical and mental challenges of space travel than is known. Assessing risk in a situation of utter unknowability is complicated. In the face of this uncertainty risk analysts have put forward the RABA concept (Risk Associated with the Best Alternative). A bad outcome of the best considered alternative might be easier to accept than charging in like Scott without adequately considering the risks. But there are limits to rational arguments about the risks of space colonisation: we don’t know what we don’t know. So what makes risk ethical? Historically it has been one thing: consent. The ethical considerations change if we think of the crew as military personnel. We expect soldiers to face considerable risk. And think of the pioneers who travelled to remote and desolate places with no thought of return. So what did I advise NASA? Exploring space is an awesome enterprise – but it has to be done at awesome cost. The process has to protect the astronauts as much as possible. The mission must be done publicly for peaceful purposes, by free people, with the results considered common stock. But before we set out we need a far-reaching public discussion of what space travel means to us – and what we are prepared to sacrifice for it. Image credits: Shutterstock </div> <div id="contributors"> This article was originally published on <a rel="noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/is-a-trip-to-mars-ethical/" target="_blank">cosmosmagazine.com</a> and was written by Laurie Zoloth. </div>

Travel Tips

The incredibly lucky landing of Tom Cruise in a family’s backyard

Tom Cruise gave one U.K. family the surprised of their life after he landed right in their backyard. The 59-year-old Mission: Impossible actor landed his helicopter in Alison Webb’s field while filming for his latest film in Birmingham. The neighbour airport was unfortunately closed, so he opted for his next best option. Ms Webb told CBS News that Cruise’s team asked if an unnamed “VIP” could land his chopper on her land as he was “running late”. When Tom Cruise exited from the helicopter, Webb says she could hardly believe it. “I thought it would be kind of cool for the kids to see the helicopter land in the garden,” Webb recalled “He [Tom Cruise] basically arrived and got out and it was like, wow.” Webb went on to explain that Cruise immediately made his way over to her children and “elbow bumped” them to say hello and thank them. “Then he said if the kids would like they could go up in the helicopter,” she said. Cruise let the kids take a ride while he went to a meeting. “It turned out to be an incredible day,” Webb said. “It was surreal, I still now can’t believe it happened.” The Hollywood heavyweight has been spending the last few months of 2021 in Europe while filming the seventh instalment of the Mission: Impossible series.

Movies

Elon Musk selling final Earth home so he can "focus on Mars"

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has listed the last home he owns of his $100 million real estate portfolio, in a quest to “own no house” and focus solely on his mission to Mars. It’s been no easy feat letting go of his beloved properties, however this San Francisco mansion has been a little harder to let go of for Musk. Deemed his “special place,” the nine-bedder has proven to be a difficult property to shift. After initially listing the home last year, it failed to receive any substantial offers so the 49-year-old took it off the market. However, this week Musk announced he would be selling the 47-acre lot for an eye-watering $48.6 million (US$37.5 million). “Decided to sell my last remaining house. Just needs to go to a large family who will live there. It’s a special place,” the Tesla and SpaceX CEO wrote. Musk, who has an estimated net worth of $185 billion, initially purchased the home in 2017 for US$23.4 million. The incredible Hillsborough retreat is over 100-years-old and has every feature possible including Bay views, a pool, hiking trails and mesmerising canyons. Not only that, but the incredible mansion even features a ballroom, banquet dining room and a well-preserved but completely updated professional kitchen. Musk vowed to get rid of his homes and belongings in order to devote his life “to Mars and Earth.” “Don’t need the cash,” the eccentric billionaire tweeted in May 2020. “Possession just weighs you down.”

Real Estate

“You’re f***ing gone”: Furious Tom Cruise lashes out on set of Mission Impossible

Furious Tom Cruise has ripped into workers who broke COVID rules on the set of Mission: Impossible, screaming: “If I see you doing it again, you’re f***ing gone.” The Hollywood superstar has gone the extra mile to make sure tight social-distancing rules were being implemented during the filming, which is taking place in Britain. And after coming across two of the crew members standing within two metres of each other, he quickly flew into a rage. The Sun published the audio recording, which heard Cruise shouting: “If I see you do it again, you’re f***ing gone. And if anyone in this crew does it, that’s it — and you too and you too. And you, don’t you ever f***ing do it again.” 50 staff members at Warner Bros. Studios in Leavesden, Herts, were left shocked by the angry outburst. The 58-year-old was furious that his efforts to keep filming going during a pandemic could be at risk. He went on: “They’re back there in Hollywood making movies right now because of us. “We are creating thousands of jobs, you motherf***ers. “That’s it. No apologies. You can tell it to the people that are losing their f***ing homes because our industry is shut down. “ “We are not shutting this f***ing movie down. Is it understood? If I see it again, you’re f***ing gone.” A source said: “Tom has taken it upon himself, along with the health and safety department, to try to force the safety precautions, with a view to keeping the film running. “He does daily rounds to make sure that everything is set up appropriately, that people are behaving and working as safely as they can. He is very proactive when it comes to safety.” They added: “Everyone was wearing masks. It was purely that these people were standing under a metre away from each other. “It isn’t known whether he saw those guys breaking the rules before or whether this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. “People make mistakes and they slip up, but Tom is just on it.” Tom’s rant, in full: “We want the gold standard. They’re back there in Hollywood making movies right now because of us! Because they believe in us and what we’re doing! I’m on the phone with every f***ing studio at night, insurance companies, producers, and they’re looking at us and using us to make their movies. We are creating thousands of jobs you motherf***ers. I don’t ever want to see it again, ever! And if you don’t do it you’re fired, if I see you do it again you’re f***ing gone. And if anyone in this crew does it – that’s it, and you too and you too. And you, don’t you ever f***ing do it again. That’s it! No apologies. You can tell it to the people that are losing their f***ing homes because our industry is shut down. It’s not going to put food on their table or pay for their college education. That’s what I sleep with every night. The future of this f***ing industry! So I’m sorry I am beyond your apologies. I have told you and now I want it and if you don’t do it you’re out. We are not shutting this f***ing movie down! Is it understood? If I see it again you’re f***ing gone — and you are — so you’re going to cost him his job, if I see it on the set you’re gone and you’re gone. That’s it. Am I clear? Do you understand what I want? Do you understand the responsibility that you have? Because I will deal with your reason. And if you can’t be reasonable and I can’t deal with your logic, you’re fired. That’s it. That is it. I trust you guys to be here. That’s it. That’s it guys. Have a little think about it …[inaudible]. That’s what I think of Universal and Paramount. Warner Brothers. Movies are going because of us. If we shut down it’s going to cost people f***ing jobs, their home, their family. That’s what’s happening. All the way down the line. And I care about you guys, but if you’re not going to help me you’re gone. OK? Do you see that stick? How many metres is that? When people are standing around a f***ing computer and hanging out around here, what are you doing? And if they don’t comply then send their names to Matt Spooner. That’s it.”

Movies

Climate change is the most important mission for universities of the 21st century

Universities are confronting the possibility of <a href="https://melbourne-cshe.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/3392469/Australian-Universities-COVID-19-Financial-Management.pdf">profound sector-wide transformation</a> due to the continuing effects of COVID-19. It is prompting much needed debate about what such transformation should look like and what kind of system is in the public interest. This is now an urgent conversation. If universities want a say in what the future of higher education will look like, they will need to generate ideas quickly and in a way that attracts wide public support. This will involve articulating their unique role as embedded, future-regarding, ethical generators of crucial knowledge and skills, well-equipped to handle coming contingencies and helping others do the same. And this means higher education changes are entangled with another major force for transformation – climate change. How can universities credibly claim to be preparing young people for their futures, or to be working with employers, if they do not take into account the kind of world they are helping to bring about? A vital role in a climate changed world Whether indexed by the continual climb in <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/heat-and-humidity-are-already-reaching-the-limits-of-human-tolerance/">extreme heat and humidity</a>, the <a href="http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/">melting of Arctic ice</a>, the eruption of <a href="https://www.science.org.au/news-and-events/news-and-media-releases/australian-bushfires-why-they-are-unprecedented">unprecedented mega-fire events</a> or the <a href="https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/05/nature-decline-unprecedented-report/">rapid degradation of ecosystems</a> and <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/05/26/2008198117">disruption of human settlements</a>, climate change is here. It is rapidly exacerbating environmental and social stress across the globe, as well as directly and indirectly impacting all institutions and areas of life. And worse still, global greenhouse gas concentrations are moving in exactly the opposite direction to what we need, with <a href="https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/statistical-review-of-world-energy.html">carbon emissions growing by 2.0% in 2019, the fastest growth for seven years</a>. Much-needed transitions towards low carbon and well-adapted systems are emerging. But they are too piecemeal and slow relative to what is needed to avoid large scale <a href="https://www.deepsouthchallenge.co.nz/projects/climate-change-cascade-effect">cascading</a> and <a href="https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/compound-costs-how-climate-change-damages-australias-economy/">compounding impacts to our planet</a>. Universities, along with all other parts of our society, will feel the effects of climate change. The cost of the devastation at the Australian National University due to the summer’s fires and hailstorm, for instance, is estimated to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-27/coronavirus-hail-bushfires-cause-225m-loss-at-anu/12290522">be A$75 million dollars</a>. Failure to appropriately adapt to the increasing likelihood of such events <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0715-2">threatens to undermine research of all sorts</a>. Whether due to climate impacts (such as <a href="https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/09/06/npr-coastal-labs-studying-increased-flooding-consider-moving-due-to-increased-floodin">the effects of sea level rise on coastal laboratories</a>) or policy and market shifts away from carbon-intensive activities (such as coal powered energy), research investments face the risk of becoming <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-stranded-assets-matter-and-should-not-be-dismissed-51939">stranded assets</a>. Not only could expensive infrastructure and equipment be rendered redundant, but certain skills, capabilities and projects could too. Universities are key to enabling Australian society to transition to a safer and lower emissions pathway. They are needed to provide the knowledge, skills and technologies for this positive transition. And they are also needed to <a href="https://climateoutreach.org/system-change-vs-behaviour-change-is-a-false-choice-covid-19-shows-how-theyre-connected/">foster the social dialogue and build the broad public mandate</a> to get there. This means old ideas of universities as isolated and values-free zones, and newer notions of them as cheap consultants to the private sector, fundamentally fail to fulfil the role universities now need to play. They must become public good, mission-driven organisations devoted to rapidly progressing human understanding and action on the largest threat there has ever been, to what they are taken to represent and advance – human civilisation. Universities must become more sustainable… Inaction will erode the trust on which universities rely, especially among the key constituencies universities are meant to serve – young people and the private, community and public sectors. <a href="https://globalclimatestrike.net/">Students</a>, <a href="https://www.asyousow.org/report/clean200-2019-q1">businesses</a>, <a href="https://en.unesco.org/events/climate-change-and-ngos-eight-international-forum-ngos-official-partnership-unesco">not-for-profit organisations</a> and certain <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/09/climate-change-report-card-co2-emissions/">governments</a> are already acting far more forcefully than universities, even as the latter claim to be intellectual leaders. Who universities invest in, fund, partner with and teach, and how, will increasingly be judged through a climate change lens. All actors in the fossil fuel value chain – including <a href="https://www.marketforces.org.au/marsh-mclennan-present-greenwash-at-agm/">insurance brokers</a> and <a href="https://gofossilfree.org/australia/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/09/ExposeTheTies_digital.pdf?_ga=2.89096216.248025022.1590905170-1969762787.1590905170">researchers</a> – are coming under pressure to stop facilitating a form of production that enriches a few while endangering all. Networks such as the <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/04/03/universities-form-global-network-climate-change">International Universities Climate Alliance</a>, the <a href="http://www.gauc.net/about/about.html">Global Alliance of Universities on Climate</a> and <a href="https://www.acts.asn.au/">Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability</a> are pushing for change in and by the sector. In 2019, <a href="https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20190710141435609">three global university networks organised an open letter</a> signed by more than 7,000 higher and further education institutions. It called for the sector to reduce emissions and invest in climate change research, teaching and outreach. Even more have signed the <a href="https://www.sdgaccord.org/climateletter">SDG (sustainable development goals) Accord’s climate emergency declaration</a>, which calls for: <ul> <li>mobilising more resources for action-oriented climate change research and skills creation</li> <li>committing to going carbon neutral by 2030 or 2050 at the very latest</li> <li>increasing the delivery of environmental and sustainability education across curriculum, campus and community outreach programs.</li> </ul> Some universities are already starting to build aspects of climate change into their operations. Most prominent have been efforts to divest university finances from direct support of fossil fuels. While some institutions are still dragging their feet, the University of California has announced it will <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-05-19/uc-fossil-fuel-divest-climate-change">fully divest </a> its US$126 billion endowment from fossil fuels. Pressure is similarly growing for <a href="https://unisuperdivest.org/">Unisuper to stop investing</a> Australian university staff superannuation into corporations that endanger the very future staff are saving for. University campuses are being refigured as sites of energy production and consumption. <a href="https://www.strathmore.edu/serc/">Strathmore University in Kenya </a>and <a href="https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/2019/nov/rmit-leads-the-way-on-renewable-energy">RMIT University in Australia</a> are among those who produce their own renewable energy. Although <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-universities-are-not-walking-the-talk-on-going-low-carbon-72411">few universities are working towards absolute reductions in emissions</a>, or have appropriate climate adaptation plans, initiatives such as the <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/best-universities/top-universities-climate-action">Times Higher Education Impact Index</a> are increasing interest in visible climate action. … and they must change teaching and research Teaching and research too must change. University students can <a href="https://study.curtin.edu.au/offering/course-pg-masters-of-environment-and-climate-emergency--mc-envclm/">choose programs and optional modules dedicated to climate change</a>. But this isn’t enough. Climate change has to be integrated in all disciplines. It is essential universities do not quarantine climate change as some kind of specialist topic. A <a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/full/10.5465/amp.2018.0183.summary">recent analysis of management studies</a> found a profound lack of engagement across the discipline with the implications of climate change. As Cornell University’s Professor of Engineering Anthony Ingraffea argues, when it comes to educating the future generation, <a href="https://www.enr.com/articles/48389-a-call-to-action-for-engineers-on-climate-change">“doing the right thing on climate change should be baked into an engineer’s DNA”</a>. This means recognising the strong overlap between work that has instrumental value for climate change action and work that celebrates the intrinsic value of human understanding. The intellectual and social challenges presented by climate change are perhaps the greatest justification yet for why we need open-minded, open-ended exploration and dialogue of the sort universities can provide. Universities produce the knowledge galvanising others to act. It is time for them to act too. It is time for all of us who work in or with universities to reappraise our institutions in light of the changes needed, the changes coming, and the changes already here. This is the public mission of universities in the 21st century. And it is the most pressing mission there is. Written by Lauren Richards and Tamson Pietsch. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-the-most-important-mission-for-universities-of-the-21st-century-139214">The Conversation.</a>

Cruising

Harry and Meghan’s heart-warming secret LA mission amid COVID-19 pandemic

Dan Tyrell says when he opened his door to what was expected to be a package from Project Angel Food, he did not prepare to come in contact with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Mr Tyrell, located in West Hollywood was shocked when he found Meghan Markle and Prince Harry standing there in masks. “They had masks on, and they were dressed down with jeans, but very nice jeans," Dan told Wehoville. “I thought that tall red-headed guy looked pretty familiar, and that girl was very pretty. Then I saw the large black SUVs with the security guards behind them.” <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/tv/B_EF48-Hxvw/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="12"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/tv/B_EF48-Hxvw/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">A post shared by Meghan Markle Brasil (@marklecombra)</a> on Apr 16, 2020 at 6:43pm PDT </div> </blockquote> He went on to joke: “If they had given me the heads up, I would have worn my tiara." Harry and Meghan reportedly spent the morning distributing supplies for Project Angel Food, a non-profit organisation that provides meals for those too ill to cook. Richard Ayoub, Project Angel Food’s executive director, said he was delighted at Harry and Meghan’s offer to help, which he hadn’t intended to make public. The charity also helps those with illnesses such as AIDS, cancer and kidney failure and has continued its tireless work during the Covid-19 pandemic. Mr Ayoub said the royal couple extended a helping hand when they heard there was a volunteer shortfall.

Caring

Jamie Oliver's final mission before he retires

All good things must come to an end, and in an interview with UK’s Balance magazine the celebrity chef has indicated his plans to hang up the apron for good. And it’s happening sooner than you might think. The 42-year-old said his current plan is to, “go all out for the next 12 years to get things where they should be.” “And then I will happily f****** retire. I could throw the towel in now and see my kids growing up and that would be lovely,” he said. The celebrity chef has indicated his plans to also continue fighting the junk food industry. “It’s perception to say I’m middle class and telling people what to do,” he explained. “To be honest I haven’t spent 20 years doing that; I’ve spent 20 years getting passionate about things I think are wrong.” What are your thoughts? Would you be sad to see Oliver go?

Retirement Life

Martin Landau’s top 5 movie roles

We were extremely saddened to hear that legendary Oscar-winning actor Martin Landau passed away unexpectedly over the weekend at the age of 89 after a brief stay in hospital. To celebrate the life of this incredible actor, best known for his work on TV series Mission: Impossible and Space: 1999, join us as we reflect on the best five movie roles of his career. 1. Ed Wood Landau, who played Bela Lugosi in this acclaimed 1994 biographical film, won a Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award and an Oscar for his efforts. “I began to respect this guy and pity him,” Landau said at the time. “I saw the humour in him. This, for me, became a love letter to him.” 2. North by Northwest This 1959 Alfred Hitchcock thriller marked Landau’s first major film appearance, playing the role of Leonard, criminal sidekick to Phillip Vandamm (played by James Mason). 3. Crimes and Misdemeanours Landau’s starring role as Judah in this 1989 Woody Allen film earned him his second Oscar nomination. Reflecting on the casting process, Allen described Landau as “completely natural”. “Of all the actors I've ever worked with, he gives expression to my dialogue exactly as I hear it.” 4. Rounders Despite receiving mixed reviews and underperforming at the box office, this 1998 film has since become a cult classic. Starring Matt Damon, Edward Norton and John Malkovich, Landau’s character Professor Petrovsky is one of the most beloved figures in the movie – not to mention the poker world. 5. Tucker: The Man and His Dream This 1988 film, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, marked something of a comeback for Landau and even earned him an Oscar nomination. “I've spent a lot of time playing roles that didn't really challenge me,” he said of the film. “You want roles that have dimension. The role of Abe Karatz gave me that.” Tell us in the comments below, what was your favourite Martin Landau role?

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