Bitchin Dave's Newsletter - April 7th
As I've noted many times in the past, it is nearly impossible to know what "truth" is, and the media is no help in finding it.
On that topic, I have rather a lot to say about the ongoing military action in Iran. I won't bore you with all of that here, but you are more than welcome to read what I have to say about it.
The quick summary is that facts matter, and we need to look beyond the traditional media to get a better feel for what is actually going on.
Sadly, we prove to be moderately uneducated and are fed misinformation along the way. And "we" (in general) don't ask enough questions.
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I'm just barely old enough to remember the first moon landing in 1969 (my parents woke me up and I have a recollection of the grainy video on our TV, of Neil Armstrong stepping out onto the lunar surface).
Those of you who know me know that my graduate research was a NASA-funded grant related to the Space Shuttle. So you likely know that I am a BIG fan of the space program (hence why there is always an item about space in the newsletter).
NASA committed to a return to the moon, and they recently stepped up the program from its fairly slow pace.
Artemis is the name of the program, and that name comes from Greek Mythology. Artemis was the goddess of the hunt and the wilderness, which makes a lot of sense.
You had the Artemis 1 launch that sent an unmanned craft around the moon in 2022. Artemis 2 launched this week, with a crew of four astronauts heading around the moon. They won't be landing, but it is still a ... giant leap for mankind.
Now to the pressing question, and what the media can't quite get: why are we returning to the moon after 50 years? The answer lies in our human need to explore. The next great frontier is space. We have a (tentative?) plan to create a new space station, and there is a desire to build a moon base. They're all part of the nature of continued exploration.
And there's also some measure of scientific discovery in this moon return. There are some hints as to the universe's origins on the lunar surface, and perhaps we can start to get more insights into the Earth's weather, since the moon has a direct impact on the tides and therefore contributes to our climate.
But... of course there is the elephant in the room. You can talk about nationalism, exploration, and science. But without a financial motivator, there is no reason to return.
In case you wondered, the moon may have some significant mineral deposits which have some value. And there's deeper space to explore and (to a point) exploit. Those are certainly motivating factors, too.
By the way, The Artemis astronauts emerged from their quarantine facility and took a moment to wave to the cameras before heading over to the launch pad. But did you know that this is *the same* walk out door that has been used throughout NASA's space flight program? Yes, these astronauts quarantined in the same facility!
One last thing: the crew is made up of one white American man, one American woman, one African American man, and a Canadian man. It's a more representative group of people than the old three-man white American crews we saw in the 70s. Bios here:
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This young lad got an interest in nuclear power when he was just 8 years old. And while building a nuclear reactor wasn't feasible for him, he did manage to get engaged with a project incubator program in Texas.
And he managed to build a working fusion reactor with their help!
There's still some validation and testing required, and it remains to be seen if it could be viable at scale.
But, wow. Curiosity got him a long way!
And what have I done with my life?!
And meanwhile, in Britain, there’s a $266 million (USD) retrofit of a coal power plant into a fusion reactor. Which is impressive in its own right. But definitely a little pricey.
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This is a pretty remarkable find… in very shallow water. An entire city appears to have been affected by an earthquake a century ago, and a lake rushed in to cover it.
I'm constantly amazed at how little we really know about our own human history.
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There's a brown streak that has appeared across most of the Atlantic. And this mass is … sargassum!
The scourge is back and essentially worse than ever. But of course, we merely shrug.
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NASA is using some high tech equipment to view atmospheric disturbances - literally waves in the Mesosphere that can't be seen with the naked eye - in order to better understand how our weather functions.
In particular, they used the telemetry to watch hurricane Helene, so they could see how the hurricane formed and moved.
I look forward to seeing how they use this data to help better understand hurricanes and maybe protect against them.
But please don't tell anyone in this administration that we're looking at climate science.
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Bonus: This is so cool! And the engineering behind it is amazing. Switching a stadium from soccer to American football in England.
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