Recommendations for March 28, 2023
More Water Found on Moon, Locked in Tiny Glass Beads
WSJ, March 27, 2023
https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-water-found-on-moon-locked-in-tiny-glass-beads-334c5fde
The moon’s surface contains a new source of water found embedded in microscopic glass beads, which might one day help future astronauts produce drinking water, breathable air and even rocket fuel, scientists say.
The findings come from a Chinese rover that spent two weeks on the moon in 2020. The Chang’e 5 rover drilled several feet into the lunar surface and returned 3.7 pounds of material, among which were the glass beads from an impact crater, according to a paper published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience.
The end of the Long Stagnation might finally be at hand
Radical NASA Propulsion Concept Could Reach Interstellar Space in Under 5 Years - Fiona MacDonald, ScienceAlert | A newly proposed propulsion system could theoretically beam a heavy spacecraft to outside the confines of our Solar System in less than 5 years – a feat that took the historic Voyager 1 probe 35 years to achieve. The concept, known as 'pellet-beam' propulsion, was awarded an early-stage US$175,000 NASA grant for further development earlier this year. … The pellet-beam concept was partly inspired by the Breakthrough Starshot initiative, which is working on a 'light-sail' propulsion system. With the help of millions of lasers, a tiny probe would theoretically be able to sail to neighboring Proxima Centauri in just 20 years.
The Definitive Guide to SpaceX’s Starship Megarocket
George Dvorsky, Gizmodo
Would building a Dyson sphere be worth it? We ran the numbers.
Paul Sutter, Ars Technica
Nuclear power enlightenment
Paul Devanney has an excellent blog where he discusses misconceptions about nuclear (fission) power. If you’re not convinced that nuclear is a great idea, please read. If you are convinced but want to be better at enlightening others, please read it!
The Two Lies that Killed Nuclear Power
Nuclear power is too slow
One common and plausible argument against nuclear power is that it is too slow. The evidence offered is recent interminable builds in the US and Europe, Table 1. But is this inherent in the technology? [Spoiler alert: No, it is not.]
Talking to People about Nuclear Power, Stage 1
Safety concerns. Nuclear waste. Meltdown and release.
Stage 2: Nuclear Power's Economics Suck
Why nuclear fission costs four times as much as it needs to.
Stage 3: Nuclear Power and Weapons Proliferation
Nuclear Power is Too Safe
The price of AI falls 99.987%
Brian Roemmele is a recognized world authority on technology. He’s also quite good at coding and hacking hardware. He recently announced that he’d build a GPT for $530. OpenAI had spent some $4 million to do the same thing.
New CRISPR tool reversed blindness in mice — permanently
Sterilizing children
Self-transformation is good when practiced sensibly but deeply problematic when it’s the result of social contagion. Seeking to change your gender when you are a mature person who has thought about it carefully is one thing, encouraging troubled adolescent girls to make dramatic physical changes is quite another. See:
Thanks for this roundup of important news and views! I hope this will be a permanent feature of More Thoughts!