Short Takes – 1-8-23

‘Relentless parade of cyclones’ from Pacific Ocean to bring more flooding, heavy snows to West Coast. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “Residents are expected to have a respite from the heaviest precipitation on Sunday, but the NWS said another storm system will bring more gusty winds and an additional “onslaught” of rainfall and snowfall to Northern California early on Monday.”

NASA And SpaceX Consider Daring Plan To ‘Reboost’ The Hubble Space Telescope. Forbes.com article. Pull quote: ““SpaceX and the Polaris Program want to expand the boundaries of current technology and explore how commercial partnerships can creatively solve challenging, complex problems,” said Jessica Jensen, vice president of Customer Operations & Integration at SpaceX. “Missions such as servicing Hubble would help us expand space capabilities to ultimately help all of us achieve our goals of becoming a space-faring, multiplanetary civilization.””

Last year was a huge year in space. Here’s what to look for in 2023. WashingtonPost.com article.   Pull quote: “Later this year, in what promises to be another busy one for the space agency and the industry as a whole, NASA plans to announce the four-member crew of the next Artemis mission, finally giving the program a human face. Those astronauts — three from NASA, one from the Canadian space agency — are to orbit the moon in the Artemis II mission scheduled for 2024. That would be a prelude to a human landing a year or two later that would be the first since the last of the Apollo missions in 1972.”

The Age of Digital, Transparent Warfare Is Here. Wired.com article.   Pull quote: “Despite this transformation, the nature of war will never change: It will be about killing people and breaking their stuff faster than they can do it to you. It will still be a contest of wills, an aspect of the human condition that is far from being eradicated for all its ferocity, irrationality, and despair. The outcome will remain an unscripted mix of reason, emotion, and chance. Technology only changes how we fight, not why.”