Short Takes – 7-22-23

From Apollo to Artemis: How Axiom Space’s new suits will handle the harsh moon dust. MyNews13.com article. Pull quote: “One of the challenges the designers will be working on for the lunar spacesuit is dust mitigation. Citing the propriety nature of creating the suits, Greeley can only reveal the new suits will have dust mitigation and the suits will somehow “prevent this issue.””

NASA starts building ice-hunting Moon rover. ArsTechnica.com article. Pull quote: “One of those companies is Astrobotic, which NASA selected in 2020 to deliver VIPER to a landing site near Nobile Crater, a 45-mile-wide (73-kilometer) impact basin at the Moon’s south pole. The roughly $200 million commercial delivery arrangement allows Astrobotic to design and build the lander to carry VIPER to the Moon, a system that NASA would have developed—at greater cost—for the original Resource Prospector mission.”

The Fargo Shooter Used a Binary Trigger. Here's What to Know About the Device That's Worrying Police. USNews.com article. Pull quote: “A binary trigger is a modification that allows a weapon to fire one round when the trigger is pulled and another when it is released — in essence doubling the firing capacity, firearms experts and weapons manufacturers say.”

World’s declared stockpiles of chemical weapons destroyed as US finishes the job. ChemistryWorld.com article. Pull quote: “In May, the OPCW opened its new ChemTech Centre, which features state-of-the-art laboratories for investigating alleged uses of chemical weapons. Arias said that the facility will enhance the organisation’s ability to address the threats posed by modern developments, including ‘new dangerous toxic chemicals, more sophisticated equipment and production methods, better means of delivery, and the interaction between chemistry, biology and artificial intelligence’.”

Incorporation by Reference; North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria; Hazardous Materials Safety Permits. Federal Register FMCSA NPRM. Summary “FMCSA proposes amendments to its Hazardous Materials Safety Permits (HMSPs) regulations to incorporate by reference the updated Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) handbook containing inspection procedures and Out-of-Service Criteria (OOSC) for inspections of shipments of transuranic waste and highway route-controlled quantities (HRCQs) of radioactive material (RAM). The OOSC provide enforcement personnel nationwide, including FMCSA's State partners, with uniform enforcement tolerances for inspections. Currently, the regulations reference the April 1, 2022, edition of the handbook. Through this notice, FMCSA proposes to incorporate by reference the April 1, 2023, edition.” Comments due August 23^rd, 2023.

Judge Cannon schedules Trump’s classified documents trial for May 2024. WashingtonPost.com article.  Pull quote: “Trump is the early front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination. By late May, the bulk of the Republican primary contests will be completed — meaning there is a significant possibility that Trump could go to trial in the classified documents case as his party’s presumptive nominee. Postponing the proceedings until after the election, on the other hand, would have raised the possibility that if Trump or another Republican won, they could try to push the Justice Department to drop the case once in office.”