Short Takes – 5-22-24

Eventbrite Promoted Illegal Opioid Sales to People Searching for Addiction Recovery Help. Wired.com article. Pull quote: “Pugh, from Intelligence for Good, says those uploading the posts to multiple platforms may be using automated tools to do so, and they are not manually entering all their details time and time again. “You definitely can see a difference in some of the more sophisticated actors who have clearly used some SEO-manipulation tools,” Pugh says. Some, she says, will use emoji or slang terms to avoid automatic content moderation that platforms put in place.”

Electronic cooling device is part fridge, part muscle. ChemistryWorld.com article. Pull quote: “Qian, however, stresses that the material is not ready for commercialisation. The material is too fragile, he admits. The voltage required to achieve the effect, 2000V, is also too high. ‘When you provide a device that can pump heat at the 100V level, then I think this can really move from a paper to industry,’ Qian says.”

Glitch on BepiColombo: work ongoing to restore spacecraft to full thrust. ESA.int blog post. Pull quote: “A combined team from ESA and the mission’s industrial partners set to work the moment the issue was identified. By 7 May, they had restored BepiColombo’s thrust to approximately 90% of its previous level. However, the Transfer Module’s available power is still lower than it should be, and so full thrust cannot yet be restored.”

Architecting lunar infrastructure. SpaceReview.com article. Pull quote: “He said Interlune focused on helium-3 because of its high price: $20 million per kilogram. “It is the only resource that is priced high enough to warrant going to the Moon and bringing it back. We needed something like that to anchor the business case.””

There Is Too Much Trash in Space. ScientificAmerican.com commentary. Pull quote: “As long as doing the right thing is voluntary, it may not happen, concluded a 2018 Air Force Association report. The limited action since then tells us the world is way overdue for an agreement on mandatory standards. Few countries or companies currently design rockets for their complete life cycle. They must be forced to store enough fuel and retain the capability for spacecraft to steer safely out of space when their useful life is over. Painful financial and regulatory penalties should afflict spacefaring industries and nations that fail to play by the new rules.”

Slow Response to Bird Flu in Cows Worries Scientists. ScientificAmerican.com article. Pull quote: “Information about how and where the virus has spread is important for informing the response. If the outbreak is not widespread and is moving slowly, public-health officials could decide to cull affected herds and eradicate the virus in cattle, says Eckerle. But if it is too widespread or fast-moving, they might have to resign themselves to a new reality in which cattle are a reservoir of H5N1, and focus on restricting its jump to people. “I would not say it’s too late” to decide between these two pathways, says Eckerle — but “we need data.””

Second case of bird flu in humans confirmed in a Michigan farmer. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a nasal swab from the person tested negative for influenza in a state lab, but an eye swab from the patient was shipped to CDC and tested positive for influenza A virus, indicating an eye infection.”

NASA, Mission Partners Assessing Launch Opportunities for Crew Flight Test. Blogs.NASA.gov blog post. Pull quote: “Work continues to assess Starliner performance and redundancy following the discovery of a small helium leak in the spacecraft’s service module. As part of this work, and unrelated to the current leak which remains stable, teams are in the process of completing a follow-on propulsion system assessment to understand potential helium system impacts on some Starliner return scenarios. NASA also will conduct a Delta-Agency Flight Test Readiness Review to discuss the work that was performed since the last CFT launch attempt on May 6, and to evaluate issue closure and flight rationale ahead of the next attempt, as part of NASA’s process for assessing readiness. The date of the upcoming Flight Test Readiness Review is under consideration and will be announced once selected.”