Short Takes – 3-22-25

Can NASA remain nonpartisan when basic spaceflight truths are shredded? ArsTechnica.com commentary. Pull quote: “Let's also be clear that Musk and SpaceX are currently flying the only spacecraft in the Western world that is capable of reliably flying humans into orbit. Without Dragon, NASA would have been beholden to Russia for the last five years for human spaceflight. And when Boeing's Starliner had issues nine months ago en route to the International Space Station, NASA was fortunate to have the reliable Dragon program to turn to.”

Nuclear fusion fuel without toxic mercury. CEN.ACS.org article. Pull quote: “Amy Prieto, a chemist at Colorado State University, calls the work “incredibly creative and elegant. This could enable a lower-cost, scalable method to achieve efficient [Li-6] separation without the use of mercury.” Electrochemical processes are known to be scalable, so provided that ζ-V2O5 can be made on a large scale, this approach would be very practical for separating Li-6, she says.”

The Bird Flu Virus Is Mutating Fast – And Scientists Say Our Vaccines May Not Be Enough. SciTechDaily.com article.  Pull quote: “Crucially, Ford explains, this rapid adaptation means that “if one makes an H5N1 vaccine with a previous vaccine candidate virus, the vaccine will have less efficacy, based on our measurements of how much the virus has evolved in recent years” As such, the team’s research approach provides guidance for keeping pace with a rapidly adapting viral threat.

Two astronauts stuck in space for 9 months have returned to Earth.  Pull quote: “Williams and Wilmore will now undergo a series of intense medical tests from NASA called Spaceflight Standard Measures. The agency will extensively examine the astronauts’ cognitive abilities, blood, urine, microbiomes, cardiovascular systems and more, many of which were also assessed preflight and in-flight.”