NASA has started unpacking the Orion spacecraft after its epic moon mission.
Technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida have opened Orion’s hatch and begun removing payloads that flew to the moon and back aboard the capsule on the Artemis 1 mission. This work will take quite a bit of time.
“This week, technicians will extract nine avionics boxes from the Orion, which will subsequently be refurbished for Artemis 2, the first mission with astronauts,” NASA officials wrote in an update (opens in new tab) on Tuesday (Jan. 10).
“In the coming months, technicians will remove hazardous commodities that remain on board. Once complete, the spacecraft will journey to NASA Glenn’s Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility [in Ohio] for abort-level acoustic vibration and other environmental testing,” they added.
Related: The 10 greatest images from NASA’s Artemis 1 moon mission
Artemis 1 launched on Nov. 16 from KSC atop a Space Launch System rocket, sending the uncrewed Orion on a shakeout cruise to lunar orbit. The mission, the first of NASA’s Artemis program of moon exploration, wrapped up when Orion splashed down off the coast of Baja California on Dec. 11.
The capsule then traveled by truck across the country, arriving back at KSC on Dec. 30. Ever since, workers have been inspecting Orion and its various systems, assessing how they performed during the nearly 26-day Artemis 1 mission.
The capsule’s 16.5-foot-wide (5 meters) heat shield — the largest of its type ever flown — is receiving particular attention, given the extreme conditions it experienced. During Orion’s reentry through Earth’s atmosphere on Dec. 11, the heat shield endured temperatures up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,800 degrees Celsius), about half as hot as the surface of the sun.
Technicians inspect the Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft’s heat shield at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo released Jan. 6, 2023. (Image credit: NASA/Skip Williams)
These ongoing inspections will inform preparations for the Artemis 2 mission, which is scheduled to launch astronauts around the moon in 2024.
If all goes well with that flight, NASA can start gearing up for Artemis 3, which will land crewmembers near the moon’s south pole, where the agency plans to build a research outpost by the end of the decade. Artemis 3 is targeted to lift off in 2025 or 2026.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
Slightly more mature, a little more powerful, and all the way stylish – that is how we could describe the sixth-generation FL5 Honda Civic Type R. But how about the opposite of forgetful?
The Japanese automaker has always been a little experimental when it came to compact car shenanigans, so both the regular Civic and its high-performance Type R counterpart have been great examples of that. But, from now on, things are getting a lot more serious.
And that would only be logical – you can only do such quirky stuff for so long, but not when your Civic has reached the eleventh generation, and the 2023 Civic Type R is already at its sixth iteration, as well. Naturally, there have been a lot of opinions regarding the new looks (as the technical specifications are still a mystery at this point), both in the real world and across the virtual realm.
As far as the latter is concerned, some were keen to point out its new style could be trickled down to smaller models such as the City hatchback, morph into a sportier two-door Coupe, or serve as the cool basis for lots of aftermarket enhancements, even if only digitally, for now. But there is also one pixel master that wants us to know the Civic remembers. Not the North, but rather its origins.
Siim Parn, the Estonia-based virtual artist, better known as spdesignsest on social media, has ditched the neo-retro designs for something modern once again. And we are properly enjoying this series, which so far includes the 2023 VW Amarok getting its first CGI tuning job (a widebody overlander!), the ubiquitous Rolls-Royce Cullinan transformed into a Landaulet-type “White Mammoth,” and now this – a much slimmer 2023 Honda Civic Type R Three-Door Hot Hatch.
As far as we can tell, the inspiration is simple – the original EK9 (based on the sixth-gen Civic) was exactly that, a minimalistic, no-frills three-door hatchback. Additionally, the second-gen EP3 was more of the same – but this imagined design can also draw big roots from the third-generation FN2 European and international model produced in Swindon, UK, from 2007 to 2011.
Similarly, after his brief run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000, he conceded the race to the eventual winner, George W. Bush, with centrist magnanimity. “I like the fact that he can reach across partisan lines,” Mr. Hatch said of Mr. Bush. “We can’t just take a narrow agenda and just narrowly be for a few people in this country. We’ve got to be for everybody.”
For all his conservative credentials, Mr. Hatch had a longstanding and genuine friendship with Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the quintessential liberal Democrat. They spoke often and shared legislative accomplishments, including programs to assist AIDS patients, protect the disabled from discrimination and provide health insurance for the working poor. Mr. Hatch delivered a moving eulogy at Mr. Kennedy’s funeral in 2009.
The New York Times in 1981 described Mr. Hatch as “an aggressive, ambitious man who, as much as anything, resembles a minister making his rounds.” He was, in fact, a bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Away from Capitol Hill, he led a quiet married life, the father of six children. He jogged, golfed and had an athlete’s trim look, even after his dark hair turned white.
Boxing and Pop Songs
Senators, even Republicans, called him relatively humorless. His idea of a good joke, on himself, was a video that caught him trying to remove glasses he was not wearing during a contentious Senate hearing. It went viral online. A spokesman said he laughed at himself when he saw it, and created a fake Warby Parker page implying that invisible glasses were the new rage.
Mr. Hatch had been an amateur boxer in his youth, with 11 bouts to his credit. He was also a pianist, a violinist and an organist, who wrote songs for pop groups and folk singers. In the early 1970s, he was the band manager for a Mormon-themed folk group, “Free Agency.” He also wrote books on politics and religion, and articles for periodicals and newspapers, including The Times.
He was 42 years old, a tall, slim Salt Lake City lawyer, when he went to Washington in 1977 after defeating a three-term Democratic incumbent with the help of an endorsement — for “Warren Hatch” — from Ronald Reagan. The former California governor lost his bid for the Republican presidential nomination to President Gerald R. Ford but would sweep into office with his conservative revolution in 1980, counting Mr. Hatch as an ally.As a Senate freshman, Mr. Hatch found mentors among its deepest conservatives — the Democrats James O. Eastland of Mississippi and Jim Allen of Alabama, and the Democrat-turned-Republican Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. He did not, however, share their ardor for racial segregation.
But he offered himself as a rising young protégé, and they taught him how to pass and block legislation, stage filibusters, build coalitions and horse-trade behind the scenes. In time, he became chairman of the Finance and Judiciary Committees, which wrote tax legislation and confirmed federal judges, and a power on committees that ruled the fate of health, education and labor bills.
Hatch, the former Senate president pro tempore, served in the chamber for 42 years from 1977 to 2019. The Hatch Foundation confirmed his death in a release, which did not include a cause.
“A man of wisdom, kindness, character, and compassion, Orrin G. Hatch was everything a United States Senator should be,” said A. Scott Anderson, chairman of the Hatch Foundation. “He exemplified a generation of lawmakers brought up on the principles of comity and compromise, and he embodied those principles better than anyone. In a nation divided, Orrin Hatch helped show us a better way by forging meaningful friendships on both sides of the aisle.”
An ardent conservative, Hatch favored corporate tax cuts, limited government, deregulation and military spending during his time in office. He consistently voted against gay rights, abortion and stricter gun laws; he reached across the aisle on issues including AIDs education and stem cell research as well as the DREAM Act.
As the ranking Republican on the Senate finance committee, Hatch ushered in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Job Act during the Trump administration, which was lauded as the biggest tax code change in three decades and criticized for favoring corporations and the wealthy.
Hatch also drew criticism for helping then-President Donald Trump dismantle the Bears Ears and the Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah.
Hatch announced in January 2018 that he wouldn’t seek re-election, shortly after his local newspaper The Salt Lake Tribune called for him to step down. His retirement cleared the way for Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican and 2012 presidential candidate, to return to elected office by running for and winning his seat. Romney was and remains a critic of Trump.
Ahead of the Hatch’s retirement announcement, then-President Trump urged him to stay in Washington. During a 2017 event in Utah, Trump called Hatch “a true fighter” and said he hoped the Republican would continue to serve “in the Senate for a very long time to come.”
At the time of Hatch’s retirement announcement, then-White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump was “very sad to see Senator Hatch leave.”
Hatch spoke at the time about growing partisanship in Congress.
“My heart is heavy because it aches for the times when we actually lived up to our reputation as the world’s greatest deliberative body. It longs for the days in which Democrats and Republicans would meet on middle ground rather than retreat to partisan trenches,” Hatch said in a farewell speech on the Senate floor in December 2018.
Political legacy
Hatch served through the administrations of seven US Presidents and worked with nine Senate majority leaders. During his time in office, he served as chairman of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Finance Committee. In 2000, Hatch made a bid for the Republican presidential nomination but lost to former President George W. Bush.
He authored and co-authored several pieces of historic legislation such as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Americans with Disabilities Act, his foundation’s release said.
Hatch’s tenure on the Judiciary Committee included the confirmation of Justice Clarence Thomas in 1991. During Thomas’ Senate confirmation hearings, Hatch suggested that Anita Hill, who had testified that Thomas sexually harassed her when he was her boss, had concocted some of her claims. (President Joe Biden was chair of the Judiciary Committee at the time.) He was also supportive of Trump nominees to the high court Neil Gorsuch in 2017 and Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.
The late former lawmaker was also the chairman emeritus of the Hatch Foundation, which focuses on civic engagement and political discourse and is home to his legislative records.
“Senator Orrin G. Hatch personified the American Dream,” Matt Sandgren, executive director of the Hatch Foundation, said in its release.
“Born the son of a carpenter and plaster lather, he overcame the poverty of his youth to become a United States Senator. With the hardships of his upbringing always fresh in his mind, he made it his life’s mission to expand freedom and opportunity for others—and the results speak for themselves. From tax and trade to religious liberty and healthcare, few legislators have had a greater impact on American life than Orrin Hatch,” Sandgren said.
Elected officials and fellow Republicans responded to the news of Hatch’s death Saturday.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, praised Hatch’s leadership for driving “an unending catalog of major legislative accomplishments and landmark confirmations.”
Romney on Twitter recognized Hatch as “a man of vision and unparalleled legislative accomplishment.”
“Our judiciary, our economy and our national character are more elevated and more secure thanks to his years of leadership,” he said.
Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee called Hatch “a giant of the Senate and a pillar” in their state.
“Orrin was a friend, a mentor, and an example to me and countless others. I saw countless times how his brilliant mind, quick wit, and care for his nation, his state, and his colleagues turned pernicious problems into clear paths forward,” Lee said on Twitter. “His example of dedicated, principled statesmanship and consistent collegiality is missed but will never be forgotten.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, said on Twitter that Hatch “was kind to me and we worked together well. There were a lot of differences including party, height, age…you name it…but somehow we always looked for common ground.”
“This breaks my heart,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, said in a tweet. “Abby and I are so grateful for the opportunities we had to spend time with this incredible public servant. He was always so kind and generous with his time and wisdom. Utah mourns with the Hatch family.”
Hatch was born in 1934 and grew up in a poor mill town outside of Pittsburgh. He had spoken of how the loss at an early age of his brother Jesse, who died during World War II, affected him. A devout Mormon, Hatch was a prolific writer of religious music. In the late ’60s, Hatch moved to Utah where he practiced law and raised a family.
Hatch is survived by his wife, Elaine, and their six children.
This story has been updated with additional information.
This undated photo courtesy of Lida Xing and the University of Birmingham shows the oviraptorosaur embryo ‘Baby Yingliang’ found in the Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, southern China.
Scientists on Tuesday announced the discovery of an exquisitely preserved dinosaur embryo from at least 66 million years ago that was preparing to hatch from its egg just like a chicken.
The fossil was discovered in Ganzhou, southern China and belonged to a toothless theropod dinosaur, or oviraptorosaur, which the researchers dubbed “Baby Yingliang.”
“It is one of the best dinosaur embryos ever found in history,” University of Birmingham researcher Fion Waisum Ma, who co-authored a paper in the journal iScience, told AFP.
Ma and colleagues found Baby Yingliang’s head lay below its body, with the feet on either side and back curled—a posture that was previously unseen in dinosaurs, but similar to modern birds.
In birds, the behavior is controlled by the central nervous system and called “tucking.” Chicks preparing to hatch tuck their head under their right wing in order to stabilize the head while they crack the shell with their beak.
Embryos that fail to tuck have a higher chance of death from an unsuccessful hatching.
“This indicates that such behavior in modern birds first evolved and originated among their dinosaur ancestors,” said Ma.
An alternative to tucking might have been something closer to what is seen in modern crocodiles, which instead assume a sitting posture with the head bending upon the chest up to hatching.
This undated illustration courtesy of Lida Xing and University of Birmingham shows a rendition of a close-to-hatching oviraptorosaur dinosaur embryo, which is based on the new specimen ‘Baby Yingliang’ found in the Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, southern China.
Forgotten in storage
Oviraptorosaurs, which means “egg thief lizards,” were feathered dinosaurs that lived in what is now Asia and North America during the Late Cretaceous period.
They had variable beak shapes and diets, and ranged in size from modern turkeys at the lower end to massive Gigantoraptors, that were eight meters (26 feet) long.
Baby Yingliang measures around 27 centimeters (10.6 inches) long from head to tail, and lies inside a 17 centimeter-long egg at the Yingliang Stone Nature History Museum.
Researchers believe the creature is between 72 and 66 million years old, and was probably preserved by a sudden mudslide that buried the egg, protecting it from scavengers for eons.
It would have grown two to three meters long if it had lived to be an adult, and would have likely fed on plants.
The specimen was one of several egg fossils that were forgotten in storage for decades.
The research team suspected they might contain unborn dinosaurs, and scraped off part of Baby Yingliang’s egg shell to uncover the embryo hidden within.
“This dinosaur embryo inside its egg is one of the most beautiful fossils I have ever seen,” said Professor Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh, part of the research team, in a statement.
“This little prenatal dinosaur looks just like a baby bird curled in its egg, which is yet more evidence that many features characteristic of today’s birds first evolved in their dinosaur ancestors.”
The team hopes to study Baby Yingliang in greater detail using advanced scanning techniques to image its full skeleton, including its skull bones, because part of the body is still covered by rock.
Exquisitely preserved embryo found inside fossilized dinosaur egg
More information:
Waisum Ma et al, An exquisitely preserved in-ovo theropod dinosaur embryo sheds light on avian-like prehatching postures, iScience (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.103516. www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext … 2589-0042(21)01487-5
Citation:
Perfectly preserved dinosaur embryo was preparing to hatch like a bird (2021, December 26)
retrieved 27 December 2021
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Prudential, Citi, HSBC, BlackRock devising coal plan
Initiative aims to secure funding at COP26 summit
ADB preparing feasibility study on early closures
LONDON/MELBOURNE, Aug 3 (Reuters) – Financial firms including British insurer Prudential, lenders Citi and HSBC and BlackRock Real Assets are devising plans to speed the closure of Asia’s coal-fired power plants in order to lower the biggest source of carbon emissions, five people with knowledge of the initiative said.
The novel proposal, which includes the Asian Development Bank (ADB), offers a potentially workable model and early talks with Asian governments and multilateral banks are promising, the sources told Reuters.
The group plans to create public-private partnerships to buy out the plants and wind them down within 15 years, far sooner than their usual life, giving workers time to retire or find new jobs and allowing countries to shift to renewable energy sources.
It aims to have a model ready for the COP26 climate conference which is being held in Glasgow, Scotland in November.
The initiative comes as commercial and development banks, under pressure from large investors, pull back from financing new power plants in order to meet climate targets.
An ADB executive told Reuters that a first purchase under the proposed scheme, which will comprise a mix of equity, debt and concessional finance, could come as soon as next year.
“If you can come up with an orderly way to replace those plants sooner and retire them sooner, but not overnight, that opens up a more predictable, massively bigger space for renewables,” Donald Kanak, chairman of Prudential’s (PRU.L) Insurance Growth Markets, told Reuters.
Coal-fired power accounts for about a fifth of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, making it the biggest polluter.
The proposed mechanism entails raising low cost, blended finance which would be used for a carbon reduction facility, while a separate facility would fund renewable incentives.
HSBC (HSBA.L) declined to comment on the plan.
Finding a way for developing nations in Asia, which has the world’s newest fleet of coal plants and more under construction, to make the most of the billions already spent and switch to renewables has proved a major challenge.
The International Energy Agency expects global coal demand to rise 4.5% in 2021, with Asia making up 80% of that growth.
Meanwhile, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is calling for a drop in coal-fired electricity from 38% to 9% of global generation by 2030 and to 0.6% by 2050.
MAKING IT VIABLE
The proposed carbon reduction facility would buy and operate coal-fired power plants, at a lower cost of capital than is available to commercial plants, allowing them to run at a wider margin but for less time in order to generate similar returns.
The cash flow would repay debt and investors.
Reuters Image
The other facility would be used to jump start investments in renewables and storage to take over the energy load from the plants as it grows, attracting finance on its own.
The model is already familiar to infrastructure investors who rely on blended finance in so-called public-private deals, backed by government-financed institutions.
In this case, development banks would take the biggest risk by agreeing to take first loss as holders of junior debt as well as accepting a lower return, according to the proposal.
“To make this viable on more than one or two plants, you’ve got to get private investors,” Michael Paulus, head of Citi’s Asia-Pacific public sector group, who is involved in the initiative, told Reuters.
“There are some who are interested but they are not going to do it for free. They may not need a normal return of 10-12%, they may do it for less. But they are not going to accept 1 or 2%. We are trying to figure out some way to make this work.”
The framework has already been presented to ASEAN finance ministers, the European Commission and European development officials, Kanak, who co-chairs the ASEAN Hub of the Sustainable Development Investment Partnership, said.
Details still to be finalised include ways to encourage coal plant owners to sell, what to do with the plants once they are retired, any rehabilitation requirements, and what role if any carbon credits may play.
The firms aim to attract finance and other commitments at COP26, when governments will be asked to commit to more ambitious emissions targets and increase financing for countries most vulnerable to climate change.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has re-entered the Paris climate accord and is pushing for ambitious reductions of carbon emissions, while in July, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the heads of major development banks, including ADB and the World Bank, to devise plans to mobilize more capital to fight climate change and support emission cuts. read more
A Treasury official told Reuters that the plans for coal plant retirement are among the types of projects that Yellen wants banks to pursue, adding the administration is “interested in accelerating coal transitions” to tackle the climate crisis.
ASIA STEPS
As part of the group’s proposal, the ADB has allocated around $1.7 million for feasibility studies covering Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam, to estimate the costs of early closure, which assets could be acquired, and engage with governments and other stakeholders.
“We would like to do the first (coal plant) acquisition in 2022,” ADB Vice President Ahmed M. Saeed told Reuters, adding the mechanism could be scaled up and used as a template for other regions, if successful. It is already in discussions about extending this work to other countries in Asia, he added.
To retire 50% of a country’s capacity early at $1 million-$1.8 million per megawatt suggests Indonesia would require a total facility of roughly $16-$29 billion, while Philippines would be about $5-$9 billion and Vietnam around $9-$17 billion, according to estimates by Prudential’s Kanak.
One challenge that needs to be tackled is the potential risk of moral hazard, said Nick Robins, a London School of Economics sustainable finance professor.
“There’s a longstanding principle that the polluter should pay. We need to make absolutely sure that we are not paying the polluter, but rather paying for accelerated transition,” he said.
Additional reporting by David Lawder in Washington; Editing by Amran Abocar and Alexander Smith
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
The incident took place during the Classic Touring Car Racing Club’s Pre 93 & Pre 03 Touring Car race, when two drivers made contact along the start-finish straight during the opening laps.
One car was sent into the barrier on the outside of the circuit where it was launched into the air and collided with a marshal’s post.
The race was immediately halted while emergency crews attended the scene, including the air ambulance while Kent Police confirmed they were called shortly before 3pm “following a collision involving a car and a person on foot”.
Shortly after 9pm, BARC released a statement confirming one marshal had died in the incident.
“The British Automobile Racing Club is saddened to confirm that as a result of an accident that occurred during a race meeting at Brands Hatch circuit today (Saturday 31 July), a volunteer marshal tragically lost their life,” read a statement.
“The rest of the day’s racing activity was cancelled.
“As with any major incident, the BARC is now working with the national governing body, Motorsport UK, and the local police.
“On behalf of everyone connected with the BARC, we are devastated by loss of one of the amazing volunteer marshal community who do so much to enable the sport to take place. Our thoughts and best wishes are with the family and friends of all those involved.
“It is anticipated that the event will resume on Sunday.”
There has been no official update on the condition of the driver.
