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Science

Senate Democrats send a strong signal of support for Artemis Moon program

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Enlarge / NASA has named a cadre of “Artemis Astronauts,” but the program’s future is uncertain.

NASA

One of the biggest questions about space policy under the Biden administration is whether the president will embrace the Artemis Moon program set into motion by the Trump White House. This plan called for a return of humans to the Moon and the build up over time of a lunar base. Former Vice President Mike Pence set an aggressive timeline for the first Moon landing to occur—2024.

It has been clear for many months that this timeline was unattainable, and the final nail in the coffin came in December, when Congress provided just $850 million for a Human Landing System in the fiscal year 2021 budget. This is only one-quarter of what NASA said it needed to have any hope of making the 2024 landing date.

Congress steps up

Because of this middling funding level it was not clear how supportive Congress was of the Artemis plan. But on Wednesday, 11 Democratic senators sent a letter to the Biden administration urging support for the Human Landing System program, which is the critical hardware needed to enable a human return to the Moon.

“Developing the next generation crewed lunar lander is an essential step in returning astronauts to the Moon for the first time in half a century, including the historic milestone of landing the first woman on the Moon,” states the letter.

The letter appears to have been spurred by NASA’s decision to delay a down-select of three teams currently working to develop lunar landers; one is led by Blue Origin, a second by Dynetics, and a third by SpaceX. Signatories from the letter include senators from several states represented by Blue Origin’s “National Team,” including Colorado and Washington. Not surprisingly, the letter emphasizes the jobs this program will yield.

After a 10-month base period that began last year, during which each team refined details of their proposals, NASA was due to choose two proposals this month to move forward into development. However, last week the agency said it was delaying that decision by 60 days for additional evaluation. This is likely because NASA wanted to give the Biden administration more time to determine its path forward on Artemis.

The senators wrote that NASA should stick to its original timeline. “We urge you to proceed with the planned selection and to include all necessary funding for (the Human Landing System) in your FY 2022 budget request,” the letter said.

It is curious that the senators do not acknowledge that it was Congress who failed to provide the full funding requested by the White House for lunar landers this year, not the other way around. But all the same, this seems like a fairly strong statement of intent that the Senate will support the lander program going forward.

Et tu, Biden?

The Biden administration has barely been in office for two weeks, and it has a lot on its plate. So perhaps it is not surprising that a nominee for administrator has not yet been named, nor a space policy been outlined in detail. Such details typically do not come out early in new administrations. The need to now make (or punt) on a decision on the lunar landers will offer us an early glimpse of the Biden administration’s intentions toward human spaceflight.

During Wednesday’s press briefing at the White House, FOX News’ Kristin Fisher asked about space. (Fisher has cred on the subject; she’s the daughter of two space shuttle astronauts). One of her questions asked Press Secretary Jen Psaki about the Artemis program and where the Biden administration stood on the subject.

“I am personally interested in space,” Psaki responded. “I think it’s a fascinating area of study. But I have not spoken with our team about this particular program.” She promised to get more information and follow up with Fisher. As of Thursday morning, we’ve yet to see additional information.

There is a path forward here for President Biden if he wants to approach space in a bipartisan manner. Although this letter came from Democrats, there are plenty of Republicans in Congress who support the Artemis plan outlined by the Trump administration. Everyone (including the senators, who did not mention a landing date in their letter) would probably agree that a 2026 or a 2028 Moon landing is more realistic under the current budget, with only modest increases necessary.

“Proposing to grow NASA to accommodate both Artemis and a renewed investment in its science programs would be an easy political win for the Biden administration if they wish to take it.” Casey Dreier of The Planetary Society told Ars.

So what happens now? It’s likely that the Biden administration will be forced to accelerate its timeline on space policy at a time when a slate of new hires is only just settling in—an acting chief of staff, Bhavya Lal, was just named last week after all. Ultimately, the smart bet is that while the Artemis program may be modified to some extent, it could very well continue.

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World

Russia: Protests in support of Alexey Navalny get under way

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Navalny’s supporters said they were planning nationwide protests in at least 120 cities, with each due to start at midday local time in that city. The country covers 11 timezones.

Live video feeds and social media videos show crowds of people gathering in a number of cities, chanting “Putin is a thief,” in reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Navalny was detained on January 17, moments after arriving in Moscow, following months of treatment in Germany after being poisoned in August 2020 with nerve agent Novichok. He blamed the poisoning on the Russian government, an allegation the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.

The politician is currently in custody ahead of a court hearing on February 2 where a court will decide whether his suspended sentence on fraud charges in a 2014 embezzlement case should be converted into a jail term due to what Russian authorities say is the violation of the terms of his suspended sentence.

Navalny appeared by video link Thursday at a court hearing at which his appeal against his detention ahead of next week’s hearing was rejected. He remains at Matrosskaya Tishina detention center, in the northeast of the capital.

Speaking at that hearing, Navalny urged protesters to keep coming out.

“They are the last barrier that prevents those in power from stealing everything. They are the real patriots,” he said. “You will not be able to intimidate us — we are the majority.”

Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs warned Russian citizens not to take part in the “unauthorized” protests. “The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia calls on citizens to refrain from participating in unauthorized protests,” the ministry said in an Instagram post.

Russian federal law requires organizers to file an appeal with local authorities at least 10 days in advance to obtain permission to hold a protest.

Navalny’s team announced via their social media accounts new gathering points for protesters in the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg after Russian authorities blocked off certain streets and metro stations ahead of the rallies.

Security forces could be seen out in force in the streets of central Moscow early Sunday, including in Lubyanka Square, home to the headquarters of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).

According to OVD-Info, an independent site that monitors arrests, 519 people have been detained so far across Russia over the unsanctioned protests. This number is expected to increase.

Live video from protests in the Russian city of Novosibirsk, in Siberia, showed police detaining drivers who were honking their car horns in support of the protesters. In response, demonstrators were heard chanting: “Let them go!”

People could be seen with their elbows linked, forming chains, chanting “Freedom!” and “Give back our money!” as they stood in front of the city hall in the center of Novosibirsk. Rows of riot police were standing in front of them.

Protesters marching along the snowy streets could be heard chanting: “Russia without Putin!” and “one for all, and all for one.”

Authorities announced ahead of Sunday’s protests that certain streets in the center of Moscow would be closed off, seven metro stations would be shut and that no alcohol could be sold in glass containers all day.

Additionally, the Moscow mayor’s office said that cafes, restaurants and other catering facilities would be closed in the city center on Sunday, according to Russian state media agency TASS.

More than 2,100 people, including Navalny’s wife, Yulia, were arrested last weekend at rallies in nearly 100 cities, including St. Petersburg and Moscow, according to OVD-Info.

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Technology

GeForce Now game streaming starts to roll out Chrome support

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If you’d like to try NVIDIA’s cloud gaming service without installing the app, then you may be able to access it via your computer’s browser now. XDA points out that release notes for version 2.0.27 of GeForce Now reveal beta support for the Chrome browser on Windows and macOS, however some users are reporting they’re still on older versions. As far as other platforms like other browsers or Linux, they “may work” but are unsupported for now.

If you’re a customer in the properly enabled group, then simply browsing to the website is enough to get going. NVIDIA has also added way to share GeForce Now by simply sending a link to your friends, a new +Shortcut button to put games right on your desktop, plus support for Apple’s new M1 powered Macs.

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Science

NASA may change MRO orbit to support Mars 2020

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WASHINGTON — NASA is considering changing the orbit of one of its oldest Mars spacecraft, a move intended to support the Mars 2020 mission after landing but which could affect both its science and support of other missions.

NASA launched the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) in 2005 with a suite of six science instruments, including a high-resolution camera. The spacecraft has increasingly been used as a communications relay, supporting spacecraft on the surface of Mars.

In 2018, concerned about aging components on the spacecraft, NASA proposed a potential change to the spacecraft’s orbit. MRO is currently in a sun-synchronous orbit that passes over surface at midafternoon. NASA proposed shifting the spacecraft into an orbit with a crossing time later in the day to reduce the amount of time in each orbit the spacecraft is in the planet’s shadow. That would reduce the workload on the spacecraft’s batteries and extend their lives.

At the time, NASA said it would defer a decision until after the landings of the InSight mission in November 2018 and Mars 2020 in February 2021. With Mars 2020 now weeks away from landing, that decision on whether to change MRO’s orbit is coming due.

“Our intent is to make a decision following the landing and initial operations of Mars 2020,” Eric Ianson, director of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, said at a Jan. 27 meeting of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG).

While the change in orbit is intended to extend MRO’s life, some Mars scientists are concerned it could disrupt science. The different orbit would make it more difficult to compare new observations with earlier ones. It could also affect MRO’s ability to provide support to other missions, such as the Curiosity rover.

“We want to make sure we fully understand the benefits of staying in the current orbit and adjusting the orbit,” Ianson said. “I think people notionally have an idea about that, but I don’t think we’ve fully examined it and had a really in-depth discussion about it.”

Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program, said at the MEPAG meeting that a potential change in the spacecraft’s orbit could have “a few other complications,” such as support for both Curiosity and the European Space Agency’s ExoMars mission, now scheduled for launch in 2022 after it missed its mid-2020 launch window.

“We’re going to revisit it” after the Mars 2020 landing, he said, “and do what the real trades are, and make a decision on what the best thing is to do for overall Mars science.”

The communications infrastructure at Mars is a growing concern for scientists and mission planners. NASA has relied on orbiters launched primarily for science missions to serve as relays, including MRO as well as Mars Odyssey, launched in 2001, and MAVEN, launched in 2013.

Proposals in recent years for new orbiter missions either devoted to communications or with communications as one of their primary roles have made little progress. The most recent concept, presented at meetings in late 2020, called for a network of three satellites with intersatellite links to provide continuous high-bandwidth communications for spacecraft both on the surface and in orbit. Those spacecraft could be developed in some kind of commercial partnership.

That concept is most closely tied to Mars Ice Mapper, a mission still in early development that will fly a radar mapping payload to look for subsurface ice deposits to support future robotic or human missions. That communications network, NASA officials said, would increase the amount of data that mission could return by a factor of 100.

Both Mars Ice Mapper and the proposed communications network will not launch until later in the decade, if approved. Ianson said a decision on changing MRO’s orbit to support Mars 2020 will be made “in the coming months.”

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World

Kremlin: US statements about pro-Navalny protests show ‘direct support for the violation of the law’

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Kremlin officials blasted the U.S. government for expressing support for protests that swept Russia in support of arrested opposition leader Alexei Navalny, accusing the U.S. of backing violations of the law.

The protests, which drew tens of thousands of demonstrators, led police to make thousands of arrests. U.S. officials making statements in support of the demonstrators and condemning the police response included the U.S. embassy in Moscow, the State Department, Sen. Ben SasseBen SasseFormer official acknowledges final days in office a ‘black eye’ for Trump Republican senators and courage The next pandemic may be cyber — How Biden administration can stop it MORE (R-Neb.) and Rep. Michael McCaulMichael Thomas McCaulCheney tests Trump grip on GOP post-presidency US ambassador to Israel Twitter account briefly includes West Bank, Gaza Biden urged to reverse Pompeo-Trump move on Houthis MORE (R-Texas), the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“The U.S. supports the right of all people to peaceful protest, freedom of expression,” embassy spokeswoman Rebecca Ross tweeted. “Steps being taken by Russian authorities are suppressing those rights.”

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for President Vladimir PutinVladimir Vladimirovich PutinRussian protesters pelt police with snowballs as more than 2,000 arrested Russia arrests hundreds of protesters demanding release of Kremlin critic Navalny What might have been, if Trump had not acted as his own worst enemy MORE, said in a statement that U.S. officials’ reactions “indirectly constitute absolute interference in our internal affairs” and are “direct support for the violation of the law of the Russian Federation, support for unauthorized actions,” according to The Associated Press.

“[M]any will say that many people came out for the illegal actions,” Peskov added. “No, few people came out; many people vote for Putin.”

Navalny became ill on a domestic flight last year and was rushed to a German hospital, which diagnosed him as having been poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok.

After his discharge from the hospital, Russia’s prison agency informed him that he would be in violation of the terms of a 2014 suspended sentence unless he returned to Russia immediately. Navalny returned to Moscow last weekend, five months after leaving Russia, and was arrested at the airport.

Navalny is set to appear for a court hearing Feb. 2.



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US

Sanders threatens to advance coronavirus stimulus with reconciliation if Republicans refuse support

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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Sunday that Democrats will move pass a COVID-19 relief package through reconciliation, a special process that allows for a 51-majority vote, rather than the 60 votes normally required to advance legislation, if Republicans do not quickly express support for the $1.9 trillion bill.

Sanders, the incoming chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said in an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” that unlike Republicans who used reconciliation to pass a tax cut bill and attempt to repeal Obamacare, Democrats will use 50 votes in the Senate, plus Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote, to “pass legislation desperately needed by working families in this country right now.”

BERNIE SANDERS ON DEMS GETTING LEGISLATION THROUGH WITH FILIBUSTER: ‘DAMN RIGHT WE WILL’

“If Republicans are willing to work with us to address that crisis, welcome – let’s do it. But what we cannot do is wait weeks and weeks and months to go forward. We’ve got to act now. That’s what the American people want,” Sanders told CNN anchor Dana Bash.

“These are major policy changes, and I criticized Republicans for using reconciliation to give tax breaks to billions to create a situation where large profitable corporations now pay zero in federal income taxes. Yes, I did criticize them for that,” Sanders said. “And if they want to criticize me for helping to feed children who are hungry – or senior citizens who are isolated and alone and don’t have enough food, they can criticize me. I think it’s the appropriate step forward.”

Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, said the Senate must break through the “old approach” that it could take years to get anything done, arguing that, “we don’t have time to sit around weeks on impeachment and not get vaccines into the arms of people.”

“We can chew bubble gum and walk at the same time. The American people are hurting and they want us to act. That’s what our candidates ran for in this election,” Sanders said, claiming that’s why Democrats narrowly won back the Senate. “That’s what the guys in Georgia won on and we have got to reaffirm the faith in the American people in government that we can respond to their pain.”

Reconciliation provides a fast-track process to consider bills to implement the policy choices embodied in the annual congressional budget resolution. Unlike other bills, reconciliation bills cannot be stalled by a filibuster and only need a simple majority in the Senate, instead of the usual 60-vote supermajority.

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That means in the currently divided 50-50 Senate, the newly sworn-in Harris would cast the tie-breaking 51st vote to give Democrats the slimmest majority. Special rules have been designed to protect the rights of the minority party.

Sanders has signaled a willingness to pass legislation without GOP support by using this special process that’s reserved for tax and fiscal matters. The first test could be Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief legislation that is the first priority for the new Democratic administration.

Biden’s COVID-19 proposal also includes a provision to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, vaccine funding, money for schools and state and local governments — priorities that may not fit into budget reconciliation rules. Democrats may be required to pick up GOP votes or compromise for a smaller package that has bipartisan support.

During the 115th Congress, Republicans used reconciliation twice to pursue their policy goals, according to a House Committee on the Budget report published in October 2020.

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In the final months of 2017, the House and Senate approved a reconciliation measure to cut taxes mostly for the wealthy and corporations and to eliminate the penalty for not having health insurance. The Congressional Budget Office estimated at the time that the legislation would add $1.5 trillion to federal deficits over 10 years, which has been revised to $1.9 trillion. President Trump signed this legislation into law on Dec. 22, 2017.

Earlier in that same year, Republicans attempted to use reconciliation to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. The House approved a reconciliation measure to repeal major provisions of the health care law and cap federal funding for Medicaid, but the Senate failed to get the needed votes to advance a bill.

Fox News’ Marisa Schultz contributed to this report.

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World

Protests in support of jailed opposition leader Navalny sweep across Russia

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The demonstrations kicked off in Russia’s far east city of Vladivostok and spread to the west as the day progressed. Videos posted on social media showed crowds of people gathered in Vladivostok and a number of cities across Siberia and central Russia.

One video showed a small protest in the city of Yakutsk, where temperatures dropped to -53 degrees Celsius (- 63 Fahrenheit) on Saturday.

The demonstrations have not received an official government permit and the authorities have warned people not to attend them.

Several allies of Navalny have been detained this week for inciting the protests, including his spokesperson Kira Yarmysh, Anti-Corruption Foundation investigator Georgy Alburov and opposition activist Lyubov Sobol.

The coordinator of Navalny’s Moscow office, Oleg Stepanov, was detained on Saturday, according to a tweet from Navalny’s Moscow team. A protest in the Russian capital was due to start at 2 p.m. local time (6 a.m ET).

The Russian Ministry of Foreign affairs has accused the United States of encouraging the protests after the US Embassy in Russia posted an alert on its website advising US citizens to avoid the demonstrations.

In a tweet posted on Saturday, the ministry said that posting information about the rallies was “in line with Washington’s provocative policy of encouraging protests in countries whose governments are seen by US as undesirable.”

Under Russian law, an official appeal for approval of a protest has to be made to local authorities at least 10 days before the event. Navalny was only arrested less than a week ago, so the organizers had insufficient time to launch an appeal.

Navalny was detained at a Moscow airport late Sunday, just moments after arriving from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from Novichok poisoning he blamed on the Russian government. The Kremlin repeatedly denied any involvement.
On Monday, he faced an unexpected hearing where a judge ordered Navalny to remain in custody for 30 days ahead of a court hearing to determine whether he had violated the terms of his suspended sentence in a 2014 embezzlement case, which he claims was politically motivated.

Russian internet regulator said Thursday it was planning to fine major social networks, including Twitter, Facebook and TikTok, for “spreading information prohibited by law and aimed at attracting minors to participate in unauthorized mass public events.”

CNN’s Fred Pleitgen, Zahra Ullah and Anna Chernova in Moscow contributed reporting.

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World

Putin critic finds support from NHL star Artemi Panarin on social media

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New York Rangers forward Artemi Panarin posted a picture to Instagram on Thursday showing support for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was arrested on Sunday several months after he was poisoned. 

Panarin, a native Russian, posted the picture of Navalny, his wife and their two children with the caption “Freedom for Navalny.”

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Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most well-known critic, was arrested on Sunday when he returned to Russia from Germany, where he had spent five months recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin.

Panarin declined to comment further on the post through a Rangers spokesperson, ESPN reported. 

This isn’t the first time the Rangers alternate captain has spoken out against Putin. In a 2019 interview, he criticized the Russian president saying that he “no longer understands what’s right and what’s wrong.”

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“Psychologically, it’s not easy for him to judge the situation soberly,” Panarin said at the time, via Sports Illustrated. “He has a lot of people who influence his decisions. But if everyone is walking around you for 20 years telling you what a great guy you are and how great a job you are doing, you will never see your mistakes.”

Panarin’s post comes just days ahead of planned protests against Navalny’s detention.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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