#01

The International Space Station has a slight problem: its leaking. To be fair, the station always leaks a tiny bit of air into space, but a leak that was originally reported a year ago has been getting worse. To help find where it's coming from, the three onboard astronauts hunkered down in a single module for a weekend in August. That allowed ground controllers to isolate other regions of the station and look for the source. And, well, they're still trying to figure it out. Don't worry though, the astronauts are safe and at no risk of running out of air! The station carries extra compressed air to make up for expected losses.

The space station was deemed 'finished' in 2011 after the shuttle finished hauling all the major components up. I was surprised to learn that there's still a missing piece: a Russian research module called Nauka. Nauka was originally the backup for Zarya, the very first component of the station to be launched way back in 1998. After over a decade of delays, Nauka is being prepared for launch to the station itself by mid-2021. Also included in the package is a new 37 foot robotic arm built by the European space agency way back in 2007.

#02

Scientists interested in studying the deep ocean can use sound waves to probe thousands of miles away and learn about marine life, geology, and human activities underwater. The problem is that all the sound gets mixed up and it's hard to isolate particular sources. To combat this issue, the Woods Hole Oceanic Institute has plans for an underwater acoustic telescope. "Analogous to an optical telescope focusing on distant objects in space, this 30-foot diameter, six-armed, star-shaped array of hydrophones will be capable of tuning in to acoustic sources tens to hundreds or even thousands of miles away, isolating them from other background sounds."

#03

NASA and Boeing have released new test dates for the company's much-maligned Starliner capsule. Boeing is planning to re-fly an uncrewed test mission in November or December, approximately a year after their first attempt came close to a catastrophic failure. That would line Boeing up for their first manned flight sometime next summer.

Assuming those test flights are successful, Boeing will start to regularly ferry astronauts to and from the station in late 2021. Astronaut Jeanette Epps was recently added to the first of such flights. Epps will be the first African American woman to make a long term stay aboard the station.

#04

Jacques Cousteau basically invented recreational scuba diving in the 1940s and is credited with raising public awareness and excitement about oceans through various books and documentaries. Now his grandson, Fabien Cousteau, is hoping to build on his family's legacy by constructing a new 4,000 sqft underwater research lab named Proteus. That's 10x larger than the world's only operational undersea habitat. Aquanauts (people who spend a long enough time underwater that their bodies adapt to the pressure) could spend weeks or months on Proteus to enable scientific research in the underwater environment, much the same way astronauts do on the space station. 

#05

"Located around 1,600 kilometers (994 miles) off the coast of East Africa, the Seychelles is an ecological paradise ... home to some of the world’s last pristine coral reefs and teeming with endangered species" The small country ran into financial trouble in 2008 and in 2015 signed a "debt-for-nature" deal in which $22 million of debt was bought and written off by The Nature Conservatory in exchange for the creation of 13 new marine protected areas. "In the five years since, the Seychelles has progressed from protecting 0.04% to 30% of its national waters, covering 410,000 square kilometres (158,000 square miles) of ocean – an area larger than Germany."

Belize announced a major milestone to protect its ocean resources by expanding the Sapodilla Cayes reserve to a total area of more than 500 square miles, increasing its size by seven times. The move will protect some of the healthiest reefs in the entire Caribbean as well as various deepwater regions likely to be biological hot spots. 

#06

The Trojan asteroids orbit the sun in gravitationally stable regions near Jupiter called Lagrange Points. The asteroids are likely over 4 billion years old and thought to be time capsules from the birth of our solar system. A spacecraft called Lucy (named after the fossilized human ancestor named Lucy by its discoverers) will launch in October 2021 to visit this unique region of space for the first time. The mission recently passed its Key Decision Point-D review, meaning that it's on schedule and officially transitioning from a development phase to delivery and integration of hardware.  

"The sun may be our closest star but it has managed to keep a few big secrets hidden. Now a trio of solar telescopes are kicking off a new era of solar astronomy that has scientists excited about major potential discoveries." Learn what NASA's Parker Solar probe, the European's Solar Orbiter, and a new telescope here on earth hope to discover!

#07

A small songbird called a Kirtland warbler migrates from the Bahamas to breeding grounds in Michigan every year. And once they're there, they just kinda hang out, right? To find out what the warblers are up to all summer, researchers fitted over 100 birds with trackers that weigh less than a raisin. Turns out that instead of staying in a small area like was expected, individuals will often make long trips of up to 48 miles within the breeding area. '“We really had no idea Kirtland’s warblers were doing this,” says Nathan Cooper of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center." The scientists think the birds are investigating the region to see if there are any better breeding locations for the next year. This finding may have repercussions in how conservationists protect breeding grounds, "birds don’t need just one place to live, but many."

Much like the rest of the world, the pandemic has significantly reduced ambient noise in New York City. So you might as well take an opportunity to listen to the birds!

The Bookshelf

In the early 1800s, the western world didn't really know what to make of fossils. I mean they sometimes looked like living things, but how did seashells end up in the very much non-aquatic interior of England anyway? The answer came not from the scientific elite, but from the orphaned son of a blacksmith named William Smith. Smith took an interest in surveying and geology at a young age and spent a large amount of time in coal mines, canals, and the countryside. He eventually came to realize that different fossils in different layers of rock corresponded to various geologic ages and that the oldest rocks were on the bottom. He put all his knowledge together to create the first-ever geologic map in the world. The story is not that simple though. Smith was ostracised by the elite due to his lower social status and even spent time in a debtors prison. It took a new generation of scientists to recognize Smith as the father of modern geology and give him a proper place in history. Smith's fascinating journey is told in The Map That Changed the World by Simon Winchester.

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This newsletter was produced as a private venture and not in the author's capacity as an employee of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology or of Griffith Observatory. Any views and opinions expressed herein or on exploreandobserve.com are his own and not those of his employers.

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