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On Episode 149 of This Week In House, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik focus on the newest area information, together with a probably hazardous asteroid, SpaceX’s plans to launch and land within the Bahamas, and the continued debate surrounding the retirement of the Worldwide House Station. Additionally they contact on NASA’s funds cuts, the seek for extraterrestrial life, and the event of recent radiation safety expertise for deep area missions.
- Asteroid 2024 YR4: Whereas initially thought of a possible menace, the possibilities of this asteroid impacting Earth have considerably decreased as extra knowledge has been collected. Rod and Tariq focus on the altering odds and the significance of monitoring near-Earth objects.
- NASA funds cuts: The hosts focus on the proposed 20% funds lower for the James Webb House Telescope and its potential influence on the groundbreaking observatory’s operations and scientific output.
- Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Moon lander: Launched weeks in the past, the lander is now in lunar orbit and scheduled to land on or about March 2nd, carrying 10 experiments to Mare Crisium. With a number of different lunar missions on the horizon, together with these from Intuitive Machines and Japan’s iSpace, the hosts focus on the thrilling developments within the new lunar exploration period.
- SpaceX within the Bahamas: Elon Musk’s firm is in talks with the Bahamian authorities about launching and touchdown rights. The hosts speculate on the explanations behind this transfer and its potential implications for future missions.
- The retirement of the ISS: Elon Musk suggests de-orbiting the station as quickly as doable and to press on to Mars, whereas others argue for sustaining it till appropriate replacements are prepared.
- “Stranded” astronauts controversy: The hosts tackle the current claims that astronauts Sunny Williams and Butch Wilmore have been “stranded” or “deserted” on the ISS because of political motives. They make clear the state of affairs and categorical their disappointment with the deceptive narrative.
- Radiation shielding expertise: The event of 3D-printed hydrogels provides a promising answer for shielding astronauts from dangerous radiation throughout deep area missions. The hosts discover the potential purposes and advantages of this modern expertise.
- Seek for Extraterrestrial Life: The COSMIC challenge, working with the Very Giant Array telescope, has been utilizing superior laptop processing to hunt out targeted radio transmissions which may point out the presence of alien civilizations. Whereas no alerts of curiosity have been discovered but, the search continues, and the challenge serves as a beneficial instructional instrument for aspiring radio astronomers.
- NASA workforce discount: Whereas NASA has not but applied the anticipated workforce discount, the hosts focus on the potential influence of such cuts on the company’s future and the significance of sustaining a talented workforce within the face of accelerating competitors from China.
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House information of the week
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About This Week In House
This Week in House covers the brand new area age. Each Friday we take a deep dive into an interesting matter. What’s occurring with the brand new race to the moon and different planets? When will SpaceX actually ship individuals to Mars?
Be a part of Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik from House.com as they sort out these questions and extra every week on Friday afternoons. You’ll be able to subscribe at this time in your favourite podcatcher.
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Rod Pyle is an writer, journalist, tv producer and Editor-in-Chief of Advert Astra journal. He has written 18 books on area historical past, exploration, and improvement, together with House 2.0, Innovation the NASA Manner, Interplanetary Robots, Blueprint for a Battlestar, Wonderful Tales of the House Age, First On the Moon, and Vacation spot Mars
In a earlier life, Rod produced quite a few documentaries and brief movies for The Historical past Channel, Discovery Communications, and Disney. He additionally labored in visible results on Star Trek: Deep House 9 and the Battlestar Galactica reboot, in addition to varied sci-fi TV pilots. His most up-to-date TV credit score was with the NatGeo documentary on Tom Wolfe’s iconic ebook The Proper Stuff.
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Liable for House.com’s editorial imaginative and prescient, Tariq Malik has been the Editor-in-Chief of House.com since 2019 and has coated area information and science for 18 years. He joined the House.com workforce in 2001, first as an intern and shortly after as a full-time spaceflight reporter masking human spaceflight, exploration, astronomy and the evening sky. He turned House.com’s managing editor in 2009. As on-air expertise has offered area tales on CNN, Fox Information, NPR and others.
Tariq is an Eagle Scout (sure, he earned the House Exploration advantage badge), a House Camp veteran (4 occasions as a child, as soon as as an grownup), and has taken the last word “vomit comet” experience whereas reporting on zero-gravity fires. Earlier than becoming a member of House.com, he served as a employees reporter for The Los Angeles Occasions masking metropolis and training beats. He has journalism levels from the College of Southern California and New York College.