New rules for spacefaring, and other stories
Welcome to Ramin’s Space, the newsletter from WIRED space writer Ramin Skibba. You can read more about the newsletter here. If you like it, please consider subscribing and sharing this post.
Humans Are Revisiting the Moon—and the Rules of Spacefaring
A half century after the Apollo program, NASA and its international and commercial partners want to return to the moon, and this time it’s to stay. In a decade or two, we’ll see a lunar space station, a lunar outpost, landers and rovers, and moon mining in craters. But what rules will we have for all this lunar development and who will make them?
Voyager 1 and 2, Humanity’s Interstellar Envoys, Soldier On at 45
The iconic Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977—the same year I was born—and I love that they’re still running, collecting data, and exploring the unknown, on the cusp of interstellar space. They’re also carrying the Golden Records, with a message from Earth, should an alien ever find them and have curiosity about their senders. This was my most popular story in WIRED this month.
The Legendary Frank Drake Shaped the Search for Alien Life
Frank Drake, the pioneering planetary scientist and astronomer, has sadly died at the age of 92. Along with Carl Sagan and Jill Tarter, he inspired the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), he developed the Drake equation, and he played a major role in the Voyager Golden Record project, too.
The UN Wants to Curb Anti-Satellite Missile Tests
International negotiations for new rules in space have pretty much been at an impasse for 55 years, but a lot has changed since then, and finally diplomats are catching up. At a meeting this week in Geneva, delegations from numerous countries are trying to develop norms in space to prevent conflicts and dangerous collisions. The first step is to stop blowing up satellites in orbit with missiles, flinging debris everywhere.
In other writing…
The curious hole in my head
Thanks to a missing left temporal lobe in her brain, Helen Santoro has been a neuroscience research subject for most of her life. I recommend this fascinating and personal piece she wrote in the New York Times.
The surreal abundance of Alaska’s permafrost farms
As climate change warms Alaska, the state is starting to auction off (formerly) frozen land for new farms. Some residents aren’t thrilled and this new development. This is an interesting feature story by Yasmin Tayag in the New Yorker.
Point. Click. Occupy.
Big tech has played a major role in warfare for years, and now the surveillance industry is a major part of that, too. “From Israeli military bases to Silicon Valley corporate campuses, warfare has simply become a white-collar tech job,” writes Sophia Goodfriend in this essay in The Baffler magazine.
Dust and Bones
Worsening climate change, combined with harmful policies and inequalities, has exacerbated the border crisis, ultimately causing more migrant deaths on the southwestern US-Mexico border. I recommend this well-written and well-designed feature story by Yessenia Funes in Atmos magazine.
To prevent a Martian plague, NASA needs to build a very special lab
Planetary protection officers have a unique job: to make sure we don’t contaminate other worlds and vice versa. In practice, that takes a lot of work and equipment, and NASA needs to be ready when a spacecraft delivers the first Martian rock samples to Earth. Interesting story by Sarah Scoles in the New York Times.
What I’m reading: Once Upon a Time I lived on Mars by Kate Greene. It’s a nonfiction book about a simulated Mars mission, so that NASA can anticipate the challenges involved.
Looking back: One year ago, I started working at WIRED, with this first piece about the Perseverance rover collecting its first Martian rock samples. These are the samples NASA scientists will eventually launch to Earth.
More about me: I’m the space writer at WIRED magazine, and I’ve just moved from San Diego to the Bay Area. I used to be a freelance writer and journalist, and before that, an astrophysicist. You can find me at my website, raminskibba.net, and on Twitter @raminskibba. I’m also former president of the San Diego Science Writers Association (SANDSWA) and on the board of the National Association of Science Writers (NASW), though the opinions I express are mine alone. If someone has forwarded this email to you, you’re welcome to subscribe too.