Space botanists grew plants in lunar soil, 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.
Researchers Grew Tiny Plants in Moon Dirt Collected Decades Ago
NASA reluctantly forked over a few of the last Apollo-era lunar dirt samples to a team of scientists, who managed to turn them into soil and managed to grow seedlings of thale cress (in the family of watercress and broccoli) in them. It’s the first attempted planting in moon soil, and it could set the stage for space farming in the future.
With Dusty Solar Panels, InSight’s Days on Mars Are Numbered
No spacecraft lasts forever, especially in the harsh conditions on the Red Planet. NASA’s InSight lander, which recently measured the biggest recorded “marsquake” ever, has been getting more and more blanketed with dust. As its solar power is now dwindling, we’ll soon have to say goodbye to poor InSight.
Mars Colonies Will Need Solar Power—And Nuclear Too
When astronauts try to live on Mars in a couple decades, they’ll need power to run their habitats, to create breathable air, and to keep the lights on. But space missions need to be planned way in advance, and they’re limited by what you can fit in the rocket, so researchers studied how a Mars colony could be designed, including where on the planet solar and nuclear power would work best.
Delegates at the United Nations Have Begun Forging New Rules for Space
Even after near collisions of spacecraft and anti-satellite weapon tests, we’re still lacking rules in space. But that might soon change, thanks to negotiators at the UN. The US has resisted such efforts for years, but it helps that the Biden administration now calls for an end to blowing up satellites with missiles. These are important issues, and I plan on following this story.
In other writing…
The most powerful story The Onion ever wrote
I’m still in shock after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers and devastated the community. Such massacres should never happen, and they certainly shouldn’t be this common. As my WIRED colleague Angela Watercutter writes, The Onion’s 2017 piece remains sadly relevant: “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.”
Making new climate data from old timber
Old buildings can harbor details about the past, and it turns out that when such structures are demolished, climate information can emerge out of the woodwork too. The same concept of tree rings applies to lumber for construction. Fascinating New Yorker story by Rivka Galchen.
Letting the sea have its way
Few people ask the provocative question: what does water want? For millennia, people have tried controlling rivers and seas, with mixed success. But now with climate change and sea level rise, maybe it’s time to let some crumbling shorelines go back to the sea, as the community of Selsey, England is doing. Important piece by Erica Gies in Hakai magazine.
The Antarctic paradox
Antarctica remains one of the forbidding and harshest environments on Earth, but it’s becoming less so thanks to greenhouse gas emissions. International law shields the continent from some harms, but those protections don’t include climate change, and ice sheets and shelves are melting. It’s time for a new compact to better protect the ice. Interesting perspective by Alejandra Mancilla and Peder Roberts in Aeon magazine.
On metaphors and snow boots
We often struggle to accurately communicate feelings of pain and mental health struggles, often falling back on amorphous metaphors. I like this well written essay in Guernica magazine by Annie Sand.
What I’m reading: The new issue of n+1 magazine, which includes a fascinating tale of investigative journalism by Elena Kostyuchenko about the Russia’s Norilsk diesel oil spill in 2020.
Looking back: Three years ago, I wrote this Smithsonian magazine piece, which was basically a book review, about the long history of scientific racism. Unfortunately, it’s still relevant today.
More about me: I’m the space writer at WIRED magazine, and I’m based in San Diego. 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.