In space, they say, no one can hear your scream — but at certain points in our solar system, you might be able to pick up some Missy Elliot. NASA has recently made special use of its communication system, called the Deep Space Network, by sending the lyrics of Missy Elliot’s song The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly) to Venus.
The transmission was sent over 150 million miles away, on a journey that took 14 minutes traveling at the speed of light. The test used the Deep Space Station 13 dish located in California, which is 34 meters (112 feet) wide, ahead of planned NASA missions to Venus in the late 2020s and early 2030s.
“Both space exploration and Missy Elliott’s art have been about pushing boundaries,” said Brittany Brown, director of NASA’s Digital and Technology, who came up with the idea of using Elliott’s track. “Missy has a track record of infusing space-centric storytelling and futuristic visuals in her music videos, so the opportunity to collaborate on something out of this world is truly fitting.”
Previous song-related space endeavors include NASA sending The Beatles’ Across the Universe into space in 2008, which also used the Deep Space Network and was part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of NASA’s founding, and an experiment that was part of South Korea’s first lunar mission and tested a wireless communication system using K-pop band BTS’s song Dynamite.
Elliott was chosen for this test for her love of all things cosmic as well as her great tunes, and she was enthusiastic about her songs reaching Venus, which she described as her favorite planet.
“I still can’t believe I’m going out of this world with NASA through the Deep Space Network when The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly) becomes the first ever hip-hop song to transmit to space!” she said. “I chose Venus because it symbolizes strength, beauty, and empowerment and I am so humbled to have the opportunity to share my art and my message with the universe!”
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.