Saving Earth from asteroids - Shareables Hope & Optimism #12

This week: man on the moon, asteroid fighter, and world's first hydrogen jet engine [View this email in your browser]( Hey everyone, Goodbye November, hello December! Whether things are starting to slow down for you or you’re rushing out the last of your work before year-end, the truth is that progress doesn’t wait on us. The most brilliant minds around the world continue to grind away, so let’s highlight some of this amazing milestones. Happy holidays and hope everyone is warm and safe. If it's your first time reading or a friend sent this to you, you can [subscribe here](. Image courtesy of NASA [(1) NASA’s Orion spacecraft flies by the moon, 81 miles above the surface]( It happened. We wrote about this 3 months ago in Hope & Optimism #2. Approximately 2 weeks ago, NASA’s Artemis I Mission launched its Orion spacecraft, marking the beginning of humanity’s revived attempt at placing humans back on the moon. As mentioned before, Artemis I will only be orbiting the moon and will not land. It’s intended to serve as a test for Artemis II, anticipated to happen as early as 2024, which will also orbit the moon but this time with astronauts on board. Human landing on the moon may happen as early as 2025 to 2026, marking the first time that humans have returned on the moon since Apollo in 1972. We love reading about progress in the space frontier. There are few human initiatives that grip you as powerfully as prospect of leaving planet Earth venturing out into a wildly unpredictable and dark unknown. It’s an amazing reminder to look up at the sky, remind ourselves of the small, humble role we play in a larger-than-life universe, and to worry less while dreaming bigger. NASA’s Sandra Jones says “standing on the shoulders of the giants of the Apollo generation, Orion now carries forward the torch of the Artemis generation, as it emerges from behind the moon.” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson called it “a huge step for the Artemis I mission and critical to understanding our spacecraft before we fly astronauts on it to the Moon. Congratulations to the tens of thousands of team members and partners who have gotten us to this point. This is not just your achievement but one for humanity.” While Apollo was spurred by the Cold War space race against the Soviet Union, the ultimate goal of the Artemis missions is to establish permanent residence for humans on and around the moon. Eventually, a spacecraft called the Gateway will be launched into orbit to serve as a staging area that ferries astronauts to/from the moon. [(Full article)]( Image courtesy of NASA [(2) Success! NASA's DART Redirects Asteroid in 'Watershed Moment for Humanity’]( Since we’re already talking about NASA, we might as well continue to ride on the coattails of their recent achievement. We’re a bit late on reporting this but we figured we’ll talk about it anyway since not everyone keeps tabs on advancements and progress in space (I’m sure many of us can barely look past the day-to-day, and this newsletter is intended to help with that!). About 2 months ago, NASA successfully carried out “deflection by kinetic impactor” and changed the course of an asteroid, Dimorphos, but crashing its Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft (DART) into it. NASA administrator Bill Nelson said “this is a watershed moment for planetary defense and a watershed moment for humanity.” Dimorphos, actually a moonlet orbiting a larger asteroid Didymos, did not pose an actual threat to Earth. There are no known asteroid threats to humanity, but there’s plenty that’s yet to be discovered in the vastness of space. This success gives us more confidence in our ability to actually protect Earth from legitimate asteroid threats, even if it only represented a 4% change in the asteroid’s orbital period. Nancy Chabot, DART coordination lead from John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, noted that “It just gave it a small nudge, but if you wanted to do this in the future, it could potentially work but you'd want to do it years in advance. Warning time is really key.” [(Full article)]( Image courtesy of Rolls-Royce [(3) World’s first test run of a hydrogen jet engine a success]( With the increased focus in clean energy production over the last couple of years, it’s great to see the fruits of technological advancement in action. Rolls-Royce and easyJet successfully created and tested “the world’s first run of a modern aero engine on hydrogen.” A converted Rolls-Royce AE 2100-A aircraft engine was used for the test with hydrogen fuel, made using wind and tidal power, provided by the European Marine Energy Centre. Currently, a majority of hydrogen today is made using gas as opposed to green energy. Further, in order to effectively use hydrogen on planes, significantly larger fuel tanks need to be on board, requiring new aircraft designs to be certified. As an example, a Boeing 747 would need >1mm liters of hydrogen to get the same range as 250k liters of jet fuel. As it stands now, green hydrogen will likely only benefit short-range flights, with estimates of 3,000km (1,864 miles) routes being commercially available by 2035. However, the prospect of this technology one day being used for all flights around the world is truly exciting. [(Full article)]( “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt As always, we'd love to hear your feedback regarding the newsletter. Let us know if you have any thoughts, suggestions, or ideas and email us directly at newsletter@sbly.com. If you come across great news that you feel compelled to share, send it over to us [using this form here]( and we'll try to include some submissions in the upcoming emails! Thanks for reading! [:heart:][:wave:] See you in a few days for another happy start to the week! [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [About Shareably Media]( [Email](mailto:newsletter@shareably.net) If you enjoyed today's newsletter, share it with someone by clicking one of the buttons below! [Share]( [Share]( [Tweet]( [Tweet]( [Forward]( [Forward]( Have feedback? Email us at newsletter@shareably.net! Did a friend forward this to you? [Subscribe here]( Want to advertise with us? Reach out using [this form here](. 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