Communicating Through Deep Space A lot of information has to pass between a spacecraft and supporting ground crews on any mission, including but not limited to telemetry, computer upload information, and voice communication. As early as 1962, NASA realized that the Apollo missions would demand a unique communications system. The Mercury and Gemini programs, both of which saw missions flying only in Earth orbit, used separate radio systems. Two-way voice communications, uplinked data, and downlinked telemetry were done using ultra high frequency (UHF) and very high frequency (VHF) systems while tracking was achieved with a C-band beacon on the spacecraft interrogated by ground-based radar....

Airbus flew the same A380 again today, this time for about two hours, and again with one engine getting its power from 100-percent sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF. In these tests, the aircraft’s other three engines burned conventional jet fuel. Airbus has flown other aircraft using 100-percent sustainable aviation fuel before—both its A350 and A319neo last year—but these recent flights mark the first time it has experimented with the A380, the biggest passenger plane there is....

Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, just six weeks ago. While Russia’s positioning of forces near Ukraine was for months visible from space before the war began, what will happen next is hard to know, and the balance of forces may yet again shift. What can be said with more certainty is that however long the rest of the war takes, the war’s beginning is at an end. Kherson, the first Ukrainian city to fall to Russia after the invasion, is no longer fully under Russian control, a U....

That’s where bath trays come in. These wooden shelves span the top of your tub to hold drinks, candles, and books, and can be as simple as a piece of plywood. But with a bit of planning, measurement, and careful cutting, you can customize a tray to hold exactly what you need for your perfect bath. This is also a great DIY gift for the bath-taker in your life, particularly with Mother’s Day and Father’s Day coming up....

Android, like iOS, features a low battery mode that kicks in when your gadget’s life expectancy is running low. It’s called Battery Saver and it optimizes power by putting certain performance restrictions, like how often email apps can check for new messages. But unlike iOS, Android lets you tweak which apps are affected by Battery Saver, so if you absolutely need a particular platform to remain fully operational (albeit at a cost to battery life) you have the option to pick and choose....

Thankfully, making felines comfortable during the hottest months of the year is simple, and your kitty will appreciate your efforts to make sure they stay the cool cats they are at heart. Water is not only refreshing—it helps cats sweat. Just like dogs, felines only sweat through their paw pads; but unlike pooches, cats lick their feet to stimulate sweating and cooling, which is why they need to drink more than usual when it’s hot out....

Make the Hologram Stats Time: 10 minutesCost: $0.30-$1Difficulty: Easy Tools and Materials Sheet of transparency paperPencil, pen, or markerRulerCompassScissorsSmartphone or tablet Instructions Instructions—Without a Template No printer for the template? No problem! More Optics Hacks A smartphone can perform other optical tricks. Harvest a focus lens from a laser pointer, and attach it to the phone’s camera with some wire. The lens will magnify images to make a DIY microscope (full instructions here)....

Choose a variety of native species Native plants are hardier and better adapted to your particular region, and survival is key—dead plants don’t continue to capture carbon. The right plants should have a better chance of surviving your local weather, though research has not clearly shown what will happen as it becomes increasingly worse. Not every tree and shrub can be drought-hardy, flood-tolerant, and freeze-resistant at the same time. But a garden with a variety of native plants will have a better chance of making it through the next few decades....

In the old days, pulling the subject of a photo out of its environment required a steady hand and some Photoshop knowledge. Today, both the newest iOS update and several photo editing tools provide more than one way to deliver high-quality WhatsApp stickers, for free and with minimal effort. The feature is easy to use and works exactly like copying and pasting text. Open a photo from your camera roll, the Photos app, or the web, and long-press on the subject of the image....

“Often, it comes from scraping public records,” explains Gennie Gebhart, associate director of research at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “For example, if you own a home, that real estate transaction is public record. They draw from all sorts of sources.” It can be shocking to visit a site like Spokeo, Intellius, MyLife, or BeenVerified—commonly known as data brokers or people-finding sites—and see all your information listed for anyone to see....

There’s no question that glasses are amazing. They’re simple pieces of engineering that allow faulty-eyed wearers to take in the beauty of the natural world. But glasses can also be annoying—especially when the lenses fog up while you’re wearing a mask. Lens fog can quickly go from mildly bothersome to downright dangerous, and it has been an issue throughout the COVID-19 pandemic for many of the more than 164 million US adults who wear specs....

With the rise of brain-controlled robotic limbs, advanced biomedical implants, and life-saving medical treatments, it seems as though in the modern day, we’re closer than ever to conquering death. Some hope to extend the human lifetime indefinitely. Singularity proponents hope that eventually we’ll be able to upload our consciousness to computers. Now the company Humai aims to bring people back from the dead. From their website: If it sounds like something out of science fiction, that’s because it is....

In fact, Humpback whales aren’t supposed to be hanging out in that region in the first place. Humpbacks migrate up to tropical waters to breed, but they typically feed down south in the icy waters of Antarctica this time of year. Yet scientific expeditions keep seeing these super-pods (not to be confused with super PACs, which are equally giant but much more dangerous), which were finally compiled and published at the beginning of March in the journal PLOSone....

According to the National Hurricane Center, Fiona was a powerful Category 3 storm with sustained winds of 125 miles per hour (gusting to 155 mph) located about 125 miles north of the island Bermuda as of this morning. It is expected to make landfall early Saturday morning as a hurricane-strength post-tropical storm. Officials in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island are urging those in the path of the deadly storm to prepare for high winds, heavy rains, storm surge, and high winds and to be on high alert....

These habitats would have a galley, kitchen, workspace, and sleeping quarters, he describes. And of course, there would be windows, or viewports, to the outside world, and a front door in the form of a moon pool that will actually be on the bottom of the house. This would allow easy access into and out of the facility. The project, called Proteus, would be a marine analog to the International Space Station, and would primarily accommodate aquanauts, the equivalent of an astronaut in the ocean....

But if you’ve ever felt limited by a machine only equipped for Nespresso or K-Cups, this Instant Pot 2-Instin-1 coffee maker can handle both, to ultimately give you more options and variety when it comes to your cup of joe. From a small espresso with dessert to the classic black cup of coffee, this one-size-fits-all machine is equipped for any kind of brew. Instant 2-in-1 Multi-Function Coffee Maker For a limited time, you can score this Multi-Function Coffee Maker for 30 percent off, bringing the price down from $200 to just $140....

The planet’s top producers: Venezuela: 301 billion barrelsSaudi Arabia: 266 billion barrelsCanada: 170 billion barrelsIran: 158 billion barrelsIraq: 143 billion barrels Though the U.S. became the top oil producer in 2018, our proven reserves didn’t crack the top five. The United States of Oil Proven reserves: 35.2 billion barrels Oil companies measure reserves based on how likely they are to go get them. Proven reserves are those they already have the tech and infrastructure to extract....

Despite the clinking cutlery and up-tempo Latin rock music, nobody strains to hear the waitress when she points out the chipotle, habanero, and chile de arbol salsas that she plunks down with our chips. This apparent sonic miracle is crafted by computer. An algorithm embedded in a system of networked microphones and speakers carefully controls the din. Called Constellation, the setup is the brainchild of San Francisco Bay Area firm Meyer Sound....

Outdoor speakers that take the party outside tend to fall into two categories: small and portable but with a puny sound, or big and bulky with more bass than your neighbors appreciate. JBL has an entire range of party speakers that manage to avoid these pitfalls. The JBL Flip 5 Bluetooth speaker, priced at $119.95, is the smallest of the bunch and straddles the line between the two extremes. It weighs just over a pound (1....

If your children (or you) ever complain about how stupid science is, or need a real-life explanation of how physics works, you can just show them this video. What better way to understand vector forces, etc., than with a nutty Rube Goldberg machine whose objective is smashing a Cadbury egg?Another valuable, less-noted use of science? Breaking down the pluses and minuses of going on a cookie diet. Another good reason for kids to like science — it provides immortality....