AFP UK

The Artemis 1 mission, a test flight without astronauts on board, represents the first step in the agency's plan to build a lasting presence on the Moon, taking lessons from there to prepare for a future voyage to Mars

NASA was readying to launch its new mega Moon rocket early Wednesday from Florida — but technical issues threatened to play spoilsport a third time.

Engineers were forced to pause flowing liquid hydrogen into the core stage because of a valve leak in the mobile launcher ground structure, as a team was sent out to address the problem. 

If the issue is resolved, weather remains 90 percent favorable for lift-off during a two hour window that begins at 1:04 am local time (0604 GMT).

The Artemis 1 mission, a test flight without astronauts, represents the first step in the US space agency’s plan to build a lasting presence on the Moon and take lessons from there to prepare for a future voyage to Mars in the 2030s.

Named after the sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, the new space program comes 50 years after humans last set foot on lunar soil.

It will be the first launch of the 32-story tall Space Launch System rocket, the most powerful ever built.

For now, countdown remains paused at the storied Kennedy Space Center, where the orange and white behemoth awaits its maiden flight.

The takeoff is scheduled less than a week after the passage of Hurricane Nicole, which the rocket endured outside on its launch pad.

The hurricane damaged a thin strip of caulk-like material which encircles the Orion crew capsule atop the rocket, making it more aerodynamic. However, NASA said Monday that this posed a minimal risk.

Two backup dates are possible, if needed, on November 19 and 25.

– ‘Extremely excited’ –

About 100,000 people are expected on the coast to watch the launch, with the rocket promising to light up the night sky.

Andrew Trombley, a space enthusiast from St. Louis, Missouri, is anxiously hoping for a successful liftoff after several futile trips for the launch.

“I’ve been down here a couple of times already to watch this thing go up and have it canceled so, this is like, whatever, the third trip down here for this, so I’m excited to see it go,” said the network engineer.

“I was too little for the Apollo missions, so … I wanted to be here in person.”

The launch has attracted hordes of tourists, as well as locals.

Kerry Warner, 59, a grandmother and semi-retired educator who lives in Florida, is fired up for liftoff, which she said was “part of America and what America is all about.”

“Third time’s the charm, we’re hoping for it.”

– Far side of Moon –

At the end of September, the rocket had to be wheeled back to its assembly building to be sheltered from another hurricane, Ian.

Before these weather setbacks, two launch attempts were canceled for technical reasons.

The first failure was related to a faulty sensor, and the second to a fuel leak when filling the rocket’s tanks. It runs on ultra-cold, ultra-volatile liquid oxygen and hydrogen.

NASA has since replaced a seal and modified its procedures to avoid thermal shock as much as possible.

The Orion capsule will be lifted by two boosters and four powerful engines under the core stage, which will detach after only a few minutes.

After a final push from the upper stage, the capsule will be well on its way, taking several days to reach its destination.

Rather than landing on the Moon, it will assume a distant orbit, venturing 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) beyond the far side — further than any other habitable spacecraft so far.

Finally, Orion will embark on the return leg of its journey. When passing through the atmosphere, the capsule’s heat shield will need to withstand a temperature half as hot as the Sun’s surface.

If takeoff happens Wednesday, the mission will last 25 and a half days, with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on December 11.

NASA is banking on a successful mission after developing the SLS rocket for more than a decade. It will have invested more than $90 billion in its new lunar program by the end of 2025, according to a public audit.

Artemis 2 will involve a flyby of the Moon with astronauts in 2024. 

Boots on the ground should happen during Artemis 3, no sooner than 2025, with the crew set to include the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.

Pakistan students are braving lessons in crumbling classrooms and tents after record floods battered the country

Pakistani three-year-old Afshan’s trip to school is a high-wire balancing act as she teeters across a metal girder spanning a trench of putrid floodwater, eyes fixed ahead.

After record monsoon rain flooded her classroom in the southeastern town of Chandan Mori, this is the route Afshan and her siblings now traverse to a tent where her lessons take place.

“It’s a risky business to send children to school crossing that bridge,” Afshan’s father, Abdul Qadir, 23, told AFP.

“But we are compelled… to secure their future, and our own.”

In Pakistan, where a third of the country lives in hardship on less than $4 a day, education is a rare ticket out of grinding poverty.

But this summer, floods destroyed or damaged 27,000 schools and spurred a humanitarian disaster which saw 7,000 more commandeered as aid centres, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund.

The education of 3.5 million children has been disrupted as a result, the charity said.

“Everything has gone away, we lost our studies,” said 10-year-old Kamran Babbar, who lives in a nearby tent city since his home and school were submerged.

– Tent schooling – 

Before the rains, which have been linked to climate change, Afshan followed her sisters to a lime green schoolhouse.

Some two-and-a-half months after they finally abated, her school remains swamped by standing water.

More than 300 boys and girls have decamped to three tents where they sit on floors lined with plastic sheeting, answering teachers’ questions in chorus.

As midday approaches the tents are baked by the sun, and students fan themselves with notebooks — quenching their thirst with mouthfuls of cloudy, polluted floodwater.

Many cannot summon the strength to stand when called to answer questions by teacher Noor Ahmed.

“When they fall sick, and the majority of them do, it drastically affects attendance,” he said.

In this conservative corner of Pakistan, many girls are already held back from school, groomed for lives of domestic labour.

Those students that were enrolled had their prospects dampened by hunger and malnutrition even before the monsoon washed away vast tracts of crops.

And over the past two years, the Covid-19 pandemic saw schools shut for 16 months.

The floods — which put a third of Pakistan underwater and displaced eight million — are yet one more hurdle many will not overcome.

“We are nurturing an ailing generation,” Ahmed said.

– ‘Traumatic impact’ –

In the nearby town of Mounder, the monsoon storms tore the roof off the government school.

The walls are cracked and crumbling, and students now congregate outside, fearful of a collapse.

The boys learn under the shade of a tree in the courtyard, while the girls gather nearby in a donated tent.

“Such events will leave an everlasting traumatic impact on the girls,” teacher Rabia Iqbal said.

“If we want to make them mentally healthy, we will have to immediately move them from tents to proper classrooms,” she added.

But the return to school is unlikely to be swift.

Analysis suggests the bill for the reconstruction of schools and recovery of the education system will be nearly $1 billion — the total repair bill is close to $40 billion —  in a nation already mired in economic turmoil.

Undaunted by the difficulties ahead, the girls of Chandan Mori’s high school trudge every day to a temporary classroom three kilometres (two miles) away.

“We will not be defeated by such circumstances,” 13-year-old Shaista Panwar said.

At Fort McKay in western Canada, in the heart of the country's boreal forest, the pines and the people were long ago cleared out to make way for huge open-pit mines dedicated to excavation of oil sands

The acrid stench of gasoline permeates the air. And the soot coats everything in sight: the trees, the bushes, even the snow in winter. And all day long, explosions send the birds soaring to safety.

At Fort McKay near Fort McMurray in western Canada, in the heart of the country’s boreal forest, the pines and the people were long ago cleared out to make way for huge open-pit mines dedicated to excavation of oil sands.

It’s one of the biggest industrial projects in the world: as seen from above, the zone is in stark contrast to the vast expanse of green surrounding it. Huge black holes are gouged in the brown earth — they are giant pools of water.

Then there is the network of roads on which hundreds of trucks drive every day, and the immense factories, with smoke spewing from wide chimneys.

On the ground, the noise is deafening. And it’s quite a scene for the uninitiated: in the middle of the huge basins dug to capture the polluted waters stand huge metal scarecrows clad in helmets and security vests.

The ghoulish creatures are designed to scare away millions of migratory birds that arrive every year in this northern part of Alberta province. Adding to the mayhem: airhorns that are used several times a minute.

The mines have made the people left in Fort McKay — many of them Indigenous Canadians — very rich. But the installations have also profoundly altered and damaged the land on which their ancestors relied for centuries.

“Everything has changed, everything’s destroyed to me now,” says 74-year-old Margie Lacorde who lives in the center of town in a house chock full of knick knacks and framed photographs.

The talkative Lacorde, who belongs to the Metis people, is sad to see the parched, yellowing leaves due to drought, and wishes she could still swim in the rivers and gather berries in the forest like she did in her youth.

The hunting grounds are long gone — the land was sold for industrial use.

“The pollution is killing our nature,” Lacorde tells AFP, though she herself worked in the oil industry for years to provide for her family.

She remembers her childhood with a significant bit of nostalgia. 

Back then, families gathered snow and melted it to use as drinking and cooking water. Such a thing would be impossible today — once the snow hits the ground, it’s immediately filthy, covered in the dust that filters down from the factories.

– ‘Desecrated’ –

“We’re First Nations and this is our territory that is all being desecrated by the oil industry for the sake of the dollar, money, prosperity,” says Jean L’Hommecourt, an environmental activist who took up the fight her parents once championed.

Even if agreements were reached with Indigenous communities to create jobs and protect some natural resources, the ecological impact of mining the oil sands have been so great that the 59-year-old woman says her people are now at risk.

“I lost my prosperity when the industry came in and took over all our lands and our waters and our access to our wildlife… everything that we depend on to sustain our culture has been compromised by industry,” she says bitterly.

The area is a far cry from the picture postcard ideal of the Canadian West. There are no crystalline blue waterways or fish-filled rivers here. 

Instead, Moose Lake — sacred to L’Hommecourt’s Dene people — is now only accessible by all-terrain vehicle, a five-hour drive on a road pockmarked by potholes that runs in between the mines.

When she was growing up, L’Hommecourt’s family cabin was in the middle of the forest, far away from the noise and bustle. But after the first oil sands mine was built in 1967, development proceeded at a rapid pace.

Today, the active oil sands extraction sites form a chain that is more than 60 kilometers (40 miles) long, hugging the shores of the Athabasca River. 

Fort McKay — population, 800 or so — is a tiny speck on a map of this industrial complex.

Canada is home to 10 percent of the world’s known crude oil reserves — much of that is found in the oil sands of Alberta.

Every day, nearly three million barrels of crude are extracted from the sands, according to official government data, helping to make Canada the world’s fourth largest oil producer, and the primary exporter of crude to the United States.

In all, more than 4,800 square kilometers are used for oil sands mining.

At first, local populations were consulted and their fears were noted, L’Hommecourt says.

“And then they just said okay, well, we collected the information, we collected their concerns and everything else and we’ll mitigate with the money,” she added.

– Pollution –

Many environmental activists say the impact of the oil industry is so great that the term “ecocide” is not too strong. Beyond the tangible destruction of the boreal forest, there is the massive amount of pollution in the air.

The oil and gas sector accounts for a quarter of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the latest official figures released this year. Of that total, the oil sands are responsible for 12 percent.

And traces of other toxic emissions, such as sulfur and nitrogen oxides, have been detected in the soil and the snow dozens of kilometers from the mining zone.

The industry also consumes a massive amount of water, taken from nearby rivers and lakes.

“There’s still a lot we need to do on recognizing the harm from cleaning up existing operations,” says Keith Stewart of the environmental pressure group Greenpeace, slamming companies that drag their feet on such matters.

Stewart nevertheless acknowledges a “huge shift” on protecting the environment in recent years.

“For a long time, even the notion that we could limit expansion was viewed as crazy and now… the idea of large-scale expansion now seems crazy,” he said.

That reversal is not uniformly popular, as not everyone here sees the oil sands as a bad thing.

“The reality is that they shut off the oil sands tomorrow, my community would starve,” says Ron Quintal, chief of the Fort McKay Metis, noting that nearly everyone around works in or for the industry.

For Quintal, “Indigenous communities have spent 30 to 40 years… trying to get their foot in the door” so it would be “very difficult for us to try to take our people backward.”

He added matter-of-factly: “The development of the oil has empowered us to be able to do things that weren’t possible before.”

This handout photograph taken on November 16, 2022 and released by New South Wales Rural Fire Services shows floodwaters overflowing from Wyangala Dam's spillways near the Australian town of Cowra

Entire buildings have been ripped from their foundations after flash floods swamped a small Australian town, with disaster management officials on Wednesday describing the deluge as a destructive “wall of water”.

The town of Eugowra — about 350 kilometres (220 miles) west of Sydney — was inundated on Monday but it has been impossible to assess the extent of damage under the mud-brown waters.

Australia’s east coast has been repeatedly swept by heavy rainfall in the past two years, driven by back-to-back La Nina cycles. 

New South Wales State Emergency Service spokesman Steve Hall said a dire picture was emerging as response teams returned to the town of some 800 people. 

“Everything they hold dear has been swept away in a wall of water,” he said.

“All their possessions are covered in water and mud, they’ve got to come back and start all over, working through all the processes of grief, and loss and anger.”

Stranded residents huddled on roofs as floodwaters peaked on Monday evening, before they were winched to safety by rescue helicopters. 

Local MP Andrew Gee said Eugowra was “strewn” with cars swept up in the floods and that some buildings had been “picked up from their foundations and washed down streets”.

“The residents talk about a tsunami coming at them,” he told ABC, the country’s national broadcaster.

The Wyangala Dam burst its banks on Sunday night following heavy rains, spilling some 230,000 megalitres into water catchments near Eugowra on Monday.

The town of Forbes — about 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of Eugowra — was evacuated as the floodwaters moved down the swollen river system. 

Some 14 people had to be rescued after the Plainsman Motel in Forbes went under water on Tuesday evening.

It was the second time Forbes was evacuated due to flooding in the past two weeks.

Heavy storms earlier this year caused a widespread flooding disaster on Australia’s east coast, in which more than 20 people died.  

Tens of thousands of Sydney residents were ordered to evacuate in July when floods again swamped the city’s fringe.

Scientists believe climate change could make periods of flooding more extreme because warmer air holds more moisture.

The new study shows 'the potential for serious population-wide hearing loss is very large', an expert said

Around one billion young people worldwide could be at risk of hearing loss from listening to headphones or attending loud music venues, a large review of the available research estimated on Wednesday.

The World Health Organization-led study called on young people to be more careful about their listening habits, and urged governments and manufacturers to do more to protect future hearing.

The analysis published in the journal BMJ Global Health looked at data from 33 studies published in English, Spanish, French and Russian over the last two decades covering more than 19,000 participants aged between 12-34.

It found that 24 percent of the young people had unsafe listening practices while using headphones with devices such as smartphones.

And 48 percent were found to have been exposed to unsafe noise levels at entertainment venues such as concerts or nightclubs.

Combining these findings, the study estimated that between 670,000 to 1.35 billion young people could be at risk of hearing loss.

The wide range is partly because some young people are probably at risk from both factors, said Lauren Dillard, an audiologist at the Medical University of South Carolina and the study’s first author.

Dillard told AFP the best way for people to lessen their risk of hearing loss from headphones is to turn down the volume and listen for shorter periods.

“Unfortunately, people do really like very loud music,” she admitted.

– ‘Big impact’ over lifetime – 

Headphone users should use settings. or apps on smartphones to monitor sound levels, Dillard advised.

In loud environments, noise-cancelling headphones can help avoid “cranking up your music to try to drown out all that background noise”, she added.

Earplugs should be worn at loud events like concerts or nightclubs, she said, adding, “Maybe it’s fun to be in the front by the speakers, but it’s not a good idea for your long-term health.

“All of these behaviours, these exposures can compound over the course of your entire life, and then when you’re 67 years old, it can have a pretty big impact,” she said.

Dillard called on governments to comply with WHO guidelines on safe listening, including making sure venues monitor and limit music levels. 

She also urged companies that make devices like phones to warn listeners when the volume is too loud, and to include parental locks to restrict children’s exposure.

Limitations of the research included the varying methodologies across different studies and that none came from low-income countries. 

Stephen Stansfeld, an expert on noise and health at Queen Mary University of London who was not involved in the research, said it showed “the potential for serious population-wide hearing loss is very large”.

More than 430 million people — over five percent of the world’s population — currently have disabling hearing loss, according to the WHO, which estimates  the number will rise to 700 million by 2050.

The new study shows 'the potential for serious population-wide hearing loss is very large', an expert said

Around one billion young people worldwide could be at risk of hearing loss from listening to headphones or attending loud music venues, a large review of the available research estimated on Wednesday.

The World Health Organization-led study called on young people to be more careful about their listening habits, and urged governments and manufacturers to do more to protect future hearing.

The analysis published in the journal BMJ Global Health looked at data from 33 studies published in English, Spanish, French and Russian over the last two decades covering more than 19,000 participants aged between 12-34.

It found that 24 percent of the young people had unsafe listening practices while using headphones with devices such as smartphones.

And 48 percent were found to have been exposed to unsafe noise levels at entertainment venues such as concerts or nightclubs.

Combining these findings, the study estimated that between 670,000 to 1.35 billion young people could be at risk of hearing loss.

The wide range is partly because some young people are probably at risk from both factors, said Lauren Dillard, an audiologist at the Medical University of South Carolina and the study’s first author.

Dillard told AFP the best way for people to lessen their risk of hearing loss from headphones is to turn down the volume and listen for shorter periods.

“Unfortunately, people do really like very loud music,” she admitted.

– ‘Big impact’ over lifetime – 

Headphone users should use settings. or apps on smartphones to monitor sound levels, Dillard advised.

In loud environments, noise-cancelling headphones can help avoid “cranking up your music to try to drown out all that background noise”, she added.

Earplugs should be worn at loud events like concerts or nightclubs, she said, adding, “Maybe it’s fun to be in the front by the speakers, but it’s not a good idea for your long-term health.

“All of these behaviours, these exposures can compound over the course of your entire life, and then when you’re 67 years old, it can have a pretty big impact,” she said.

Dillard called on governments to comply with WHO guidelines on safe listening, including making sure venues monitor and limit music levels. 

She also urged companies that make devices like phones to warn listeners when the volume is too loud, and to include parental locks to restrict children’s exposure.

Limitations of the research included the varying methodologies across different studies and that none came from low-income countries. 

Stephen Stansfeld, an expert on noise and health at Queen Mary University of London who was not involved in the research, said it showed “the potential for serious population-wide hearing loss is very large”.

More than 430 million people — over five percent of the world’s population — currently have disabling hearing loss, according to the WHO, which estimates  the number will rise to 700 million by 2050.

Activists accuse European governments of leading a "dash for gas" in Africa to make up for supply cuts by Russia since its invasion of Ukraine

Wealthy and developing countries set the stage Tuesday for a showdown at UN climate talks over demands for rich polluters to compensate vulnerable nations for damages caused by natural disasters.

The COP27 conference in Egypt has been dominated by calls for wealthy nations to provide financing to developing nations least responsible for global warming for deadly and costly climate impacts.

Ministers from some of the world’s worst-hit countries admonished developed ones for not doing enough, not only on this issue but also on unfulfilled promises to provide $100 billion in annual aid for their green transitions.

At “how many COPs have we been arguing for urgent climate action? And how many more do we need, how many lives do we need to sacrifice?” Belize’s Climate Change Minister Orlando Habet told COP27 delegates.

After dragging their feet on the issue of “loss and damage” for years over concerns it would create a reparations mechanism, the United States and European Union agreed to have it on the formal agenda at COP27.

But Western powers and a major group of developing nations allied with China presented widely different views of how to achieve this.

The G77+China bloc of more than 130 developing nations presented a document saying the need for a special “loss and damage” fund was “urgent and immediate”.

How much money would be put into the fund, and where it would come from it left unsaid, but the G77+China said it should be operational in time to be approved at next year’s COP28 in Dubai.

The United States and the European Union have suggested that expanding current channels for climate finance might be a more efficient approach than creating a new one.

In its own “talking points” on Tuesday, the EU recognised “the need and urgency” for loss and damage funding, and that “current financing mechanisms are not able to cover all necessary actions.”

But rather than creating a new facility in Sharm el-Sheikh, they favour calling in the two-week meeting’s final declaration for the launch of a time-bound process to explore a “mosaic of solutions”.

The first draft of COP27’s final declaration — which must be approved by all parties — echoes language previously deployed by the US and Europeans proposing “funding arrangements” for loss and damage.

European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans told reporters that the EU has “demonstrated openness to discuss moving forward on loss and damage”, but he said “he was not quite sure we would be able this week to find consensus on the new financial mechanism”.

– Major emitter ‘hypocrisy’ –

With COP27 scheduled to end on Friday and several items left unresolved, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, the COP27 president, said it was “clear that some issues require further technical work”.

“Progress has been made, but certainly more remains to be done if we are to achieve the robust outcomes that will drive ambitious, and inclusive climate action,” he told delegates.

Conrod Hunte of Antigua and Barbuda, lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States, said it would be a “devastating blow” if talks stalled.

“Antigua and Barbuda will not leave here without a loss and damage fund,” he said.

Shawn Edward, sustainable development minister of Saint Lucia, said the people of his Caribbean islands suffer the consequences of the “hypocrisy” of major emitters that continue to invest in fossil fuels.

COP27 comes as global CO2 emissions are poised to reach an all-time high this year, making the aspirational goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to preindustrial levels ever more elusive.

– EU raises emissions target –

Timmermans told delegates that the EU would outperform its original plan to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent by 2030.

The 27-nation bloc will now be able to cut those emissions by 57 percent from 1990 levels, he said, pointing to agreements on phasing out fossil fuel-powered cars and protecting forests that serve as “carbon sinks”.

“The European Union is here to move forwards, not backwards,” Timmermans told COP27 delegates.

The invasion of Ukraine by energy exporter Russia has cast a shadow over the talks in Egypt, with activists accusing Europeans of seeking to tap Africa for natural gas following Russian supply cuts.

But Timmermans denied the bloc was in a “dash for gas” amid the Ukraine conflict.

“Don’t let anybody tell you, here or outside, that the EU is backtracking,” he said.

Watchdog groups were unimpressed.

“This small increase announced today at COP27 doesn’t do justice to the calls from the most vulnerable countries at the front lines,” said Chiara Martinelli, of Climate Action Network Europe.

The Artemis 1 mission, a test flight without astronauts on board, represents the first step in the agency's plan to build a lasting presence on the Moon, taking lessons from there to prepare for a future voyage to Mars

Third time’s the charm?

After two failed attempts, NASA was readying to launch its new mega Moon rocket early Wednesday from Florida, less than a week after the massive machine withstood a hurricane.

“Our time is coming. And we hope that that is on Wednesday,” said Mike Sarafin, the manager of the much-delayed Artemis 1 mission, at NASA headquarters.

The weather promises to be favorable, with an 80 percent chance of launch during a two hour window that begins at 1:04 am local time (0604 GMT).

As expected, Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, NASA’s first female launch director, gave her go-ahead on Tuesday afternoon to begin fueling operations.

The Artemis 1 mission, a test flight without astronauts, represents the first step in the US space agency’s plan to build a lasting presence on the Moon, and take lessons from there to prepare for a future voyage to Mars in the 2030s.

Named after the sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, the new space program comes 50 years after humans last set foot on lunar soil.

It will be the first launch of the 32-story tall Space Launch System rocket, the most powerful ever designed by NASA.

Countdown has already begun at the storied Kennedy Space Center, where the orange and white behemoth awaits its maiden flight.

The takeoff is scheduled less than a week after the passage of Hurricane Nicole, which the rocket endured outside on its launch pad.

The hurricane damaged a thin strip of caulk-like material which encircles the Orion crew capsule atop the rocket, making it more aerodynamic. However, NASA said Monday that this posed a minimal risk.

Two backup dates are possible, if needed, on November 19 and 25.

– ‘Extremely excited’ –

About 100,000 people are expected on the coast to watch the launch, with the rocket promising to light up the night sky.

Andrew Trombley, a space enthusiast from St. Louis, Missouri, is anxiously hoping for a successful liftoff after several futile trips for the launch.

“I’ve been down here a couple of times already to watch this thing go up and have it canceled so, this is like, whatever, the third trip down here for this, so I’m excited to see it go,” said the network engineer.

“I was too little for the Apollo missions, so … I wanted to be here in person.”

The launch has attracted hordes of tourists, as well as locals.

Kerry Warner, 59, a grandmother and semi-retired educator who lives in Florida, is fired up for liftoff, which she said was “part of America and what America is all about.”

“Third time’s the charm, we’re hoping for it.”

– Far side of Moon –

At the end of September, the rocket had to be wheeled back to its assembly building to be sheltered from another hurricane, Ian.

Before these weather setbacks, two launch attempts were canceled for technical reasons.

The first failure was related to a faulty sensor, and the second to a fuel leak when filling the rocket’s tanks. It runs on ultra-cold, ultra-volatile liquid oxygen and hydrogen.

NASA has since replaced a seal and modified its procedures to avoid thermal shock as much as possible.

The Orion capsule will be lifted by two boosters and four powerful engines under the core stage, which will detach after only a few minutes.

After a final push from the upper stage, the capsule will be well on its way, taking several days to reach its destination.

Rather than landing on the Moon, it will assume a distant orbit, venturing 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) beyond the far side — further than any other habitable spacecraft so far.

Finally, Orion will embark on the return leg of its journey. When passing through the atmosphere, the capsule’s heat shield will need to withstand a temperature half as hot as the Sun’s surface.

If takeoff happens Wednesday, the mission will last 25 and a half days, with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on December 11.

NASA is banking on a successful mission after developing the SLS rocket for more than a decade. It will have invested more than $90 billion in its new lunar program by the end of 2025, according to a public audit.

Artemis 2 will involve a flyby of the Moon with astronauts in 2024. 

Boots on the ground should happen during Artemis 3, no sooner than 2025, with the crew set to include the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.

Canada legalized the recreational use of cannabis in 2018

Cannabis may do more harm to a smoker’s lungs and airways than tobacco, according to a small Canadian study published Tuesday.

Researchers from the University of Ottawa and The Ottawa Hospital looked at chest X-ray scans of 56 cannabis smokers, 57 non-smokers and 33 people who smoked only tobacco between 2005 and 2020.

They found higher rates of airway inflammation and emphysema — a chronic lung disease — among regular cannabis smokers compared to regular tobacco-only smokers and non-smokers.

“Marijuana smoking is on the rise and there’s a public perception that marijuana is safe, or that it’s safer than (tobacco) cigarettes,” Giselle Revah, a radiologist The Ottawa Hospital, where the research was conducted, told AFP.

“But this study raises concerns that this may not be true.”

She said the higher rates of inflammation and disease among cannabis smokers versus tobacco could be related to the differences in how the drugs are typically consumed.

“Marijuana is smoked unfiltered, versus tobacco which is usually filtered,” she said. “When you’re smoking unfiltered marijuana, more particulates are reaching your airways, getting deposited there and irritating your airways.”

Also, she added, “people usually take bigger puffs and hold the smoke in their lungs longer for marijuana, which may lead to more trauma to those air spaces.”

Despite these possible explanations, the authors of the study, which was published in the journal Radiology, pointed out that some of the cannabis smokers also smoked tobacco, and that some of the lung scans produced inconclusive results, meaning more study is necessary.

As Revah noted, there is very little research on the health effects of cannabis overall, as it is banned in most countries.

Canada, where the researchers are based, legalized recreational use of cannabis in 2018. 

It is also legal for recreational use in Uruguay and Mexico, among other countries, and many US states, while several other countries and territories have also recently decriminalized possession of the drug or approved it for medicinal use. 

The Artemis 1 mission, a test flight without astronauts on board, represents the first step in the agency's plan to build a lasting presence on the Moon, taking lessons from there to prepare for a future voyage to Mars

Third time’s the charm?

After two failed attempts, NASA plans to launch its new mega Moon rocket early Wednesday from Florida, less than a week after the massive machine withstood a hurricane.

“Our time is coming. And we hope that that is on Wednesday,” said Mike Sarafin, the manager of the much-delayed Artemis 1 mission, at NASA headquarters.

The Artemis 1 mission, a test flight without astronauts, represents the first step in the US space agency’s plan to build a lasting presence on the Moon, and take lessons from there to prepare for a future voyage to Mars.

Named after the sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, the new space program comes 50 years after humans last set foot on lunar soil.

The first launch of the heavy lift Space Launch System rocket, the most powerful ever designed by NASA, is set for Wednesday at 1:04 am local time (0604 GMT), with a possible launch window of two hours.

Countdown has already begun at the storied Kennedy Space Center, where the orange and white behemoth awaits its maiden flight.

The takeoff is scheduled less than a week after the passage of Hurricane Nicole, which the rocket endured outside on its launch pad.

The hurricane damaged a thin strip of caulk-like material which encircles the Orion crew capsule atop the rocket, making it more aerodynamic. However, NASA said Monday that this posed a minimal risk.

Two backup dates are possible, if needed, on November 19 and 25.

– ‘Extremely excited’ –

About 100,000 people are expected on the coast to watch the launch, with the rocket promising to light up the night sky.

Andrew Trombley, a space enthusiast from St. Louis, Missouri, is anxiously hoping for a successful liftoff after several futile trips for the launch.

“I’ve been down here a couple of times already to watch this thing go up and have it canceled so, this is like, whatever, the third trip down here for this, so I’m excited to see it go,” said the network engineer.

“I was too little for the Apollo missions, so … I wanted to be here in person.”

The launch has attracted hordes of tourists, as well as locals.

Kerry Warner, 59, a grandmother and semi-retired educator who lives in Florida, is fired up for liftoff, which she said was “part of America and what America is all about.”

“Third time’s the charm, we’re hoping for it.”

– Far side of Moon –

The weather promises to be mild, with an 80 to 90 percent chance of favorable conditions during the launch window. 

At the end of September, the rocket had to be wheeled back to its assembly building to be sheltered from another hurricane, Ian.

Before these weather setbacks, two launch attempts had to be canceled for technical reasons.

The first failure was related to a faulty sensor, and the second to a fuel leak when filling the rocket’s tanks. It runs on ultra-cold, ultra-volatile liquid oxygen and hydrogen.

NASA has since replaced a seal and modified its procedures to avoid thermal shock as much as possible.

Tank-filling is now due to begin Tuesday afternoon.

The Orion capsule will be lifted by two boosters and four powerful engines under the core stage, which will detach after only a few minutes.

After a final push from the upper stage, the capsule will be well on its way, taking several days to reach its destination.

Rather than landing on the Moon, it will assume a distant orbit, venturing 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) beyond the far side — further than any other habitable spacecraft so far.

Finally, Orion will embark on the return leg of its journey. When passing through the atmosphere, the capsule’s heat shield will need to withstand a temperature half as hot as the Sun’s surface.

If takeoff happens Wednesday, the mission will last 25 and a half days, with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on December 11.

NASA is banking on a successful mission after developing the SLS rocket for more than a decade. It will have invested more than $90 billion in its new lunar program by the end of 2025, according to a public audit.

Artemis 2 will be almost a replay of the first mission, albeit with astronauts, in 2024. 

Boots on the lunar ground should happen during Artemis 3, no sooner than 2025, with the crew set to include the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.