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Intuitive Machines, a private company, successfully landed a spacecraft carrying the equipment for several science experiments conducted by NASA on the Moon’s surface on Thursday evening. This marked the first U.S. lunar landing in more than five decades and a huge win for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. It wasn’t an easy feat, either. Just last month, another company failed in its attempt to pull off the first landing of this kind.
If taking a chance on these companies is so risky, why is NASA doing it? The partnerships could allow the agency to get more science experiments on the Moon than ever before. And the data from these experiments can both inform physics and cosmology research and help the agency learn more about putting humans back on the Moon – as it aims to do soon.
The lander that touched down two days ago holds the first payload for a program that plans to put a radio telescope on the lunar surface. Jack Burns, a University of Colorado Boulder astronomer and co-investigator on the program, describes NASA’s partnerships with private space companies and some of the science his and other teams hope to do on the Moon in the coming years.
This week we also liked articles on leap years, what can go wrong when moms go on diets, and Tucker Carlson’s transformation into a propagandist.
[ Get a global perspective on the news, with the best of The Conversation’s journalism from around the world, twice weekly. ]
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The dark, far side of the Moon is the perfect place to conduct radio astronomy.
AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
Jack Burns, University of Colorado Boulder
Projects under NASA’s CLPS program – including the Odysseus lander that made it to the lunar surface – will probe unexplored questions about the universe’s formation.
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Mothers play an outsized role in the formation of their daughters’ dietary habits.
andresr/E+ via Getty Images
Janet J. Boseovski, University of North Carolina – Greensboro; Ashleigh Gallagher, University of North Carolina – Greensboro
Adopting healthy behaviors and thought patterns around food and nutrition takes time and intentional effort. But it will lead to more lasting change and positive outcomes than quick-fix dieting will.
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Tucker Carlson at a Moscow grocery store, praising the bread.
Screenshot, Tucker Carlson Network
Michael J. Socolow, University of Maine
Tucker Carlson’s sycophantic interview with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, and his subsequent praise for Russia’s subways, supermarkets and cheeseburgers, was not journalism. It was propaganda.
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Anthony Pereira, Florida International University
The third-term president has used his experience and personal relationships with lawmakers to build the majorities that now support his agenda.
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Bhagya Subrayan, Purdue University
Humans have synced their calendars to the sun and moon for centuries, but every so often, these systems need a little correction.
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Kendra Stewart, College of Charleston
While Nikki Haley trails Donald Trump in polling ahead of the South Carolina primary, the estimates don’t capture the Democrats and independents who are also able to vote in the Republican primary.
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The Conversation Quiz 🧠
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Fritz Holznagel, The Conversation
Here’s the first question of this week’s edition:
You're struggling with FAFSA. Where are you?
- A. In a hospital isolation ward
- B. On the dance floor
- C. At a Greek restaurant
- D. In front of a laptop with your teenage child
Test your knowledge
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