SLIM landed upside down.Credit: JAXA/Takara Tomy/Sony Group Corporation/Doshisha University ShareSpace exploration is difficult, and when things go wrong, they can go very wrongas demonstrated by this light-hearted review of 2024s less than glorious moments in going boldly where no man has gone before. From lunar landers landing every way up except the right way to cancelled missions, budget blow-outs and yet another demonstration of the fact that its not aliensits never aliens!here are 2024s space-related mishaps in all their ignominious glory.Florida mans house hit by ISS debrisAn external pallet packed with old nickel-hydrogen batteries, of a similar type to the one that failed to burn up completely in the atmosphere. Credit: NASA Theres a whole lot of junk orbiting Earthand some of that junk is jettisoned deliberately from the ISS, on the expectation that it will burn up on re-entering the Earths atmosphere. Unfortunately, in April, there was a rather spectacular demonstration that these pieces of detritus can prove more resilient than expected. Smash cut to one Alejandro Otero of Naples, FL, who was minding his own business when the remains of a cargo pallet that once carried batteries to the ISS ploughed straight through the roof of his house. Otero was understandably nonplussed: [There] was a tremendous sound, he told Floridas WINK News, and [the object] almost hit my son.SLIM lands on its backSLIMs unorthodox landing configuration. Credit: JAXA/Takara Tomy/Sony Group Corporation/Doshisha University As far as space exploration goes, 2024 was the Year of the Questionable Landing. The Japanese moon lander SLIM (an acronym for Smart Lander Investigating Moon) set the tone in January by landing upside down. SLIM made Japan the fifth nation to reach the moons surface, and it was able to deploy its two rovers successfully, but its rough landing meant the landers solar panels werent aligned to the sun. Despite its rough start, however, SLIM proved remarkably resilient. It was powered down for the lunar night in early February, which it was not expected to survive. (Lunar days and nights last for about two Earth weeks.) But SLIM didnt just surviveit also managed to last through several more brutal lunar nights, far longer than anyone expected.Odysseus lands on its sideOdysseuss slightly less unorthodox landing configuration. Credit: Intuitive Machines In fairness to SLIM, it certainly wasnt the only moon lander that had trouble with the whole landing thing in 2024. In February, the lander IM-1, built by Houston-based company Intuitive Machines and named Odysseus (or Odie) made history as the first privately funded craft to reach the moons surface. It was also the first American craft to do so since 1972. Unfortunately, one of the landers six legs broke off as it skidded across the lunar surface after touching down. This left Odie lying on its side, an awkward position that limited the amount of data it could send back to Earth. The craft was powered down a week later as the lunar night began, and contact could not be re-established thereafter.Peregrine doesnt land at allPeregrine sets off for the moon. It didnt get far. Credit: Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images At least SLIM and Odie both reached the moon. Not so Peregrine, which planned to steal Odies thunder as the first privately built spacecraft to reach the moon by touching down in early February. In the event, the unfortunate craft barely made it off the launch pad: several hours after its launch in January, Peregrine experienced a critical loss of propellant, leading to the plug being pulled on its mission a day later.and VIPER doesnt even get launched in the first placeA sight well never actually see: VIPER on the moon. Credit: Daniel Rutter/NASA Of all the moon-related developments in 2024, though, perhaps the most disappointing was NASAs announcement in July that it was cancelling the VIPER project. The mission was designed to look for water in the moons polar regions, and was originally scheduled to reach the moon in 2022. However, ongoing problems with the lander that was to convey VIPERbuilt by Pittsburgh company Astrobotic, which also built Peregrinecaused multiple delays, and were one of the reasons cited by NASA for the cancellation. The space agency promises that at least some of VIPERs instruments will be reused in future projects.NASA takes three months to open a containerThe stubborn container after it was finally pried open. Credit: Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebers/NASA One NASA mission that did go off as planned was Osiris-RExs 2020 encounter with asteroid Bennu. The craft rendezvoused with the asteroid successfully and brought back soil and rock samples in a sealed container, which arrived safely on Earth in September 2023. The only problem? The container turned out to be very well-sealedso much so that NASAs scientists couldnt get the damn thing open.The agency documented the issue in an October 2023 blog post, and spent late 2023 figuring out how to pry open the container without contaminating its contents. And in January, three months after it arrived on Earth, the container was finally openedand happily, the precious, pristine asteroid material therein was extracted successfully.Boeing and the whole sorry Starliner sagaStarliner is hoisted into position for its long-delated launch. Credit: Kim Shiflett/NASA Did any company have a worse 2024 than Boeing? The problems with the companys airplanes are well documented, and its space program also had a terrible year, largely because of Starliner. The craft has been plagued with problems ever since 2014, when Boeing won one of two contracts to build a replacement for the Space Shuttle to carry astronauts to the ISS. (The other went to SpaceX, whose Dragon craft launched successfully way back in 2020.)After years of delays, Starliner finally launched in June, with Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun warning in advance that the expectation from the media should not be perfection. Yeah, about that: while Starliner did convey astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams successfully to the ISS, NASA was so concerned about the crafts manifold technical problems that it decided Starliner wasnt going to fly the astronauts back. This left Wilmore and Williams effectively stuck on the ISS, where they remain.In September, Starliner returned home without Wilmore and Williams; they will remain on the ISS until February 2025, when theyll finally be able to return to Earth on the rival SpaceX Dragon. Look, no-one is saying that space travel is easy, but Starliner has been well, it hasnt been perfection, put it that way.SpaceX and the whole sorry Boca Chica sagaA SpaceX rocket heads for orbit. Credit: Cory S Huston/NASA Speaking of SpaceX, while the company did manage not to blow up any rockets this yeara welcome change, given that the September 2023 explosion of its Starship rocket literally blew a hole in the atmosphereit didnt have everything its own way in 2024. For a start, SpaceX remains under FAA investigation for various alleged regulatory and licensing violations, a state of affairs about which the company is not pleased.It also continues to make a huge mess of Boca Chica, Texas, the remote region of south Texas that serves as its launch site. Locals have worried for years about the sites effects on the environment, and not without causethe launches are so loud that they can kill birds miles away and cause structural damage to buildings. There are also potential long-term effects on the local flora and faunaand on that front, the EPA claimed in August that SpaceX has been illegally dumping mercury-contaminated wastewater from the site for years.Russia tests super weapon, ends up with super craterRussia is one of eight countries known to have operational intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), which can deliver warheads (including nuclear payloads) over a range exceeding 3,400 miles. With great power comes great danger, though, and when something goes wrong with an ICBM test, it can go very wrong. This appears to have been the case with a test launch of an RS-28 Sarmat missiledescribed by former Russian space agency head Dmitry Rogozin as a super weaponin September. While Russia hasnt acknowledged the incident, Ars Technica reported satellite imagery showing the before-and-after state of the launch silo near the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. Before: trees, buildings, and missile silo. After: no trees, no buildings, and a large crater. Whoops.Alien signal turns out to be a truckSatellite imagery of Manus Island. Note proximity of a) road and b) seismometer. Credit: Roberto Molar Candanosa and Benjamin Fernando/Johns Hopkins University, with imagery from CNES/Airbus via Google Theres something about the large fireball that smashed through the atmosphere and into the ocean north of Papua New Guinea in 2014 that seems to attract theories about aliens. First there was speculation that the meteorite itself comprised extraterrestrial technology, and then there was speculation around the ground vibrations recorded by seismometers at nearby Manus Island. Were the vibrations an alien signal??? No, said a study published this Marchthey were most likely made by a truck. Driving. On a nearby road. Oh.

Stack CommerceShareWe may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn more Was that light in the clouds a drone, an alien, or maybe just a really tech-savvy pigeon? Its hard to tell when youre staring into the night with the naked eye, and phones arent much better. Have you seen the quality of most nighttime videos? Woof.Whether youre searching the skies for first contact or just want to keep fishing long into the dark winter months, a set of night vision binoculars could help. It sounds expensive, but night vision tech has advanced enough that theres some really good stuff thats actually available at a decent price, and it helps that theres a sale going on. Thats how you can get these Mini Night Vision Digital Binoculars for $79.97 instead of $159.See and record in total darknessHunting for aliens? If you have these binoculars, you wont need that close of an encounter with the third kind. Thats because the 850nm infrared illuminator can give you crystal clear visibility up to 1,000 feet in complete darkness.In daylight, you can use the 10X optical magnification or 4X digital magnification. If you see something interesting, dont get out your camera. Use your binoculars to snap a photo or record a video. A 32GB memory card is included, so if the mothership lands, you can capture the arrival in perfect clarity.Dont believe your eyes? Pop open the 2.4-inch HD screen and watch your video back. And hey, even if your alien was actually just a weird-looking owl, bird-watching is still cool, right?January 12 at 11:59 p.m. PT is the cutoff to get a pair of Mini Digital Night Vision Binoculars on sale for $79.97.StackSocial prices subject to change.Mini Digital Night Vision Binoculars with 1080p HD Recording $79.97See Deal

NewsHealth & MedicineThe spread of breast cancer may be inheritedA variant of the genePCSK9may spur breast cancers spread. An approved antibody might stop it A commonly inherited version of thePCSK9gene may spur breast cancer cells to migrate to other parts of the body (metastasis illustrated). The gene is known for its role in raising cholesterol, and there's already a lab-made antibody for treating it that may also stop the cancer spread.wildpixel/iStock/Getty Images PlusBy Tina Hesman Saey14 seconds agoA gene involved in setting cholesterol levels may also determine whether breast cancer spreads to other parts of the body.A variant of the PCSK9 gene drives the spread of breast cancer, but a lab-made antibody already approved to treat high cholesterol may help stop the exodus, researchers report December 9 in Cell.For years, researchers have been examining normal tissue and breast cancer tumors that had spread to other parts of the body trying and failing to find mutations that spur the migration, says oncologist and cancer biologist Sohail Tavazoie of the Rockefeller University in New York City. Wenbin Mei, a cancer biologist in Tavazoies lab, wondered if inherited genetic variants instead of mutations that happen in tumors might give cancer cells wanderlust.

Nature, Published online: 30 December 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-04229-wChinese rice actually tastes ever more nice

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In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, there is a constant battle between humans and demons, and Genya Shinazugawa is a fascinating character who embodies the complexity of the two facets of the series. Unlike his fellow demon slayers, who rely on swordsmanship and breathing styles, Genyas powers are born from an unsettling source of consuming demon flesh to temporarily harness their supernatural abilities. Due to his unique ability to harness the power of demons, Genya serves as a bridge between two warring factions while also challenging the rigid dichotomy of good versus evil that permeates the Demon Slayer series.

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