NASAs upcoming Artemis II mission is slated to return astronauts to the Moon no sooner than April 2026. Astronauts were last on the Moon in 1972 during the Apollo 17 mission.Artemis II will utilize NASAs Space Launch System, which is an extremely powerful rocket that will enable human space exploration beyond Earths atmosphere. The crew of four will travel in an Orion spacecraft, which the agency launched around the Moon and successfully returned during the Artemis I mission.But before Artemis II, NASA will send two missions to scout the surface of the lunar south pole for resources that could sustain human space travel and enable new scientific discoveries.Planetary geologists like me are interested in data from Lunar Trailblazer, one of these two scouting missions. The data from this mission will help us understand how water forms and behaves on rocky planets and moons.Starting with scientific explorationPRIME-1, or the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment, will be mounted on a lunar lander. Its scheduled for launch in January 2025.Aboard the lander are two instruments: the Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain, TRIDENT, and the Mass Spectrometer for Observing Lunar Operations, MSOLO. TRIDENT will dig down up to 3 feet (1 meter) and extract samples of lunar soil, and MSOLO will evaluate the soils chemical composition and water content.Joining the lunar mining experiment is Lunar Trailblazer, a satellite launching on the same Falcon 9 rocket.Think of this setup as a multimillion-dollar satellite Uber pool, or a rideshare where multiple missions share a rocket and minimize fuel usage while escaping Earths gravitational pull.Bethany Ehlmann, a planetary scientist, is the principal investigator of Lunar Trailblazer and is leading an operating team of scientists and students from Caltechs campus. Trailblazer is a NASA Small, Innovative Mission for PLanetary Exploration, or SIMPLEx.These missions intend to provide practical operations experience at a lower cost. Each SIMPLEx mission is capped at a budget of US$55 millionTrailblazer is slightly over budget at $80 million. Even over budget, this mission will cost around a quarter of a typical robotic mission from NASAs Discovery Program. Discovery Program missions typically cost around $300 million, with a maximum budget of $500 million.Building small but mighty satellitesDecades of research and development into small satellites, or SmallSats, opened the possibility for Trailblazer. SmallSats take highly specific measurements and complement data sourced from other instruments.Missions like NASAs TROPICS use a network of small satellites to take more data than one satellite would be able to do alone. [Illustration: NASA Applied Science]Multiple SmallSats working together in a constellation can take various measurements simultaneously for a high-resolution view of the Earths or Moons surface.SIMPLEx missions can use these SmallSats. Because theyre small and more affordable, they allow researchers to study questions that come with a higher technical risk. Lunar Trailblazer, for example, uses commercial off-the-shelf parts to keep the cost down.These low-cost, high-risk experimental missions may help geologists further understand the origin of the solar system, as well as what its made of and how it has changed over time. Lunar Trailblazer will focus specifically on mapping the Moon.A brief timeline of water discoveries on the MoonScientists have long been fascinated by the surface of our closest celestial neighbor, the Moon. As early as the mid-17th century, astronomers mischaracterized ancient volcanic eruptions as lunar mare, derived from the Latin word for seas.Nearly two centuries later, astronomer William Pickerings calculations suggested that the Moon had no atmosphere. This led him to conclude the Moon could not have water on its surface, as that water would vaporize.However, in the 1990s, NASAs Clementine mission detected water on the Moon. Clementine was the first mission to completely map the surface of the Moon, including the lunar poles. This data detected the presence of ice within permanently shadowed regions on the Moon in low resolution.Scientists first water detection prompted further exploration. NASA launched the Lunar Prospector in 1998 and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2009. The India Space Research Organization launched its Chandrayaan-1 mission with the Moon Mineralogy Mapper, M3, instrument in 2008. M3, although not designed to detected liquid water, unexpectedly did find it in sunlit areas on the Moon.These missions collectively provided maps showing how hydrous mineralsminerals containing water molecules in their chemical makeupand ice water are distributed on the lunar surface, particularly in the cold, dark, permanently shadowed regions.Novel mission, novel scienceBut how does the temperature and physical state of water on the Moon change from variations in sunlight and crater shadows?Lunar Trailblazer will host two instruments, the Lunar Thermal Mapper, LTM, and an evolution of the M3 instrument, the High-resolution Volatiles and Minerals Moon Mapper, HVM3.The LTM instrument will map surface temperature, while the HVM3 will measure how lunar rocks absorb light. These measurements will allow it to detect and distinguish between water in liquid and ice forms.In tandem, these instruments will provide thermal and chemical measurements of hydrous lunar rock. Theyll measure water during various times of the lunar day, which is about 29.5 Earth days, to try to show how the chemical composition of water varies depending on the time of day and where it is on the Moon.These results will tell researchers what phasesolid or liquidthe water is found in.Scientific significance and whats nextThere are three leading theories for where lunar water came from. It could be water thats been stored inside the Moon since its formation, in its mantle layer. Some geologic processes may have allowed it to slowly escape to the surface over time.Or, the water may have arrived on asteroids and comets that collided with the lunar surface. It may even have been created by interactions with the solar wind, which is a stream of particles that comes from the Sun.Lunar Trailblazer may shed light on these theories and help researchers make progress on several other big science questions, including how water behaves on rocky bodies like the Moon and whether future astronauts will be able to use it.Csar Len Jr. is a Ph.D. student of planetary geology at Washington University in St. Louis.This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Every parent knows the profound relief of being able to park your newborn somewhere for a few minutes, so you can attend to your most basic needs, like showering or making a meal. Thats why theres a $3.4 billion global industry devoted to baby bouncer seats, which safely harness your child while creating a pleasant bouncing motion that infants love, because it reminds them of being in the womb. Bjorn Jakobson, who founded BabyBjrn, first invented a bouncer in 1961, creating a product that continues to be a best-seller for the brand.Over the years, other companies have tried to update the bouncer, but it has sometimes led to tragedy. Fisher-Price, for instance, created a seat with an electronic rocking motion and twirling mobile, but it has led to more than 100 infant deaths. The soothing bouncing motion often helps babies sleep, but can be dangerous because he or she can suffocate on the fabric in the headrest and seat pad. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has recalled several bouncers, and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) warns that infants should only sleep on a firm, flat mattress.Today, Elviebest known for its hands-free breast pumpis launching a new $799 bouncer called the Rise that is designed to allow babies to safely sleep in it. At first glance, it looks like other bouncers on the market, allowing the baby to sit and be bounced. But if the baby falls asleep, it can be converted into a flat bassinet, for both nap-time and night-time sleep.According to Elvie, the Rise meets the U.S. safety guidelines for both bassinet and bouncer products. But its unclear whether parents will be willing to trust a new product, particularly given that previous bouncers have led to infant deaths. The price of the Rise could also be a sticking point. At $799, it is four times more expensive than premium bouncers on the market, such as the BabyBjorn bouncer, which is $210. Its an expensive purchase for a product that can only be used for the first six months of a babys life.[Photo: Elvie]Elvies parent-centric baby gearElvie launched 11 years ago with an innovative device that helps women strengthen their pelvic floor, which can weaken after childbirth. It was quickly embraced by Gwyneth Paltrow and others. Then, Elvie launched a hands-free breast pump that women can wear within their bra, allowing them to pump on the go. Aoife Zakaras-Nally, Elvies CMO, says the inspiration for the Rise came from conversations with women, particularly new mothers. Alongside feeding, sleep was the most problematic thing that moms and caregivers had to manage, she says.[Photo: Elvie]Many babies are soothed to sleep by bouncers. And it can be painful for caregivers to have to wake their infant, particularly if they are in desperate need of rest themselves. Elvie conducted a focus group with 1,413 U.S. moms with children under the age of 2 and found that 67% of babies aged 0 to 3 months routinely sleep in a products that is not deemed safe for sleeping.Zakaras-Nally says that Elvies marketing team brought these insights to the companys engineers and asked them to come up with a solution. We mapped out what our competitors are doing and asked what we could do that was different, she says.The final bouncer can go from a seated position to a flat one. In bouncer mode, it can bounce manually, as the baby moves its body, or it can bounce electronically. But if the baby falls asleep, it can lay flat, abiding by all safety requirements of a bassinet. This means ensuring the baby lies flat on their back in a firm surface that does not incline, and does not contain any soft objects that could risk suffocation or strangulation.The Elvie Rise is the latest in high-tech products designed to help babies to sleep. Perhaps the most famous one to date is the SNOO, a $1,695 bassinet that rocks the baby to sleep when it awakens and ultimately sleep trains the baby to make it easier to transition them to a crib. The SNOO is now the only medical device to receive authorization from the FDA to keep sleep babies safely on their back, lowering their risk of sudden death syndrome. This means it could soon be covered by insurance.While the SNOO has a cult following among well-heeled parents who tout its safety and how much more sleep they are able to get every night, well have to see whether the Rise is equally popular. The Rise is available to pre-order today on the Elvie website.

To kick off our 21st-Century Architecture: 25 Years 25 Buildings series, we profile Herzog & de Meuron's Tate Modern in London the most significant building of the year 2000.The turn of the millennium prompted the opening of numerous high-profile buildings, but none have had the lasting impact of Tate Modern, setinside an abandoned power station on the banks of the Thames in London.Opened in May 2000, the gallery was ahead of its time with its focus on reuse, rejuvenating London's cultural offering and propelling Swiss studio Herzog & de Meuron to global fame.Herzog & de Meuron's Tate Modern opened in 2000The building fundamentally changed art gallery design. Today, institutions around the world from Sydney to Doha are looking to convert former industrial spaces into unique galleries with the aim of replicating the power of Tate Modern's Turbine Hall, but this wasn't always the way.Back in the early 1990s, London had no public institution dedicated to modern art.When Tate decided to establish a second London venue due to its original home running out of space, it was broadly expected that a brand new building would be commissioned.The gallery is located in a former power stationHowever, in what Herzog & de Meuron co-founder Pierre de Meuron later described as an "utterly surprising and daring choice", the institution chose an abandoned power station on London's deeply unfashionable and poorly connected South Bank to be its new home.By that time Bankside Power Station, designed by Battersea Power Station architect and telephone-box designer Giles Gilbert Scott, had lain empty for over a decade following its closure in 1981.The Turbine Hall was converted into a giant galleryThe Tate organisation, led by director Nicholas Serota, saw the potential of the giant building and its central location almost directly opposite St Paul's Cathedral.Tate organised a competition that attracted entries from all of the biggest architects of the day, including Rafael Moneo, David Chipperfield, Renzo Piano, Michael and Patty Hopkins, Nicholas Grimshaw, Alsop & Strmer, Future Systems, Tadao Ando and OMA.Herzog & de Meuron left much of the building's industrial character intactAlongside this star-studded lineup was a little-known studio from Switzerland that had built little beyond a series of railway signal boxes in Basel Herzog & de Meuron, which of course won the commission.Among the numerous dramatic proposals that made radical additions to the power station, Herzog & de Meuron's appeared to do very little to the building.Read: Tate Modern's Corner cafe revamped to be less "Herzog & de Meuron-y""Our design involved few but powerful interventions, with the aim of retaining the industrial character of the building as much as possible," said De Meuron.On the exterior, Herzog & de Meuron's design left the building looking like a power station, with only a two-storey glazed extension added to the roof of the brick building. If the exterior was radical in its subtlety, so too was the building's gallery space.The majority of the building's functions were stacked in the former power stationThe studio stacked the gallery's core spaces vertically in the main building. A bookstore, coffee shop and auditorium occupied the lowest two floors, with galleries of various sizes for the Tate's permanent collection and temporary exhibitions spread across the third, fourth and fifth floors and a bar and restaurant with views across London opened in the glazed extension on top.However, it is the former turbine hall that is the focal point of the building and has come to define Tate Modern. The giant, cathedral-like space, which stretches the full 150-metre length of the building and rises to its full height, was a dramatic new type of space in which to display art.It is, I'd argue, the finest new public space in the city. It is free to access, it is generous and there is a sense of the unexpected Edwin HeathcoteThe Turbine Hall has since been host to numerous attention-grabbing, site-specific artworks by leading contemporary artists including Olafur Eliasson, Louise Bourgeois, Anish Kapoor, Rachel Whiteread, Ai Weiwei and Carsten Hller.Described by Financial Times architecture critic Edwin Heathcote as the "finest new public space in the city", the huge plaza-like gallery changed how people thought about contemporary art and modern art galleries.A symbol of renewal in south London; the Tate Modern, bright star on the Thames's other side Alan Riding New York TimesVisiting the Tate Modern today, it is hard to imagine the scepticism faced by Tate for the choice of site, architect and design. Like much of the best architecture, it is hard to imagine the building as anything else.On its opening, the gallery was well received, with the New York Times calling it a "bright star on the Thames's other side".Numerous gallery spaces were created on the building's upper floorsThe gallery was opened by the Queen in May 2000 and quickly surpassed its expected annual visitor figures of two million, with more than five million visitors in the first year. Now, almost a quarter of a century after it opened, the Tate Modern is still the world's most visited contemporary art museum a testament to both Tate's and Herzog & de Meuron's vision.The New York Times's review went on to claim that Tate's original gallery, renamed Tate Britain, "does not want to be upstaged by its younger sibling".Looking back now, it is clear that it has been.Did we get it right? Was Herzog & de Meuron's Tate Modern the most significant building completed in 2000? Let us know in the comments. We will be running a poll once all 25 buildings are revealed to determine the most significant building of the 21st century so far.This article is part of Dezeen's 21st-Century Architecture: 25 Years 25 Buildings series, which looks at the most significant architecture of the 21st century so far. For the series, we have selected the most influential buildings from each of the first 25 years of the century.The illustration is by Jack Bedford and the photography is by Margherita Spiluttini.21st-Century Architecture: 25 Years 25 Buildings2000: Tate Modern by Herzog & de MeuronThis list will be updated as the series progresses.The post Herzog & de Meuron's Tate Modern was the most significant building of 2000 appeared first on Dezeen.

To kick off 2025, Dezeen is naming the 25 most significant buildings of the 21st century so far in our 21st-Century Architecture: 25 Years 25 Buildings series.Over the next 25 days we will feature the 25 buildings that had the most impact on architecture from the first quarter of the 21st century.The Dezeen team selected a single building from each year of the 21st century so far, starting today with Herzog & de Meuron's Tate Modern art gallery in London from the year 2000.Following Tate Modern, we will be publishing one building a day throughout January alongside an illustration of each structure created for Dezeen by Jack Bedford.We picked Tate Modern as the most significant building of 2000Overall, we hope the 25 buildings will provide an overview of the key buildings, architecture trends and studios of the first quarter of the 21st century.Each of the buildings was chosen as we believed it was the most significant completed in that year. Of course, this is a subjective choice and with only one building from each year, we will have missed some hugely important structures.We invite you to let us know if we made the right decision for each year in the comments. Once all 25 buildings have been revealed, we will run a poll to determine the overall most significant building of the 21st century so far.21st-Century Architecture: 25 Years 25 Buildings2000: Tate Modern by Herzog & de MeuronThis list will be updated as the series progresses.The post 21st-Century Architecture: 25 Years 25 Buildings appeared first on Dezeen.

UK studio Zaha Hadid Architects has released its design for a sweeping arts centre intended to become the centrepiece of a cultural quarter in Shaoxing city's Shangyu District.Named Zheijang Shaoxing Shangyu District Cao'e River Culture and Art Centre, the building will be set on the banks of the Cao'e River and host local and international productions of opera, theatre, dance and drama.Zaha Hadid Architects has unveiled its design for an arts centre in ShaoxingIt will comprise a series of venues including a 1,400-seat grand theatre, a 7,500-square-metre heritage museum and a 10,000-square-metre art gallery, unified by sweeping interconnected roofs that Zaha Hadid Architects said will provide a "highly recognisable silhouette".Other spaces will include a 500-seat multifunctional hall, a 2,900-square-metre arts and education centre and a 3,000-square-metre conference centre.The centre will be topped by sweeping roofs. Render by ProloogA series of outdoor courtyards filled with greenery will wrap around the structure to provide gathering spaces for visitors and the wider city of Shaoxing."These outdoor gathering spaces flow into terraced landscapes which surround the centre and connect directly with the city, giving Shaoxing's residents and visitors a variety of natural parklands and gardens for relaxation and recreation along the river," the studio said.A series of venues will make up the centre. Render by TegmarkIn the renders, the roofs are seen cloaked in tiles, which the studio said is a "contemporary articulation" of the region's ancient Celadon ceramics a type of grey-green pottery."In this way, traditional materials and innovative architecture are integrated coherently, defining a 21st-century cultural building with a direct connection to the region's ancient past," it added.Read: Weaving brick forms define Uzbek cultural centre by Zaha Hadid ArchitectsAnother defining feature of the roofs will be wide overhangs that provide shading across the large glass facades. They extend furthest and lowest on the centre's southern elevations.Additionally, photovoltaic (PV) panels will be integrated into the roof design to help meet the building's energy demand.The curved exterior will be mirrored internally. Render by Zaha Hadid ArchitectsRaised walkways will provide circulation around the centre, with renders of the interior revealing large spaces encased by winding staircases and curving platforms that mimic the building's sinuous exterior.Wooden details will feature throughout.Wood will be used across the interior. Render by TegmarkElsewhere, Zaha Hadid Architects has recently completed a metro station decorated with geometric perforations in Saudi Arabia's capital city.It was also recently revealed that the High Court had ruled Zaha Hadid Architects to continue paying to use its late founder's name.The renders are by Atchain unless otherwise stated.The post Zaha Hadid Architects unveils sweeping culture centre for China appeared first on Dezeen.

Picture yourself on a packed train during rush hour, a cacophony of announcements, chatter, and the low hum of the tracks surrounding you. Youre taking an urgent call. You lean in, whispering softly into your headset, barely audible to the person sitting inches away, yet your voice comes through crisp and clear on the other end. It might sound like noise-cancellation on steroids, but its possible thanks to an AI-powered headphone that lets you whisper entire conversations while the headphone does the rest, amplifying your voice.Designer: SkytedThe magic here lies in how Skyted handles soundyours and everyone elses. It relies on a highly precise microphone array that can even hear whispers, along with an AI that helps enhance the. Yes, it sounds a bit sci-fi, but its surprisingly intuitive in practice. It uses an intelligent microphone built into the front thats designed to capture even the slightest directional audio, along with a powerful AI algorithm that works hard to amplify your whisper while canceling out pretty much all kinds of external noise. What kind of cancellation are we talking about here? Well, I was in a noisy convention center and the wearer was whispering dialogues 2 feet away from me. I could hear every single word crystal clear.The result? Privacy, even in the noisiest, most public places. Whether youre whispering your side of a confidential work call or dictating notes for a project, no one around you will hear more than a faint murmur. And those on the other end of the line? Theyll think youre calling from a library, even if youre smack in the middle of a bustling airport terminal.What really makes this device fascinating is how flexible it is. Skyted feels tailor-made for the remote worker who doesnt want to be tethered to their home office or the podcaster tired of lugging around recording equipment. Its also a game-changer for anyone who frequently takes calls in noisy environmentsthink salespeople, journalists, or even students navigating group projects in crowded cafs. And gamers, too, might finally find a headset that lets them coordinate their next big raid without worrying about leaking every background noise in their room. Heck, I can totally envision a phone with this technology too, so I dont need to yell when I get a phone call in a noisy environment.The headset looks unassuming until you actually try it out. I had the chance to demo a unit, with someone wearing it and whispering to me. Without the Skyted, I couldnt hear a word of what he said. However, as soon as he switched the Skyted headset on, the microphone did a phenomenal job catching his audio and AI-enhancing it to make it crystal-clear. Skyteds team said that the headphone was just step one, the next step is to build this tech into smartphones so that you can answer calls without people around you hearing what youre saying.The design looks admittedly retro, but is got a clean, streamlined vibe that is comfortable to wear and gets the job done. Its lightweight and portable, which is crucial for something youll be tossing into your bag between meetings or after a long commute. Its also designed to stay comfortable for long periodsa feature thatll matter to anyone who spends hours on calls or gaming marathons.Surprisingly, the tech has roots in aerospace technology. Developed with support from ONERA and Airbus Dveloppement, it takes inspiration from systems built to handle the relentless noise and acoustics of aircraft cabins. That lineage shows up in how flawlessly it filters sound and isolates voices, even in settings that would make most headsets crumble. Its the kind of crossover you dont expect, like Bose, the audio company, also making suspension for vehicles. Or Yamaha, being equally good at making motorbikes and pianos.Although Skyted hasnt officially announced a price, its gearing up for a launch that aims to make this technology broadly available. Considering its polished performance and the excitement it generated at CES, it feels like a strong contender to shake up the headset market.The post Future of Noise Cancellation at CES 2025: This AI-Powered Mic Headset Can Even Hear You Whisper first appeared on Yanko Design.

The last of the small phones is finally growing up.

The market for absurdist cryptocurrencies mutated into a hundred-billion-dollar phenomenon in 2024. Yes, things can get even more deranged.

Tech's big show isn't fully underway yet, but the odd and wonderful gadgets are already here. These are the coolest things we saw at the event preview.

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