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Journalism of Courage
A Russian antagonist and a space-based nuclear weapon. Today’s column is not a throwback to Cold War era red scare film, this is an actual concern aired by the United States. Multiple reports coming in this week said that Russia is making advances in space-based nuclear weapons that are aimed at destroying other satellites, both civilian and military.
CNN said that Russia is trying to develop a nuclear space weapon that can destroy satellites by creating a massive energy wave when detonated. Such a weapon could be used to wipe out hordes of satellites that are used for communications, financial transactions and more. It could also wipe out crucial defence and surveillance satellites that belong to the United States and its allies.
If Russia were to develop and deploy such a weapon, it would be in violation of Article 4 of the Outer Space Treaty, which bans nuclear weapons from being put into orbit, installed on any celestial body or even stationed in outer space in any other manner, even on a satellite. It will also be in contravention of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963 that prohibits nuclear explosions in space. Russia is party to both treaties.
As the rumours have it, Russia is still developing the weapon and it is nowhere close to deploying it but there is a good reason why it has America worried — there is nothing to defend against it. Just like the space nuclear weapon is far from reality now, so is any kind of system that can protect satellites and other crucial space assets from it. Whoever puts such a weapon in space will kick off a new space arms race.
Further away from us, where Russia, and even the entire planet fade into an obscure blue drop in the background. Let’s zoom in on the asteroids Iris and Massalia, which are both more than half a million kilometres away from our planet. These asteroids are potentially the first ones in our solar system where we have confirmed the presence of water.
This landmark research that confirmed the presence of water on asteroids for the first time could help us understand the composition of our solar system, and therefore, the nebula that formed it. And once we learn that, we will have better tools at our disposal to understand the distribution of water in the universe. And since water is an essential component of life as we know, this would be an invaluable tool at our disposal in the search for extraterrestrial life.
You do not have to go far in space to come across mysteries. We see the Moon regularly and it is quite close to the planet in relative terms. And there are so many things that we can’t completely confirm about the Moon, including its origin. But we are taking some steps towards changing that.
The Japanese SLIM lander has captured and transmitted data analysing 10 lunar rocks, which is a greater-than-expected achievement that could help us understand the Moon’s origins, said Japanese space agency JAXA. (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency)
JAXA is hoping to compare the mineral compositions of moon rocks and those on Earth to see if they have any common elements. As per the prevailing “giant-impact” theory, the Moon is believed to have formed when our planet collided with another, causing a smaller mass to spin off.
