UNITED STATES
Spacecraft contact lost
NASA on Tuesday said that it has lost contact with a US$32.7 million spacecraft headed to the moon to test a lopsided lunar orbit, but engineers are hopeful they can fix the problem. After one successful communication and a second partial one on Monday, NASA said that it could no longer communicate with the spacecraft, called Capstone. Engineers are trying to find the cause of the communications drop-off and are optimistic they can fix it, NASA spokeswoman Sarah Frazier said on Tuesday. The spacecraft, which launched from New Zealand on Tuesday last week, had spent nearly a week in Earth orbit and had successfully started on its way to the moon when contact was lost, Frazier said. The 25kg satellite is the size of a microwave oven and would be the first spacecraft to try out this oval orbit, which is where NASA wants to stage its Gateway outpost. Gateway would serve as a staging point for astronauts before they descend to the lunar surface. The orbit balances the gravities of Earth and the moon, and so requires little maneuvering and therefore fuel, allowing the satellite — or a space station — to stay in constant contact with Earth.
MEXICO
Time may be standardized
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday submitted a bill to end daylight saving time, putting an end to the practice of changing clocks twice a year. Secretary of Health Jorge Alcocer said the nation should return to “God’s clock,” or standard time, arguing that setting clocks back or forward damages people’s health. That would mean darkness falling an hour earlier on summer afternoons. “The recommendable thing is to return to standard time, which is when the solar clock coincides with the people’s clock, the clock of God,” Alcocer said. Mexicans set their clocks ahead this year on April 3 and are scheduled to set them back on Oct. 30. The changes, if approved, would presumably apply to next year. The change would mean that Central Mexican Time, which covers most of the country, potentially could be permanently two hours behind the east coast of the US. It is now one hour behind for most of the year. The US Senate in March passed a bill to make daylight savings permanent, although the measure has not passed the US House of Representatives.
SWITZERLAND
CERN makes observations
The physics lab that is home to the world’s largest atom smasher on Tuesday announced the observation of three new “exotic particles” that could provide clues about the force that binds subatomic particles together. The observation of a new type of pentaquark and the first duo of tetraquarks at CERN, the Geneva-area home to the Large Hadron Collider, offers a new angle to assess the “strong force” that holds together the nuclei of atoms. Most exotic hadrons, which are subatomic particles, are made up of two or three elemental particles known as quarks. The strong force is one of four forces known in the universe, along with the “weak force” — which applies to the decay of particles — as well as the electromagnetic force and gravity. The collider’s underground ring of superconducting magnets that propel infinitesimal particles along a 27km circuit at near light speed began operating again on Tuesday. Data from the collisions are recorded by high-tech detectors along the circular path.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia