How about we start talking about the more interesting things in this article. Last month Nasa and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) landed the heaviest, but most intelligent and technologically developed payload, ever to touch the Martian surface. I am of course referring to the 2020 Perseverance rover. It carries seven primary payload instruments, 19 cameras, and two microphones. The rover is also carrying the mini-helicopter Ingenuity, an experimental aircraft that will attempt the first ever powered flight on another planet.
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SpaceX did it again: SpaceX's latest Starship prototype went out in a blaze of glory.
The Starship SN10 spacecraft touched down successfully after a high-altitude test flight in March 3, a major milestone for the company and its crewed Mars ambitions. But the vehicle didn't manage to hold itself together, exploding about eight minutes after landing.
The big stainless-steel SN10 launched from SpaceX's South Texas site, rose 10 kilometers into the sky and came back safely to Earth for a smooth touchdown after 6 minutes and 20 seconds from liftoff.
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Space (What is space according to many scientific sources: Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction.) facts that probably you didn’t know:
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Space is completely silent (due to the vacuum-no air).
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99% of our solar system's mass is the sun.
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More energy from the sun hits Earth every hour than the planet uses in a year.
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One day on Venus is longer than one year on Earth and 10 days longer than 1 year on Venus.
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The universe is constantly expanding.
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A competed NASA space suit costs $12,000,000.
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There are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on earth.
THE END!!!
Thank you for reading this article. It means a lot for us. Comment down below your thoughts and ideas and tell me your favorite STEM activities that we can discuss in later articles.
Geitonas student newsletter
Metro 2033-Review
Dmitry Glukhovsky is the writer of the Metro book, arguably one of the greatest post-apocalyptic franchises set in a radioactive wasteland. There are three books, four games which have performed very well already, and a movie is also to be launched this year. And this sprawling franchise began with one book, “Metro 2033”
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The book is set in Moscow, taking place almost exclusively underground, in the metro system under the Russian capital, 10 years after a nuclear weapon was fired on the Kremlin, beginning what became known as the Great War of 2013, resulting in every nation to fire its nuclear weapons, sinking the world in a nuclear apocalypse. The station of the metro formed communities, forming various groups as well, such as the “Hanza” trade coalition, the Neo-Stalinist “Red Line” and Neo Nazi “Fourth Reich”, which may at first sound like a German regime, but it is in fact comprised of Russian citizens attempting to maintain the “purity” by exterminating those with deformities, something common-place due to the radiation exposure. But even the stations which are not part of one of these factions are all unique. One station may specialize in making mushroom tea, and it exchanges with the only pig farm in the metro to be well fed, while station near Hanza station specialize in document forgery to provide people with a chance into the rich stations inside the station under the trade coalitions control. Some stations have no lights, some have installed extra lights, some maintain clocks to remind them of life before the apocalypse, in general, there is a huge amount of worldbuilding almost around every corner of the station.
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The characters are also pretty interesting, in their own way. We follow a man named Artyom, who was a small kid when the war happened. Through him we see the Metro, and meets a minor criminal named Bourbon, a traveling philosopher and paranormal specialist called Khan, a religious disciple named brother Timothy, a soldier named Melnik and so many more people, great and small in importance. They all help Artyom, and by extension, the audience, to better understand all aspects of the world, from the low-life criminals and average citizens to the intellectuals and philosophers of the world.
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Thematically, one of the most overarching themes is fear. Fear is what lead, according to people inside the book, to the nuclear launches. Fear is very present in many parts of the Metro, from paranormal entities in some parts, but also in other areas of the metro in physical ways, evident in things such as the Fourth Reich. The pitch-black tunnels of the Metro, between the stations, cause fear to many people throughout the story. Human fear is seen as the cause of both the reason the world is in the state is in, but also causes the elimination of the peace-seeking Dark Ones.
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In conclusion, Metro 2033 has excellent world building, using the setting of a post-apocalyptic to its fullest potential, which it uses to explore human fear and despair in hard times, but also the attempt to hold on to hope.
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The plot is pretty straightforward, and is mostly easy to follow. Artyom lives in a station that is being attacked by mysterious entities known as the Dark Ones, or Black ones, lanky creatures that cause people to go mad with fear if exposed to them for long periods of time. He must head to the Polis, a bastion of military and science, to ask for help. The plot follows him going to the Polis and eventually firing a missile at the Dark Ones, the book ending with the reveal that the Dark Ones only wanted piece as they are exterminated. Not a particularly happy ending if we are being honest.