News at a glance: Pandemic declarations, job satisfaction in the COVID-19 era, and a nuclear-powered rocket

SPACE FLIGHT Nuclear rocket eyed for Mars trips NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) plan to launch and test a nuclear-powered rocket engine in space as soon as 2027, the agencies announced last week. Such engines promise higher thrust and efficiency than conventional ones, enabling faster travel times and bigger payloads for human missions to Mars, the agencies say. Although NASA has experimented with nuclear engines since the 1960s, none has been demonstrated in space. Powered by low-enriched uranium, the engine’s fission reactor will heat and vaporize liquid propellants, shooting the gases out of a nozzle to provide thrust. NASA will provide the engine and DARPA the experimental spacecraft that will carry it. The design plans include a safety review. INFECTIOUS DISEASES Pandemic declaration extended Three years after it started, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), the World Health Organization (WHO) declared this week. But a special emergency committee for the disease hinted that the designation—which gives WHO recommendations more heft and can influence travel and quarantine policies—might end later this year. Since WHO first declared COVID-19 a PHEIC on 30 January 2020, the panel has recommended 11 times to keep the designation in place. Although COVID-19 is causing fewer deaths now than 1 year ago, it “remains a danger...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research