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A journey of a billion miles and back begins with a launch.

OSIRIS-REx’s goal: Travel to asteroid Bennu, collect a sample, and return it home. But why Bennu? Meet the NASA Explorers looking for clues to our early solar system in a sample of asteroid rock.

It’s not rockets and satellites that make NASA soar. It’s people. Go inside the space agency and follow the pioneers, risk-takers and experts at the frontline of exploration. This season, follow along with the OSIRIS-REx team, as they launch a spacecraft to an asteroid, collect a sample of Bennu, and bring it home to Earth.

Watch this series and more on NASA+, our no cost, ad-free streaming service. No subscription required. https://plus.nasa.gov.

Created by: James Tralie.
Producers: James Tralie, Dan Gallagher, Lauren Ward, Katy Mersmann.
Scientists: Dante Lauretta, Mike Drake, Dani DellaGiustina, Christina Richey, Jason Dworkin, Rich Kuhns, Sandy Freund, Olivia Billett.
Videographers: Rob Andreoli, John Philyaw, John Caldwell.
Animation: Walt Feimer, Michael Lentz, Jonathan North, Adriana Manrique Gutierrez, Krystofer Kim, James Tralie, Bailee DesRocher, Jacquelyn DeMink, Lisa Poje.
Sound Design: James Tralie.
Data Visualization: Kel Elkins.
NASA+ Executive Producer: Rebecca Sirmons.

Music provided by Universal Production Music: “Vortex” Tom Sue and Zac Singerz; “Tested to the Limit” Krantz; “Interstellar” Alan Myson; “Ascension” Alan Myson; “In a Perfect World” Angus Pendergast; “Tough Terrain” Ty Unwin; “Do Androids Dream” Aidan Lavelle; “Kyoto Vision” Andy Blythe and Marten Joustra; “Presidential Destiny” Laurent Dury; “Driving Force” Ben Niblett and Jon Cotton; “Break the Rules” Tihomir Hristozov; “Deadlock” Dean McGinnes; “Final Preparations” Alan Boyd; “Tundra Sunrise” Ty Unwin; “Zero In” Airglo; “Stepping out of the Darkness” Ty Unwin; “Dark Intensity” Jeremy Smith; “Regeneration” Andy Blythe and Marten Joustra; “Warm Drift” Alan Myson; “Distant Suns” Jason Soudah; “Scenes of Devastation” Benji Merrison and Will Slater; “Look to the Stars” Alan Boyd; “Warming” Benji Merrison and Will Slater.

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In a recent study published in eClinicalMedicine, researchers assess the use of fecal microbiota transplantation to enhance the efficacy of anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) therapy for patients with microsatellite stable metastatic colorectal cancer.

Study: Fecal microbiota transplantation plus tislelizumab and fruquintinib in refractory microsatellite stable metastatic colorectal cancer: an open-label, single-arm, phase II trial (RENMIN215). Image Credit: Peakstock / Shutterstock.com.

Background

Colorectal cancer is one of the three most prevalent forms of cancer throughout the world and, as a result, a major cause of cancer-related mortality. The current standard first-and second-line treatments for metastatic colorectal cancer include therapies targeting epidermal growth factor (EGF) or vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptors combined with fluorouracil-based chemotherapy. However, there remains a lack of third-line treatments, with existing options often associated with low efficacy and a high rate of adverse events.

A controversial new electric propulsion system, which physicists say defies Newton’s Laws of Motion, was launched into space this weekend aboard a Space X rocket.

Developed by electronics prototyping company IVO Ltd, the Quantum Drive took flight Saturday morning, November 11th, aboard SpaceX’s Transporter 9 mission. This flight included over 80 separate payloads destined for Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

“Launch and deployment were successful!” IVO’s owner and founder, Richard Mansell, told The Debrief in a Sunday email. “We’re getting the satellite’s ‘heartbeat.’ Next step is to establish communication with the satellite.”

Provocative Silicon Valley artist Agnieszka Pilat has strong beliefs regarding the intermingling of art, religion and technology, something that keeps her fertile muse alert amid multiple presentations, exhibitions and appearances at global events such as the recent TED AI 2023 conference in San Francisco.

The Polish-born Pilat’s current SpaceX Artist-in-Residence program at the aerospace firm’s Hawthorne, California facility will likely run through 2024 and comes right before a December exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria’s Triennial in Australia. There, for three months, her black-and-yellow Boston Dynamics robodogs will be creating autonomous artwork via a series of pre-programmed instructions.

Space Force and SpaceX announced that they’ve reached a deal for a brand-new military capability: Starshield. Is it a new laser defense shield against nuclear missiles? An Ultron for our time to destroy alien armadas? Or Starlink, but with new branding and (probably) a new fleet of satellites?

Yup, the last one. But with how clutch Starlink is in Ukraine, a military-controlled version of the network could change operations there. And it would dramatically improve U.S. and allied military communications in future conflicts. Now, the American military will lead military space-based communications with the start of Starshield. But expect allies to clamor aboard and other nations to try developing rival platforms.

Space Force has one of the most descriptive, succinct names in the modern military, but it appears to be even worse at naming its programs than the other branches. Still, its Proliferated Low Earth Orbit Program, or “PLEOP,” for acronym addicts who want to hear the sound of a dump every time they discuss the program, is promising.

The European Space Agency.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is an intergovernmental organization dedicated to the exploration and study of space. ESA was established in 1975 and has 22 member states, with its headquarters located in Paris, France. ESA is responsible for the development and coordination of Europe’s space activities, including the design, construction, and launch of spacecraft and satellites for scientific research and Earth observation. Some of ESA’s flagship missions have included the Rosetta mission to study a comet, the Gaia mission to create a 3D map of the Milky Way, and the ExoMars mission to search for evidence of past or present life on Mars.

SAN FRANCISCO – The Space Development Agency awarded SpaceRake, a Cambridge, Massachusetts startup, $1.8 million to develop miniature laser communications terminals.

It was the first government contract for SpaceRake, a firm founded in 2021 by Kerri Cahoy, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Space Telecommunications, Astronomy and Radiation Laboratory director with a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, and Jeremy Wertheimer, former Google vice president engineering with a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence.

Under the two-year direct-to-Phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research award announced Nov. 1, SpaceRake will develop terminals to enable satellites as small as cubesats to transfer data through laser links with the Transport Layer, a global communications network in low Earth orbit being established by SDA, a U.S. Space Force organization.