#sample return

[spaceexp]

After a journey of nearly 3.9 billion miles, the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return capsule is back on Earth on Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023.

Teams perform the initial safety assessment—the first persons to come into contact with this hardware since it was on the other side of the solar system.

[frogshunnedshadows]

We're going to get a physical sample of an asteroid returned to the Earth this Sunday, September 24, 2023.

[nikproxima]

A Reflection on OSIRIS-REx

In September, I was lucky enough to be part of the media team allowed to watch the recovery of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, and experience the excitement of this historic mission. I spent some time today, after seeing some of the sample in person, writing about it. Please feel free to give it a read, and give me a follow on Medium.

[crossistent]

Hello, I opened a chibi 𝖼𝗈𝗆𝗆𝗂𝗌𝗌𝗂𝗈𝗇! Feel free to reach out to me : ')

[bitchfitch]

I was scraping mud out of my carport bc it's a slipping hazard, and when i opened the door to go back inside 2 bolted out, stopped dead as soon as her paws hit the freshly rinsed freezing cold concrete, and immediately did a 180 to run back inside. She's a true bred Texas dumpster weasel of a cat.

[suntails]

it's my bday and the test sample arrived super early!!! a present for lil ol me YIPPEE!!!!

[androdragynous]

great part about loving CDs and practically any music is that people will just sell entire boxes of the things for like ten bucks

[maeamian]

Becoming deeply radicalized against the idea of crewed Mars missions, y'know how the Rovers keep sending back better and better data what if instead of that we made an even bigger one and devoted nearly 90% of its capacity to holding a guy in a bubble on top of it instead of sending back useful data, but wait! They'll eliminate like a half hour of latency and also almost certainly contaminate the landing site and possibly the entire planet, so it's not all downside.

[victorluvsalice]

Valicer Multiamory Month, Day Twenty-Eight: Magic (Valicer In The Dark AU)

The end of Multiamory March (as made by @polyamships) creeps ever closer, and today's prompt is a simple but fun one: "magic!" I have a number of AUs where magical things happen, so filling this one? Not a problem. :p Now, one might have expected that I'd do something for the All The Fairy Tales AU for this one, or perhaps the Medieval Fantasy AU, or maybe even the Valicer Forgotten Vows AU --

But when it came time to figure out something for this prompt, the first thing that actually came to mind was my beloved Valicer In The Dark AU. Which does indeed have magic in it -- just, uh, magic you don't want to mess with too much. Which led to me thinking about what the trio would have learned about magic, growing up in Duskwall -- and what Alice and Smiler might think about Victor getting into it once he embraces being a Whisper. And so the story below was born! I hope you enjoy. :)

--

Magic was dangerous.

That was a fact of life one learned early on, living in Duskwall. Magic, and anything related to it, was dangerous. The old tongue of sorcery was the domain of demons now, who used it to torment all who opposed them – from freezing them in storms of ice, to drowning them in massive waves, to burning them with whips of fire. And rituals? Well, you never knew what mysterious, otherworldly force would consent to lend you a bit of its power – or for what purpose. The city was full of stories featuring those who had dabbled in what they didn’t understand, and ended up paying a terrible price. Who had discovered that the power they so eagerly sought was also their inevitable downfall. Magic was dangerous, and thus best avoided.

Alice and Smiler had known that too – they’d grown up hearing all the stories, all the warnings, after all. And for the most part, they’d followed said warnings – Alice had confined her interest in the fantastical to her imagination, where magic could run wild without hurting anyone, while Smiler had channeled their desire to accomplish incredible things into alchemy, which often ran up against the side of magic, but never quite crossed over. Even after Alice suffered the death of her family and ten years in Rutledge Asylum, and Smiler finally ran away from home and was cheerfully swallowed up by the Advocates, neither of them were tempted much by the mystical.

And then they met Victor. Who – after some initial reluctance – wholeheartedly embraced life as a Whisper. Who poured through ancient volumes of spellcraft and sorcery, studying distressingly complex diagrams and practicing words no human tongue should be able to form. Who asked his ghostly mentor what rituals he knew, and how best to perform them. Who eventually came up with his own spells, designed to translate any language or ward them against spectral attacks or even drag them all temporarily into the ghost field. All the sort of terrifying, dangerous activities that any sensible person would want to avoid.

But – well. One could accuse Alice and Smiler of being a lot of things, but “sensible” was not usually one of them. And things Victor did – first, they were genuinely incredible feats of arcane power. Second, he always tried to be as safe as possible, and only use them for the whole crew’s benefit. And third – whenever he spoke a word that brought lightning arcing down from the sky, or drew a symbol that lit up a ghostly map of the city, Alice and Smiler would see the joy on his face –

And think, how could they deny the man they loved such pleasure?

[lazulibundtcake]

Hello??

[caluski]

this would heal me better than any antidepressant out there i think

[prophetofthemuse]

Upon listening to some classic Disney songs, I have come to the conclusion that I cannot fulfill my full potential until I can sing. Adam has a tambourine, so why should I not sing??

[magpies-in-a-mischief]

Need to stop calling my 12:30 wedding ceremony “early kick-off” and I also need someone to tell me having my hen party the weekend of the home Tyne-Wear derby fixture is insane and to not subject my southern friends to that

[chicago-geniza]

Unlocked my phone this morning to an open note in the notes app that just read

Eros and Psyche (myth)

Anxiety (Doechii)

What was I cooking

[hearmeoutworthypoll]

C-3P0 from Star Wars (episodes 3-6 version)

According to Wookiepedia, C-3PO is designed for etiquette and protocol, fluent in 6 million forms of communication, with a personality described as “fussy” and “worry-prone,” but dedicated to his friends

His gold plating was even given a voyeuristic reveal in Genndy Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars, complete with some steamy jizz (saxophone)

BUT…