"I'm not necessarily here to advocate for Neptune over Uranus but..." -Abigail Rymer

This LPI is about a misson proposal. A flagship budget to Neptune. Strictly speaking, it's less likely than a similar Uranus mission because Uranus will be in a better position for the next decade; they move slow and wide. 

This begs the topic though, so much of the outer solar system is so far and inaccessible, yet so baited with temptations, that I wonder if it will compel engineering in the near future. This, the age of probes, and so many targets are so far and separated that scientists are discouraged before they try. Wouldn't it be nice if we could get the probes to go faster, and still get into orbit around objects with scant gravity? Maybe two delta-V launches, the probe, then a bonus fuel tank for the probe. It's sad to realize many of these temptations cannot be reached in my lifetime, and I would like to be greedy.  

This short mission proposal LPI actually has it’s own time-stamps between slides. It's intuitive and needs little paraphrasing from me. Probes themselves begin to have personality at some point, and this is one I would like to meet one day.   

 -Sean O'Hara

Cryovolcanos are peculiar. If not for Triton I wonder if people would find the topic so interesting. However... Triton. Among the most active worlds in the solar system, and so far away a return mission isn't forthcoming. 

• The slides in this LPI are self explanatory, so I don't feel like I need to call attention to some choice timestamps, but at 12:00 the future of planetary science makes an appearance.

There are 5 cryovolcano suspects named.

1. Ahuna Mons on Ceres at 11:00
2. At 13:30, Hubble says there might be plumes on Europa, nothing confirmed. 
3. At 15:40, Enceladus' Tiger Stripes, the most studied Cryovolcano of them all. 
4. Triton at 17:20. With a mission teaser. 
5. Pluto’s Wright & Piccard Mons at 19:00. Not confirmed at all, but odd enough to take a hard look at. 

At 28:40 in the Q&A he shows you some of the "anti-freeze" chemistry in videos. Lab-lava in it’s cryogenic form. At 34:00 he models a volcano with chocolate. It’s even better than I’m making it sound.

If interested in more check out Fire & Ice by Natalie Starkey.

"It's just jargon to keep people out of the field." -Lindy Elkins-Tanton

So this LPI is a great teaser for the Psyche mission to Psyche. I think I've seen this speaker give more-or-less the same slideshow as an LPI 2-3 years ago, but it's a great presentation that isn't so high-brow that I need to paraphrase it for a more general audience. Some of the slides are straight eye candy, all of them are intuitive. 

• At 18:20 a Vestoid (by far most asteroids are vestoids) compared to a classic M-class
• The very next slide is something beautiful combining the interesting traits of both
• Most of the slides after 25:00 are mission planning and goals

Psyche was supposed to launch this year, about the time of this post. It was delayed for software problems. The next launch window will be next summer, July and August. It's physically located at Kennedy until then.

One thing to note is that Psyche will be carrying a very powerful magnetometer, and will (probably) do a Mars flyby. Mars missions usually don't carry magnetometers for a variety of reasons, but Mars density is a constant topic, so it may be fun if a measurement gets taken. It has another instrument, DSOC, which is Mars related and described around 30:00.

Watch this LPI if you want to learn much more about M-class asteroids.

 

There's only one thing I grade non-fiction on. Does it teach?

This does. It doesn't teach the most accurate information. It's sensationalist; starting-facts exaggerated enough to cross the line into 'wrong' sometimes. However because the author is not an expert, that not only works, but may in fact be the correct thing for a modern & moral person to do in this day & age. 

At its core, this book is an ammo-can. It may not appeal to a group outside an echo-box, but it excels at arming those in that group for some family debates.

 

 Soft robotics are key to wearable tech, things like Jovian wet-suits in Sweet, and also humanoid androids such as followers. This Science Daily article describes a problem and breakthrough along that line. 

"the research introduced the innovative concept of bifunctional polymer. By forming a one-dimensional ion channel several nanometers wide inside the polymer matrix, which is hard as glass, a superionic polymer electrolyte with both high ionic conductivity and mechanical strength was achieved."

"What's interesting about these organisms is that they are very sensitive to environmental changes" -Jahnavi Punekar

This LPI is about mass extinctions. Big die-offs like the one Humanity is currently causing. It focuses on dating and analyzing using foraminifera, or forams for short. These like diatoms, leave hard shells when they die, but they are single celled. That means they evolve rapidly, and the shells are diverse. It's easy, real easy, to chronologically date ocean sediments this way. Takes a lot of the guesswork out, no need for radiometric dating. 

Of course, forams are very sensitive to environmental changes, so guess what's happening to them right now?

• At 17:40 she actually shows you the specific foraminifera that were-then-gone at the KT extinction. 
• At 20:20, the term "disaster opportunist" gets used. And the implications are interesting. 
• 24:50 Mesotrophy opportunist blooms. Have you heard of dead-zones in relation to river outlets? 
• At 42:00 the conclusions. One theme in here is a greater emphasis on the Deccan Traps being involved alongside the Chicxulub impact at the KT boundary. She demonstrates the case well. 

In general I want to credit this speaker for her use of assets. Her slideshow skills are a notch above average. In other words this is a very colorful and intuitive LPI. You don't have to be an ultra-nerd to follow.