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Our place in space
LEADERS
Editorial Editor Emily Wilson Managing editor Rowan Hooper Art editor Craig Mackie Editor at large Jeremy Webb
News Chief news editor Niall Firth Editors Penny Sarchet, Jacob Aron, Timothy Revell, Jon White Reporters (UK) Andy Coghlan, Jessica Hamzelou, Michael Le Page, Clare Wilson, Sam Wong, (US) Leah Crane, Chelsea Whyte, (Aus) Alice Klein NASA EPIC TEAM
Features Chief features editor Richard Webb Editors Catherine de Lange, Gilead Amit, Catherine Brahic, Julia Brown, Daniel Cossins, Kate Douglas, Alison George, Joshua Howgego, Tiffany O’Callaghan, Sean O’Neill Feature writer Graham Lawton
Culture and Community Editors Liz Else, Mike Holderness, Simon Ings, Frank Swain
Subeditors
Our place in space New exploration missions will require both dreamers and doers
Chief subeditor Eleanor Parsons Tom Campbell, Hannah Joshua, Chris Simms
Design Kathryn Brazier, Joe Hetzel, Dave Johnston, Ryan Wills
Picture desk Chief picture editor Adam Goff Kirstin Kidd, David Stock
Production Mick O’Hare, Melanie Green , Alan Blagrove, Anne Marie Conlon
Contact us newscientist.com/contact General & media enquiries Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1202 [email protected] UK 25 Bedford Street, London, WC2E 9ES Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1200 AUSTRALIA Level 10, Suite 13, 418A Elizabeth Street, Surrey Hills, NSW 2010 US 210 Broadway #201 Cambridge, MA 02139 Tel +1 617 283 3213
IN THE early 1600s, astronomer Johannes Kepler began to write what is now considered to be the first science fiction story. Somnium, published posthumously by his son in 1634, imagines “daemons” that help travellers journey to the moon and observe Earth from its surface. More than three centuries later, this flight of fancy became a reality when Neil Armstrong took one small step. “It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth,” he later said. Since then, we have come crashing back down to our little blue world. Although the
International Space Station has been a success in low Earth orbit, the changing political winds have left NASA struggling to get any crewed deep-space missions off the ground. As presidents have come and gone, the agency has spent decades flipping between prioritising a pioneering trip to Mars or a return to the moon (see page 20). What Kepler never had to consider is that space flight is very, very difficult. With fanciful daemons in short supply, NASA is currently conducting detailed tests of everything from incredibly complex and powerful rocket systems (see page 26) to
Drug law needs a reboot
© 2018 New Scientist Ltd, England New Scientist is published weekly by New Scientist Ltd. ISSN 0262 4079. New Scientist (Online) ISSN 2059 5387 Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper and printed in England by William Gibbons (Wolverhampton)
AS THE wider world increasingly embraces the medicinal use of cannabis, the UK seems determined to drag its knuckles. The confiscation of 12-year-old Billy Caldwell’s cannabis oil, used to treat his epilepsy, at Heathrow airport was a clear instance of an outdated approach, where prohibition overrides everything else – compassion, scientific
evidence and common sense. To be fair to the airport officials, they were only following orders. In the UK, cannabis is a schedule 1 drug, a designation used for those with no therapeutic value. They are illegal to possess or prescribe. Cannabis’s status should be enough to discredit the law. The fact that schedule 1 includes MDMA and LSD, both increasingly seen as
the intense psychological effects of being cooped up for years on end (see page 42) in an effort to reach Mars. Even so, a launch date in the 2030s is only vaguely pencilled in. That hasn’t stopped some people chasing even wilder ambitions. Researchers are now seriously studying how we might reach Proxima Centauri b, the closest Earth-like exoplanet (see page 4). It may be centuries before such a mission launches – and the journey itself would take millennia – but space exploration requires a broad church. Without both the dreamers and the doers, we will never get anywhere. ■
useful psychiatric medicines, emphasises the backwardness of the UK’s drug laws. Many MPs – including health secretary Jeremy Hunt – have called for a rethink on medicinal cannabis, and Home Secretary Sajid Javid has announced that its legal status will be reviewed (see page 5). That is welcome progress, but only a start. Control of UK drug law should be confiscated from politicians and handed to the Department of Health. ■ 23 June 2018 | NewScientist | 3
Editorial Editor Emily Wilson Managing editor Rowan Hooper Art editor Craig Mackie Editor at large Jeremy Webb
News Chief news editor Niall Firth Editors Penny Sarchet, Jacob Aron, Timothy Revell, Jon White Reporters (UK) Andy Coghlan, Jessica Hamzelou, Michael Le Page, Clare Wilson, Sam Wong, (US) Leah Crane, Chelsea Whyte, (Aus) Alice Klein NASA EPIC TEAM
Features Chief features editor Richard Webb Editors Catherine de Lange, Gilead Amit, Catherine Brahic, Julia Brown, Daniel Cossins, Kate Douglas, Alison George, Joshua Howgego, Tiffany O’Callaghan, Sean O’Neill Feature writer Graham Lawton
Culture and Community Editors Liz Else, Mike Holderness, Simon Ings, Frank Swain
Subeditors
Our place in space New exploration missions will require both dreamers and doers
Chief subeditor Eleanor Parsons Tom Campbell, Hannah Joshua, Chris Simms
Design Kathryn Brazier, Joe Hetzel, Dave Johnston, Ryan Wills
Picture desk Chief picture editor Adam Goff Kirstin Kidd, David Stock
Production Mick O’Hare, Melanie Green , Alan Blagrove, Anne Marie Conlon
Contact us newscientist.com/contact General & media enquiries Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1202 [email protected] UK 25 Bedford Street, London, WC2E 9ES Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1200 AUSTRALIA Level 10, Suite 13, 418A Elizabeth Street, Surrey Hills, NSW 2010 US 210 Broadway #201 Cambridge, MA 02139 Tel +1 617 283 3213
IN THE early 1600s, astronomer Johannes Kepler began to write what is now considered to be the first science fiction story. Somnium, published posthumously by his son in 1634, imagines “daemons” that help travellers journey to the moon and observe Earth from its surface. More than three centuries later, this flight of fancy became a reality when Neil Armstrong took one small step. “It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth,” he later said. Since then, we have come crashing back down to our little blue world. Although the
International Space Station has been a success in low Earth orbit, the changing political winds have left NASA struggling to get any crewed deep-space missions off the ground. As presidents have come and gone, the agency has spent decades flipping between prioritising a pioneering trip to Mars or a return to the moon (see page 20). What Kepler never had to consider is that space flight is very, very difficult. With fanciful daemons in short supply, NASA is currently conducting detailed tests of everything from incredibly complex and powerful rocket systems (see page 26) to
Drug law needs a reboot
© 2018 New Scientist Ltd, England New Scientist is published weekly by New Scientist Ltd. ISSN 0262 4079. New Scientist (Online) ISSN 2059 5387 Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper and printed in England by William Gibbons (Wolverhampton)
AS THE wider world increasingly embraces the medicinal use of cannabis, the UK seems determined to drag its knuckles. The confiscation of 12-year-old Billy Caldwell’s cannabis oil, used to treat his epilepsy, at Heathrow airport was a clear instance of an outdated approach, where prohibition overrides everything else – compassion, scientific
evidence and common sense. To be fair to the airport officials, they were only following orders. In the UK, cannabis is a schedule 1 drug, a designation used for those with no therapeutic value. They are illegal to possess or prescribe. Cannabis’s status should be enough to discredit the law. The fact that schedule 1 includes MDMA and LSD, both increasingly seen as
the intense psychological effects of being cooped up for years on end (see page 42) in an effort to reach Mars. Even so, a launch date in the 2030s is only vaguely pencilled in. That hasn’t stopped some people chasing even wilder ambitions. Researchers are now seriously studying how we might reach Proxima Centauri b, the closest Earth-like exoplanet (see page 4). It may be centuries before such a mission launches – and the journey itself would take millennia – but space exploration requires a broad church. Without both the dreamers and the doers, we will never get anywhere. ■
useful psychiatric medicines, emphasises the backwardness of the UK’s drug laws. Many MPs – including health secretary Jeremy Hunt – have called for a rethink on medicinal cannabis, and Home Secretary Sajid Javid has announced that its legal status will be reviewed (see page 5). That is welcome progress, but only a start. Control of UK drug law should be confiscated from politicians and handed to the Department of Health. ■ 23 June 2018 | NewScientist | 3