Science News Roundup: NASA looks to launch Artemis lunar test flight again on Nov. 14; Arizona cryonics facility preserves bodies to revive later and more

Following is a summary of current science news briefs. NASA looks to launch Artemis lunar test flight again on Nov. 14 NASA has targeted Nov. 14 for a third attempt to launch its big, next-generation rocketship, the U.S. space agency said on Wednesday, after weeks of technical setbacks and foul weather delayed the uncrewed inaugural Artemis mission to the moon.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

NASA looks to launch Artemis lunar test flight again on Nov. 14

NASA has targeted Nov. 14 for a third attempt to launch its big, next-generation rocketship, the U.S. space agency said on Wednesday, after weeks of technical setbacks and foul weather delayed the uncrewed inaugural Artemis mission to the moon. Plans call for rolling the 32-story-tall Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and its Orion capsule back out to Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, as early as Friday, Nov. 4 to renew final flight preparations.

Arizona cryonics facility preserves bodies to revive later

Time and death are "on pause" for some people in Scottsdale, Arizona. Inside tanks filled with liquid nitrogen are the bodies and heads of 199 humans who opted to be cryopreserved in hopes of being revived in the future when science has advanced beyond what it is capable of today. Many of the "patients," as Alcor Life Extension Foundation calls them, were terminally ill with cancer, ALS or other diseases with no present-day cure.

Archaeologists unearth eight colonial-era mummies in Peru

Archaeologists in Peru have unearthed eight centuries-old mummies at a site in the country's capital, an important find that experts say could point a colonial-era cemetery. Archaeologists on Tuesday were hard at work in Lima's Park of Legends on the coast of central Peru, carefully cleaning the ancient preserved corpses found under the site, including the remains of children.

Asteroid's path altered in NASA's first test of planetary defense system

The spacecraft NASA deliberately crashed into an asteroid last month succeeded in nudging the rocky moonlet from its natural path into a faster orbit, marking the first time humanity has altered the motion of a celestial body, the U.S. space agency announced on Tuesday. The $330 million proof-of-concept mission, which was seven years in development, also represented the world's first test of a planetary defense system designed to prevent a potential doomsday meteorite collision with Earth.

SpaceX to take entrepreneur Dennis Tito on Starship around the moon

Billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX said on Wednesday that the world's first space tourist Dennis Tito and his wife Akiko have signed up to fly around the moon on the space exploration firm's Starship rocket. Engineer turned financial analyst Tito, 82, was the first private individual to pay for a trip to space on Russia's Soyuz TM-32 mission in 2001, when he spent nearly eight days aboard the International Space Station.

'Although not alive, I can still create art,' robot Ai-Da tells UK lawmakers

A "robot artist" called Ai-Da told British lawmakers on Tuesday that although it was an artificial creation, it was still capable of producing art, as it spoke at a parliamentary inquiry into how new technologies will affect the creative industries. Described as "the world's first ultra-realistic AI humanoid robot artist", it appeared in one of parliament's ornate wood-panelled rooms, wearing a short black-haired wig and denim dungarees.

Japan's Epsilon rocket failed after launch - Kyodo

The Japanese space agency's Epsilon rocket failed after it was launched on Wednesday, Kyodo News and other domestic media reported. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) sent a destruction order signal to the rocket after detecting trouble, Kyodo said. Public broadcaster NHK said the signal was sent after JAXA determined that rocket was not able to fly safely.

(With inputs from agencies.)