Technologies

SpaceX Falcon Heavy May Launch NASA Psyche Mission to Metal Asteroid Next Week

By some estimates, the asteroid could be more valuable than the entire world economy.

NASA has been planning and waiting for years to launch a new spacecraft to explore the bizarrely metal-rich asteroid Psyche. After a delay of a full year, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket may finally loft the craft to space as soon as Oct. 5.

A software glitch caused launch delays in 2022, forcing mission planners to wait until this year, after the launch window expired last October.

The asteroid target is officially named 16 Psyche. It’s shaped like a potato, with a diameter of 173 miles (280 kilometers) at its widest point. The exact composition of the asteroid is a subject of some debate, but NASA says it may be up to 60% iron-nickel metals. This is such an unusually high proportion that some scientists speculate Psyche may be a leftover chunk from an ancient planet’s core.

NASA has no plans to mine the asteroid, but data returned by the mission could help us get a more accurate idea of its potential value. Some estimates have put the figure as high as a mind-blowing 10,000 quadrillion dollars.

NASA and other scientists connected to the mission say they’re more interested in using the trip to Psyche to learn about what Earth’s core might be like, since it’s so close yet so inaccessible.

Psyche isn’t a near-Earth asteroid. It orbits far away, between Mars and Jupiter, and it’ll take the Psyche spacecraft six years to travel the 2.5 billion miles (4 billion kilometers) it needs to cover to reach its heavy metal target.

Along the way, the spacecraft will be testing advanced laser communications technology in deep space for the first time. The optical communications system could be capable of data transmission rates 10 to 100 times higher than current radio systems, perhaps even enabling streaming video. The experiment could lay the foundation for a future interplanetary broadband network when astronauts venture to Mars.

As of last week, NASA said the Psyche spacecraft had completed testing and is fully fueled and ready to launch. The agency and SpaceX are targeting a launch at 10:34 a.m. EDT (7:34 a.m. PDT) on Thursday, Oct. 5, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In case of other delays, there are other opportunities for launch in the current window up until Oct. 25.

The launch will be streamed by NASA and SpaceX.

Technologies

Tesla Has a New Range of Affordable Electric Cars: How Much They Cost

The new, stripped-back versions of the Model Y and Model 3 have a more affordable starting price.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Oct. 22 #598

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Oct. 22, No. 598.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a fun one — I definitely have at least two of these in my house. Some of the answers are a bit tough to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Catch all.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: A mess of items.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

BATE, LICE, SLUM, CAPE, HOLE, CARE, BARE, THEN, SLAM, SAMBA, BACK

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

TAPE, COIN, PENCIL, BATTERY, SHOELACE, THUMBTACK

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is JUNKDRAWER. To find it, look for the J that’s five letters down on the far-left row, and wind down, over and then up.

Quick tips for Strands

#1: To get more clue words, see if you can tweak the words you’ve already found, by adding an «S» or other variants. And if you find a word like WILL, see if other letters are close enough to help you make SILL, or BILL.

#2: Once you get one theme word, look at the puzzle to see if you can spot other related words.

#3: If you’ve been given the letters for a theme word, but can’t figure it out, guess three more clue words, and the puzzle will light up each letter in order, revealing the word.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Oct. 22, #1586

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for Oct. 22, No. 1,586.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle features some letters I don’t often guess, but it’s not terribly difficult. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has one repeated letter.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

Today’s Wordle answer has one vowel.

Wordle hint No. 3: First letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with S.

Wordle hint No. 4: Last letter

Today’s Wordle answer ends with T.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer can refer to an action displaying spectacular skill and daring.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is STUNT.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, Oct. 21, No. 1,585 was DETOX.

Recent Wordle answers

Oct. 17, No. 1,581: GROSS
Oct. 18, No. 1,582: HAVEN
Oct. 19, No. 1,583: IDEAL
Oct. 20, No. 1,584: LIMBO

Quick tips for Wordle

#1: Check our list ranking the popularity of all the letters in the alphabet and choose your starter words accordingly. (TRAIN, STERN and AUDIO are good.)

#2: Don’t forget that letters can be used more than once.

#3: Many words are similar. You don’t want to use up multiple guesses that don’t advance your cause. So if the puzzle is STA_E, don’t guess STARE, STATE and STALE. Guess something that uses that R, T and L, like TWIRL.