FALLING FOR YOU ; MV1

max verstappen x reader

. . . in his own little way, max finds the solutions to his problems not without a little help from his friends and ends up giving you the confession of a lifetime

amgf yeah... there's this, just fluff. i won't be as active this week because of exams and research but this is prime time of my impulsive ideas so either i can milk this opportunity to write every single day, or avoid this app for the remainder of the week. enjoy 👍

Max strives for stability. 

He enjoys the same routine that consists of jogging at eight am, early morning workout by nine am, brunch, a few rounds of sim racing, stopping by for a few phone calls and online meetings. If he isn’t expected to fly anywhere else he’d have his usual afternoon snack, play with his cats, more sim racing from six to eight pm, dinner with his team, reviewing data and notes, an hour for his own leisure— mostly sim racing, before heading to bed at one am.

Whatever happens in between is usually one of Lando’s plans in an attempt to spice things up in his life. Whether it’s going to the movies, buying ice cream at the convenience store down the street, or playing padel. Max is very much thankful for his friends.

Max also strives for the best.

He takes pride in his skills in racing and acknowledges his talent, and flaws. Honing them like a sharp knife through whetstones, he polishes himself and cuts through the defenses of the grid. He is a World Champion for a reason, and with a great car and team behind him, he knows they’ll get far. Max is very much thankful for the trust his team set upon him.

Max hates uncertainty. 

Well- hate is too strong of a word and dislike would be too weak for his opinions. 

Max despises uncertainty.

Especially when there’s you- the current root of all his “problems”. Despite his tendency to be blunt and straightforward statements, uncertainty always left a distasteful feeling in his mouth. 

Realizing that his wavering feelings for you have now shattered the routine he built to perfection. Long gone are sleeping on time and hello to staying up with you crowding his thoughts. Head full of the lingering scent of your perfume and the same voice playing in his head.

Max hated it. He despised how you orbit around his mind, bouncing through the walls of the gray matter inside his skull. He often catches himself smiling at the thought of you- before a bitter scowl fills his face and an incredulous and slightly constipated look pasted on his face.

But that was the least of his worries, such feelings could be fixed (a term he used to convince himself these are temporary). It’s not that Max doesn’t believe in relationships or think it’s nothing but a distraction, deep inside he’s aware that he craves affection. It’s the vague emotions clouding his heart making him think twice.

Then again, Max is thankful for his friends. 

“What did you say?” Lando squinted his eyes in the hopes to hear his words clearly. With a blank look- almost as if he put on a mask void of emotions Max spoke once more.

“Do I like YN?” 

The rest tilted their head to the side, in confusion. “D-did you perhaps ask us. . . if- if you like someone?” George, asked once more to make sure of his words, sighing in disbelief.

“It’s not just someone, it’s YN.” Max pushed the question once more and glanced at everyone on the table.

The silence was deafening. Max’ statement was too loud and too quiet at the same time, no one spoke and they left each other contemplating on the next words he will say.

“I need help. How do I know I like YN?” Collective gasps were heard throughout and one by one they slowly left the group of friends on the table leaving Max with Lando and George.

“How about we sleep over your question and. . .think— think about it you know?” Lando, the first to talk regarding the revelation that their stoic friend has now developed feelings for someone.

“Sleep? I hardly get any sleep these nights. I want to confirm my feelings now so I can finally sleep peacefully.” 

That’s when the pair noticed the bags under his eyes, mostly due to the lack of sleep like he said. Lando took a glance at George and started to talk telepathically at each other.

George sighs before pushing Max from his seat, “You see Max these feelings can’t be confirmed in a night, these requ-”

“It’s been weeks, George, I can’t lose sleep over such a trivial matter.” Max retorted with a firm stance using his lack of sleep as a front to confirm his feelings.

“Okay, first of all feelings are not a trivial matter. They are valid, and whatever is going on in your head about YN shouldn’t be taken lightly. Not because we’re curious but because we care about your emotional well being.” Lando spoke in a serious voice which only added on to Max’ confusion.

Feelings are not a big deal, at least not for him.

“And we're curious as to why you like YN.” George chimed as he followed the pair outside the room.

“Yes we’re curious but now how about I give you some romance books that you can study and read. Only you can confirm your feelings Max, let’s stop by my room and I’ll give you books you can read and next week- next week we’ll talk about this matter again.”

Lando now sounds like a mom scolding his child for misbehaving, dragging the latter to his room and sending him off with a tower of romance books.

Max is smart, he can understand such concepts by himself.

Feeling accomplished, Lando glanced at George smirking at him before walking away with Max to his apartment.

Max on the other hand went inside his room and began to bury himself in the books he brought along. “If I’m not sleeping at least I get my feelings in line.”

One chapter. And another turns to five and in the blink of an eye a week has passed. Max returned to his routine but instead of sleeping at one he pushed it to an even later hour to make time for reading which helped him sleep.

The first nights were hard, after finishing a chapter of the book he finds himself falling asleep and now you appear to become more vivid in his mind. Invading his dreams as romantic scenarios play on repeat while Max mindlessly sleeps which results in him waking up flustered and warm.

Passing by you on the paddock became frequent; it's as if the universe has its way to bring you together. Now everywhere Max looked there was you, in the corner of his sight you occupied a chunk of his thoughts and as much as he hated to admit he found himself anticipating your presence.

By the end of the week you managed to invade his thoughts and heart which only strengthened his theory and confirmed his feelings for you. With no time to waste, Max went to look for you. The second practice was over, he’s telling you what you’re doing to him.

With new found information from the team about your whereabouts, Max made his way to the hospitality locating where you’re assigned he opens the door abruptly to see you preparing food. You stand straight feeling the intimidating aura around him, you watch him exhale a sigh of relief before talking a large step in your direction. On instinct you back away giving him space, every step Max takes is a step backward from you.

Unknowingly your feet hit the corner of the marble countertop and like a cliché scene Max remembers from the books he’s been reading you stumble backwards.

Max is a racer for a reason, and with swift reflexes he managed to catch your fall and brought you up to your feet. “You should watch where you’re going. I don’t want you falling just like how I fell for you.”

Silence. Complete, utter silence from the both of you paired with the low buzz of the booming air conditioner right near you. You blink your eyes incredulously, “What?”

“I mean. . . I do want you to fall for me, it would be sad to find out that my feelings are one-sided. But I mean my words YN.”

You adjust your posture and back away. “What are the words Max? About me falling to the ground or you. . . you f- falling for me?” Your voice thins out at the end unsure of what you just heard.

“Both. I don’t want you to fall, it’s dangerous just like how you did to me. You enamored me with those charms, I just want to know how you did it.” Max spoke with the most bored and plain looking face he could muster up. His palms were sweating inside his pockets in extreme nervousness.

“Is this- is this your confession perhaps?” You try to piece things together, like the subtle clues Lando and George have been leaving out of nowhere.

“Yes. This is my confession.” Max blurts out as sweat drips from the side of his forehead. And just as he was losing hope from this failed confession your bubbly laugh bursts the silence in the air.

“You know, you need to work on your confession more. That was unlike any other, but I understand what you mean. Do you want me to fall for you, Maxie?” 

Max stares at you and you don't miss the soft gaze he set upon you. You note the light blush spread around the apples of his cheeks as his eyes light up the moment you called his name. The once awkward silent air was now filled with a warm feeling that spread all over your body, leaving goosebumps all over your skin.

“I do. I fell for you, I like you, and I want to mean something to you.”

His way with words caught you off guard, Max Verstappen, who would’ve thought. You smile at him, this time it’s you walking towards his direction.

Max stiffened at the proximity between the two of you, his feet stuck to the floor preventing him from backing away. Your face gets closer to his and all the thoughts clouding his mind have been wiped away.

You face him and whisper something in his ear before walking away towards the kitchen at the back, legs shaking and breaths heavy. 

Taking a moment to himself Max meditates in an attempt to calm his bouncing heart, legs shaking as if they ran a hundred miles, and his mind whirring into different ideas and possibilities.

Max never falls- literally and figuratively.

Yet you managed to be the root of all his problems. The person who made him fall, there was no doubt that Max fell and will still be falling for you.

Narn Global Orbital Defense-Grid by Amras-Arfeiniel

I'm writing another AOS fic (WHY?!) and that means it's time for another

✨ plot hole rant ✨

To me, the part of the first movie that makes the least sense is Pike going over to the Narada. For so many reasons.

1. If Nero wanted a random Starfleet captain in order to get information on Earth's defenses, he wouldn't have shot up every ship that showed up in Vulcan's orbit. He'd have destroyed all but one, and then demanded or just captured the captain of that ship. He didn't know the Enterprise was going to be warping in five minutes later! He would naturally think that was the whole fleet.

2. If he did, Pike would have no reason to agree. First, he wrote his dissertation on this, he knows that's what Robau did and that Robau got killed and it didn't save the Kelvin. Just a general rule of thumb, if your enemy really wants something, don't give it to them. It was the ONE thing they could have denied Nero, and he gives it up.

3. Okay, so let's say it was absolutely necessary to provide cover for Kirk and Sulu's space jump. That still doesn't mean he actually has to give himself up when he gets there. He could have rammed, self destructed, come out shooting, anything else.

4. It's also incredibly stupid to have single factor authentication on your entire planetary defense grid, and then go ahead and store the password inside the head of EVERY captain. Some captains are chumps! They get captured sometimes! This is not a secure place to keep the data which ten billion lives rely on! It would make more sense to require human confirmation at the very least. A dude who can look out the window and go "yeah I see that you look like the Enterprise, as well as having the right 1000-digit transponder codes for today" before taking the shields down.

5. If you DID have a system like that, it would become that more vital not to give up your captain to anyone, for any reason. Captains are taught to resist torture, but nothing's perfect. This is cyanide-pill-in-your-cheek level hot information. For Pike to give himself up, knowing he's got the key to Earth's defenses in his mind, is incredibly irresponsible. Especially given he can SEE this guy is actively drilling holes in a different planet.

6. Also it does really make you wonder what Vulcan's planetary defenses are like. Even if they were dumb enough to have it all running on a single password, Vulcans can resist the mind sifter so I'd bet on them over a Ceti eel or whatever. Plus if there were an encounter like that, that would have given them time to send a subspace message like DON'T WARP OVER HERE WITH YOUR SHIELDS DOWN or something, just a thought. But really I don't think it occurred to the writers that planets other than Earth have defenses, because the movie does not treat Vulcan like a real planet. Vulcans are pacifists who carry a big stick, they'd have defenses.

This has been my rant for the day. I just can't believe the Earth defenses have less robust security than I need to log into zoom. Really, a freaking miracle nobody blew it up before.

Kim Dotcom

Bad news for the West: Russia will spend $160 billion on defense and security in 2024 and the Russian Finance Minister calls it the victory budget. Russia pays 75% less for similar or better weapon systems compared to the US / NATO because Russia doesn’t allow its defense industry to rip them off. So any plane, missile, tank or artillery ammunition costs Russia only 25% of what the US is paying. This means that a $160 billion Russian military budget is comparable to $640 billion in the United States. It’s also worth noting that Russia doesn’t waste trillions on fancy Navy ships and fighter jets that don’t work. Instead it has focused on building the most powerful nuclear arsenal in the world, long range hypersonic missiles that can sink airplane carriers and autonomous nuclear powered torpedoes that travers the oceans without ever needing to refuel. They carry the largest nuclear warheads known to men and are nearly undetectable. Imagine the most powerful nuclear explosion on the shores of New York City generating a hundred meter tall tsunami of radioactive water destroying the entire city and turning it into an uninhabitable wasteland for centuries. In addition Russia has a fleet of Super EMP satellites in a high orbit above Earth with nuclear payloads. When detonated they can destroy the entire power grid and all civilian telecommunication systems in the US in an instant. The US military is used to fighting the least sophisticated enemies. It’s easy to bully any nation that doesn’t have peer capabilities. The US Govt killed over 20 million people in 37 victim nations since WW2 but it never bullied anyone who could destroy the United States, until now. Americans and citizens of NATO countries need to understand that the West cannot win against Russia on the battlefield. Every day without diplomacy and peace negotiations is bringing humanity closer to self-destruction. You already know that the Biden administration is the most inept and embarrassing Government America has ever had. Don’t let those arrogant, corrupt and incompetent fools destroy the world. Demand peace. Don’t wait until it’s too late.

Now now, I know you have the Main 3 Projects you have + In-Dev Projects right now but aside from these, will you be able to focus on Metallic Miracle one day? /genq

This might be a suggestion probs. but, I don't know if you have any characters in there or not-

hopefully! i'm personally proud of myself for the concept, and i do write for it from time to time, so maybe one day i'll be able to write a proper script and release it one day. right now i've got a few characters done, and a general plot:

the story takes place in a futuristic earth - the protagonist, M1-RA, is an 8 year old former child soldier who fought in a war against these aliens that were specifically weak to prepubescents. all the other soldiers were put into a "synthetic coma" and controlled by trained adults, M1-RA somehow escaped the coma and was left to fight and evade the aliens to the best of her ability. why did she escape the coma you might wonder? it's because of her mother, who was one of the scientists who helped to design the robot parts that would be surgically added to the children's bodies - she and M1-RA attempted to escape and live off the grid, but were eventually caught, and M1-RA's mother was killed and M1-RA herself was left to be drafted a few years after every other child (so she was only in the war for a little under a year.)

that little bunny robot with her is rabbot - which is an AI robot that helps her out, and was originally built by her mother as a multi-functional device (think GPS + flashlight + various other things).

anyway, after the war (which lasted roughly 5 years) only around 10,000 survivors were left of the millions who fought. those survivors were also stuck in a child's body forever as the cyborg-ification was permanent and stoped their bones from developing further (i know it makes no sense lol). those survivors were sent to orbit the earth in small shuttles as they couldn't be taken out of their comas, and most died. however, after around 50 years it was discovered that M1-RA and 2 other survivors still had a heartbeat, and were therefore returned to earth. M1-RA was sent to a large city (still unamed) and now lives with this group of city defenders (kind of like firefighters but for mid-level alien threats) and the story revolves around her, her trauma, and character battles, as well as trying to find the other survivors.

for the defense group, i have a few characters, but haven't drawn them in digital yet. i'll sketch them out -

firstly thoma, who isn't the leader but likes to act like she is. she's a 30 year old basically fitness influencer type, and is also a super genius who created these aids to help her in battle (the pigtail arms). M1-RA (or mira as she's known as by the defense team) lives in her home, and she's kind of rude and snobby but she means well.

secondly nonon, the explosives specialist. he's kind of a hyperactive weirdo who's obsessed with blowing stuff up, and is pretty silly and unserious when it comes to his job. he tries to help mira take risks and venture out more.

and the last character i've properly developed for the defense team is lovelox. she's the mechanic and is super sweet and kind, but treats mira like glass. she's a good friend/rival of thoma and helped make her robot arms.

so yea they all go on adventures and what not, its kind of fuzzy right now but i hope you don't mind me springing all of this on you lol. thank you for the ask, i don't really talk about metallic miracle so getting to dump so much info in one go is good fun ^^

So all these whispers of a shooting star story... does that have anything do with the reason you have prosthetic wings?

"I really do wish you wouldn't make me recount it, but I will if I must. I nearly got both me and my now partner killed entirely on my own recklessness, then proceeded to lose a couple of limbs and an ear about it, so it's not exactly a story I like telling."

"We were, what, no more than 3 half-sweeps when it happened,"

> Badger's note: Because the planet's orbit is so far out from its star, Alahstian sweeps are really fucking long, so this means, like, 8 or 9 years old.

"And we were out in the backyard of the palace, for once not straying out too far, when I saw a shooting star pass over the palace. They're pretty common, usually chunks of space debris that dip a little too far into orbit and land somewhere. So, of course, Sorbit and I ran after it and headed into the woods to see if we could find it."

"Now, in child Xylova's defense, you certainly can find shooting stars. They do actually land on the ground. But we were woefully unprepared for a journey like that, on top of being young children..."

"A couple hours in, of course, a few nearby weather stations went down and the atmospheric converters went temporarily offline. This isn't too rare of an occurrence for one station, but apparently there was a grid failure that kicked several offline. Alahsti's atmosphere is naturally very thin and those converters are critical for retaining breathable air and warmth near the ground, so... Over about half an hour the temperature more than halved from a slight wintry chill to a bit below freezing."

"We got lost. At some point all we could do was try and shelter in place and not freeze."

You pause for a long moment.

"They finally found us the next morning. We both had severe hypothermia-- I couldn't feel my wings since the sun went down the night before, and I'd been sitting there with Sorbit held in my lap with my head on top of theirs for so long that I couldn't feel half of my face either. It's a miracle neither of us lost any fingers... But my wings weren't so lucky. Nor was Sorbit's tail."

You sigh.

"Are you satisfied? Is that enough?"

The Aquiste, an intelligent species of six-legged and feathery extraterrestrials. Humans sometimes call them ‘centaurs’ or ‘dragons’ for fun. Lore and a conscript key below

The Aquiste (Aquisten ethnonym) are an omnivorous species native to the planet Reh-et (Our Home), formally designated Libra-4 in the Galactic Planet Catalogue. They are basic vertebrates, possessing six limbs, two of which are used for complex tasks, and four of which are used for locomotion. They typically possess two forward-facing eyes with rectangle pupils. Their bodies are feathered, and their plumage is typically of a varying brown and blue color. Aquiste originally inhabited grasslands, sparse forests, savannas, and other generally warm and dry habitats. This species still thrives best in dryer, warmer climates.

Traditional Aquisten clothing consists of a dhek, which is a buttoned or laced garment that covers the body from the shoulders down to the rump, a ferl, which is a hood or veil attached to the dhek at the neckline, and seras, which are limb covers. A cloak called a gent is added for extra warmth in the winter.

In current times, the Aquiste are a well-traveled species throughout the known Milky Way. Their six-limbed anatomy suits them to the multitasking necessary to run the radar systems of inter-planetary ships. A few well-known Aquiste are Khelik Yu-ren, current Speaker of the Pan-Species Galactic Council, Hanle We-aye, commander of the Libra System Defense Fleet, and Yehla Ju-ser, renowned engineer and designer of orbital stations.

The first Aquisten civilization, the city-state of Weh-et (River Home), is thought to have been founded in -2900, Galactic Standard Year System. They achieved planet wide civilization in 2076 Galactic Standard, and efficient space flight in 2103 Galactic Standard. The Aquiste inhabit all three inhabitable planets of their home system of Libra, being Dah-et (Blue Home), Lyl-et (Sand Home), and the aforementioned Rey-et. Their language is known as Heyt-pen (Sound Marks), and it is written in a vertical impure abjad, where vowels are represented as diacritics added on to the consonants.

There’s probably never going to be a proper conlang to go along with this script, because linguistics are terrifying. Heyt-pen is usually handwritten on isometric dot grids, or typed with a specialized keyboard.

Rising Flood Risks in Bangladesh From 1988 to 2022, the population of Dhaka ballooned from 5.7 million people to more than 22 million. That tremendous rate of growth has made Bangladesh’s capital among the most densely populated cities in the world. It also means many more people now live in areas prone to flooding. The growth of the city is evident in the Landsat images above. The Thematic Mapper on Landsat 5 captured the top image on February 19, 1988; the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured the centre image on March 20, 2022. The city is surrounded by rivers and tributaries: the Buriganga to the south, the Turag to the west, the Tongi Khal to the north, and the Balu to the east. According to one recent analysis of Dhaka’s population since 2000, growth has been particularly rapid along the Buriganga and the Balu rivers. A team of researchers from Penn State, Curtin University, and the University of Chittagong recently analyzed satellite observations of nighttime lights and land use to track population growth in flood-prone areas. In June 2022, they reported that roughly 70 million people in Bangladesh now live in flood-prone areas (within 2 kilometers of a river), about 1.5 million more than in 2000. In Dhaka, about 6 million people live in flood zones. The researchers based part of their analysis on nighttime observations from the Operational Linescan System (OLS) on U.S. Defense Meteorological Satellite Program satellites and the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi-NPP satellite. Cities throughout Bangladesh saw increased light in floodplains throughout the country from 2000 to 2018. Dhaka, Chattogram, Khulna, Sylhet, and Mymensingh were among the cities with pronounced increases. The bottom image shows nighttime lights in Bangladesh as observed with the VIIRS day-night band on December 1, 2021. “The total nighttime light luminosity within 2 kilometers of rivers increased by 235 percent throughout Bangladesh,” said Arif Masrur, the Penn State University geographer who co-authored the study. “As the population grows, the scarcity of land is fueling unplanned development in floodplains. More people are moving into floodplains to farm rice or fish, or to simply have somewhere to live.” The number of people in floodplains may even be larger than the nighttime luminosity data suggests. “It is safe to assume that many households within 2 kilometers of rivers lack connections to the electrical grid,” explained Ashraf Dewan, an environmental geographer based at Curtin University and co-author of the study. “While OLS and VIIRS can detect whole villages reliably, the sensors don’t always detect more isolated homes or homes that use power sparingly to save money, particularly in areas with lots of vegetation.” Floods in 1988 swamped Dhaka and led to the deaths of more than 2,000 people. Another catastrophic flood in 1998 killed 900 people and caused $3.5 billion in damages, according to Dewan. In some parts of the low-lying city, shanty towns and other informal settlements have pushed into ephemeral wetlands known as khals, sharply increasing the risks from damaging monsoon season floods. A prime example is Korail, a poor neighborhood that has spread into a lake. Homes are built on stilts and the neighborhood routinely floods during heavy rains. “We hope this research makes the scale of the issue clear for policymakers,” said Dewan. “If this trend continues, more homes will be destroyed, and more lives will be lost.” NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey and VIIRS day-night band data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership. Story by Adam Voiland.

Shooting Games Unblocked - You'll Be Able To Play Anywhere

But Hitler, in settlement with General Model (who commanded the northern pincer), ordered a delay till German forces were absolutely armed with a new era of heavy tanks and guns -- the Panthers and Tigers. The Soviet Union, for the primary time, guessed the German plan accurately. Stalin had to be persuaded by Georgi Zhukov and the general Staff that a posture of embedded protection was higher strategy than looking for open battle in opposition to a strong cell enemy. Stalin accepted it solely as a result of the defensive stage was to be adopted by a massive blow struck by Soviet Union reserves in opposition to the weakened and retreating German armies. In May and June, an enormous army of Soviet Union civilians turned the Kursk salient into a veritable fortress. Six separate protection lines had been designed to absorb the anticipated shock of the German armored assault. The Red Army numbered 1.Three million, the Germans 900,000. Each aspect had approximately 2,000 aircraft and greater than 2,500 tanks. On July 5, German forces began the attack.

• Natural tubes have been break up open end to finish and their septum or partition remove. Once the inside partitions had been clean the resulting halves had been then glued and lashed back along with cord or rattan. Other wrappings might embrace bark, leather-based or cloth. Water proofing supplies like wax, gum or lacquer was then applied. • Small sizzling coals are repeatedly drop into the tube to burn out the internal partition. Soft sponge like heart cylinder like these present in palm stems or elder bushes is also pushed out with a rod. An extended shaft tipped with an arrowhead is then use to ream away what remained contained in the hollow. • A platform was erected the peak of the propose blowgun. The long piece of reduce arduous wooden is lashed vertically to the sting of the platform. The maker then elevate, drop and turn a protracted iron rod tipped with a triangular steel level in proper alignment with the connected guides.

Suspicious exercise/potential risk reporting Shoots far JM X2 : a popular splat pistol with drum within the USA Seaman Second Class Eddie Jones, USS California Sniper design The Halloween Axworthy Flying Ghost Hot glue gun Reloads (refills) in seconds

Because of "free" web cast to catch attackers, Rebel fighters have been ready to simply penetrate the Death Star's protection grid. The design of Death Star II virtually doubled its floor defenses and triangulated them in order that each capitol ships and fighters could easily be gunned down. The Death Star II additionally featured a bigger and more highly effective Superlaser that was able to firing extra frequently and more precisely. Death Star II was under development in orbit around the forest moon of Endor. While beneath construction, the new Death Star was protected by a big power shield, projected from the nearby moon. Despite this, the Rebel Alliance destroyed the unfinished Death Star II within the Battle of Endor. Read this interesting and thorough analysis of what occurred to Endor after the destruction of Death Star II by Dr. Curtis Saxton. There has been a number of controversy surrounding the Death Star.

Submarines are an interesting kind of invention. Originally serving a army sort of purpose, now there also exist some submarines built for civilian use. Irrespective of the purpose, submarines are very fascinating vessels. Imagine being able to submerge your self underwater for a very very long time. To have the ability to invent a vessel that may maintain itself stable under the unknown depths of oceans and seas is such a fantastic feat. To have this vessel comprise many kinds of gear, hold totally different sorts of individuals, and likewise retailer varied kinds of weapons for fighting are adequate causes to keep constructing them! That's why it is at all times fascinating to watch films which have scenes going down inside a submarine. It's also a reimagining of what we humans might still invent and reinvent as the decades cross. Perhaps it is also part of humankind's insatiable desire to explore unknown regions of the earth, the galaxy, or the universe, that we'll keep inventing mechanisms and vehicles for such functions.

If you are looking to get your arms on the most powerful water Orbi Gun to make your folks run for cowl, you can count on to pay $20 / £20 as a bare minimum for the privilege (an excellent Soaker Hyrda costs roughly that quantity, for example). However, prime-of-the-line blasters can set you back a fair bit more so we might expect costs to rise to the area of $30 / £30 at most. Basically, the extra highly effective your water pistol is, the dearer it is going to be. Well, we say 'at most'. There are super-advanced blasters that'll really knock your socks off just like the SpyraTwo, however these will put a major dent in your wallet of $a hundred / £100 or extra. For extra offers everybody can get pleasure from, ensure to check out the top board games for teenagers and board video games for families. As for different outside distractions, make certain to check out the newest offers on Nerf bullets. As the site's Tabletop & Merch Editor, you'll find my grubby paws on every part from board sport reviews to lists of the perfect Lego. I've also been writing about games in one form or one other since 2012, and may normally be discovered cackling over some evil plan I've cooked up for my group's subsequent Dungeons & Dragons campaign.

Nothing much on my mind, this 18 Feb 2023. I’m trying to translate abstract ideas like loops and their modalities, which seems to be a version of orbits in groups, and which thus are Pathways running to and from an origin, which means they organize along a pole, which means they attach to a point at depth. Oh, I see: this form of attachment is a pole in the sense that it is an Attachment, and each of those is a 1-0Segment minimum, so the pole can be transformed into a point on a surface. Like a lighthouse.

That feels like an HG to me, that there is a pathway in and out through or over an End, which is that surface point. Take a lighthouse: all that makes it one turns it into a radiating source of light, which carries information. Information in and out over the End of the lighthouse itself. And I haven’t specified whether that’s a fire or a rotating beam. I think I’m trying to say these process are D4-3 because they connect to, they reduce to, they attach efficiently to the Actuality, which we can see more clearly each visit, and which here becomes a way of describing a D3 event, meaning a visible occurrence within actual space, meaning the forms of space commonly in use like Euclidian. I tend to think of these as grid boxes or cubes, which makes them R3, which is why they are Euclidian: the processes allow the location of each point. That seems like an interesting idea, doesn’t it? We have demonstrated how real numbers are Ends that connect, that represent the gs processes which generate those Ends. It can be as simple as by powers of 10 and integer multiples at each level, with all those processes being the usual, because in my head there’s been a pole flip which puts the usual at the transcendent End with the fits appearing ‘away’ from me to rationals. I finally see that. It’s very pretty.

Nottingham Forest just tied Man City. I watch MC and marvel at their ability to almost generate goals without actually generating goals. They remind me of the Red Wings teams who would get 40 or even 60 shots in playoff games without getting the goals. I think the problem is evident in this goal: really bad defense all the way back on an NF counter, even though MC knew NF was bringing their men hard on every break. I think their defense practices against this offense, and that hurts both of them, because it bluntly looks like MC hasn’t practiced sufficiently against a defense that gives possession but not shots, which views its defense as preventing goals by preventing looks with the ball in certain positions, which tempts MC all the more because they can get and keep possession, so they keep trying to break through using the same tactics, which are largely individual plus a move, meaning they don’t chain together plays for sufficient steps. They can do that against a more static zone, but not against this kind of matchup zone where the goal is to prevent the shot, not the pass. I see the influence of K. Navas in goal, because he IMO has always organized the defense in front of him and this is how you handle a top grade possession team like he faced in Spain and France.

————-

I was playing piano, trying to play within a narrow tonal range, sticking around B, because it has such interesting melodies, and I found myself playing a pattern that was developing when I suddenly found myself in another tonal realm and had to unwind and slow down until I could find something in the same vein in B, which turned out to be a play on Chariots of Fire, which I realized just as I was about to hit the completing tone (and went elsewhere). So: why did I bounce to somewhere else in two forms? I didn’t complete the developing theme in two contexts. It was like completion resisted and that spun me, meaning the pole ‘fall’, and the whole umbrella conception, meaning the ribs rise out to protect from rain and come down to protect you from another form of stuff coming at you. And if we imagine a handle with no bias, then these ribs can rise and fall in any angle relative to a fixed setting. How that deflects. Inference.

So I reached an End and there was a little twist rather than complete the End, meaning that I see multiple attachments to the End instead of the one which completes, because I resist completion. That’s the nature of an infinite series, that it resists completion. That’s a resistance within me and a main goal has been to identify areas of resistance and clean them out so they function properly.

———-

I want to try to talk about Identity Spaces. As in, SBE3 is an Identity Space, which attaches in that (1+(SBE3)+1) form in which the 1’s are 1-0Segments. Now we can see all those joining concepts coming together, as ways of counting over Identity Spaces, which of course is the original idea in multi-dimensional identity and SBE.

Here’s an example of how this is fitting together, that fCM and the concept of CM100 now has the meaning we originally discerned because we now generate b10 out of Halving, out of 2 hinged together Things. With that being a quarter turn away from Irreducible, which means if you flip that hinge over a whole lot of existence states in the process of f&b, then you get Irreducibles at each of those states, and thus over the process.

So, the old problem was that fCM is really cool but I could not connect it at the very basic level of b10 generation, as opposed to coincidence. We’ve been hitting that fundamental, and it looks like it’s there now. The words are just forming, but I can see, for example, that the twist embodies the essential nature of the gs process which separates gs from regular, which makes the 1Space and 0Space relationships we’ve described.

I need to put words to these images.

Satellite Electric Propulsion Market Current and Future Growth By 2032

The electric propulsion system has garnered significant interest from several satellite industry players in 2020-2021. This has been rapidly growing owing to the increasing requirement of launching satellite constellations for communication and Earth observation. However, this is anticipated to grow in the upcoming years due to several developments, such as small satellite launches, increased satellite communication, Earth observation and remote sensing services, and technological innovations. Additionally, the role of the propulsion systems in the space industry is crucial as they are responsible for station keeping, orbital positioning, insertion, and attitude control, among others, particularly with the growing small satellite constellations being launched.

Read Report Overview: https://bisresearch.com/industry-report/satellite-electric-propulsion-market.html

The satellite electric propulsion technology companies have witnessed the demand from the growing commercial industry. The ecosystem of the satellite propulsion system market comprises system manufacturers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and end users. Over the past years, the number of small satellite constellations has increased tremendously, owing to the low cost associated with their development. Thus, it is fostering the market for propulsion systems in the coming years.

The competitive landscape of the satellite electric propulsion market consists of several organic and inorganic strategies followed by the key players to increase their market share. The strategies include product innovations, contracts, partnerships, acquisitions, and business expansions, among others.

Some of the key players in the global satellite electric propulsion market include Airbus, ArianeGroup, Astra, Busek, Co. Inc, ENPULSION GmbH, and Orbion Space Technology. These companies are aiming for a wide range of partnerships, collaborations, agreements, and contracts to expand their operations and increase their market presence globally to generate revenues and attract new customers.

Satellite electric propulsion has gained significant importance over three years (2019-2021). An increase in the requirement of satellites around the globe from various end users, such as defense and government, and commercial, has generated the demand for electric propulsion during the forecast period. The industry is currently focusing on developing high-efficient and low-weight satellites that can be used for several years. The research study is based on extensive primary interviews (in-house industry players, market leaders, and experts) and secondary research (a host of paid and unpaid databases), along with analytical tools to predict the forecast analysis for the study period. With the help of these, the satellite electric propulsion study provides a broader perspective of the industry.

Request for the Sample Report at: https://bisresearch.com/requestsample?id=1358&type=download

In the current market scenario, there are diverse and mature electric propulsion systems available to propel the satellite and spacecraft in various Earth’s orbits and deep space missions. The hall-effect thrusters (HETs) and gridded-ion engines (GIE) are one of the prominent electric propulsion technologies available in the current market and are mostly used in satellites. Some of the major satellite constellation operators, such as SpaceX and OneWeb, are using HETs for their satellites owing to thrust and high specific impulse (Isp), making them suitable for longer-duration mission applications. Additionally, the national space agencies are integrating more electric propulsion for their upcoming deep space missions. For instance, NASA uses electric propulsion for power and propulsion element (PPE) in its Lunar Gateway mission, which is planned to be launched by 2024.

(via U.S. Military to Send Fusion Reactor Into Space Within Five Years)

U.S. Military to Send Fusion Reactor Into Space Within Five YearsBY

ED BROWNE

Can Nuclear Fusion Provide Unlimited Clean Energy?SHARE

PHYSICS

The U.S. government wants to send a tiny nuclear fusion reactor into space, and it has partnered with a private company to get a prototype operational by 2027.

Nuclear fusion is an area of physics that scientists have pored over for years as it promises to provide one of the cleanest and most efficient forms of energy possible. Nuclear fusion is when two atomic nuclei merge into one single heavier nucleus, converting some mass into energy.

It's the same process that powers the sun, where hydrogen atoms are forced together under enormous heat and pressure to form helium.

Recreating this process artificially has proven to be a hugely tricky task. Various elaborate machines have been built that attempt to mimic the conditions at the heart of our sun, from donut-shaped tokamaks that use enormous magnets to contain the reaction, to a giant gun that fires projectiles together. Despite decades of work, nothing have proved advanced enough to be built into a power grid.

Avalanche Energy thinks it has the answer with a relatively tiny reactor called the Orbitron. It works by trapping high-speed ions in a tiny orbit around a negatively charged electrode. By creating a tiny space for this ion plasma—called an ion trap—the engineers behind the Orbitron hope they will provide plenty of chances for them to cross paths and fuse.

"The smaller it is, the higher the frequency of those orbits are, so the more collisions you get," Robin Langtry, CEO of Avalanche, told Newsweek. "So for us, it almost wants to be small."

The voltages required will be huge, and that's among the many engineering challenges the Avalanche team will have to overcome. If they can, the potential uses for a small reactor could be a game changer.

"That gets you into this idea of a cell; a fusion cell, if you will," Langtry said. Eventually the team think these cells could be combined together to form a larger fusion battery capable of a megawatt of energy output.

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This suggests a whole host of potential applications. "As we bring the price down more and more markets for something like this are going to open up," Langtry said. "We'll start with a million dollars per kilowatt, I guess, because that's where commercial solar appears to be. Once we get down to $100,000 per kilowatt, there's probably more applications that open up there; aviation is an interesting one, drones, whatever. And then as you get down to $10,000 or $3,000 per kilowatt you start to become competitive with other forms of terrestrial energy, like fuel cells and batteries and stuff."

One application could be powering spacecraft. In May this year, the U.S. military's Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) announced it had awarded contracts to nuclear technology companies in the search for "next-generation nuclear propulsion and power." Avalanche was one such company.

The aim of the contracts is to get a successful prototype demonstration into Earth orbit by 2027. The nuclear power sources aboard the spacecraft will provide it with the electricity it needs to function as well as power an electric thruster.

"Bottom line, chemical and solar-based systems won't provide the power needed for future DoD missions," Maj Weed, program manager for the Nuclear Advanced Propulsion and Power (NAPP) program at DIU, said in a press release.

Path to 2027 Launch Date

Avalanche Energy's prototype is still a long way off and is currently operating at around 100 kilovolts, a little short of the 190-kilovolt record that has been achieved by similar technology in the past. Soon, they hope to triple this to 300 by using a similar development approach to SpaceX—test, fail, fix.

"We're trying to do that for fusion, trying to basically build some minimum viable thing, run it to its limit, figure out what's stopping you from going farther, fix it, put it back on the test stand and just kind of iterate every day, every week as we go," said Langtry.

"It's early times, but there's definitely a credible path to a 2027 launch date. It's not going to be easy; it's going to be very hard.

"We have three things we want to do with Avalanche. One of them is 100 percent carbon-free energy dependence for every country on earth; we want to accelerate the advent of a spacefaring human society; and we want to make science fiction real. I'm super excited to do it."

A blog about comic books and geek culture in general and Spider-Girl and the MC2 universe in particular.

roguelikes Index played in the last month and a half

The deathgames sale on Steam has coincided with me re/playing a decent pile of roguelike / hybrids over the past month and a half. While I'm not much in the mood for explicit reviews and recommendations over reflections, I've had a long time and sampling space to partake of and meditate over the procgen permadeath's dynamics and possibility spaces, as defines my first and my latest gamedev endeavours. As such, there's a given musing's approach borne out of the each of them here, from whatever mountaintop hermit's perspective I use.

(Games covered: Wizard of Legend, One Step From Eden, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Cogmind, Orbital Bullet, Night of the Full Moon, Devil Slayer Raksasi, Caves of Qud. Some mild screenshot spoilers...)

Wizard of Legend (2018) has its own orthogonal design swimming against the current. Many action roguelikes centralize on a few shifting weapon movesets or a few core verbs paired with a few strategic options. Said wizards here lean on over two hundred options of spell actions to fill six buttons with cooldowns, and brandish explicit armor outlining for ranged target selection and closed-quarters comboing down- quite a ways cleaner than many unmentioned and untuned leaning on short pokes and i-frame abuse. (Really, there's a lot more in vulnerable dashes than readily plumbed, c.f. Hollow Knight.) Given individual runs thus inherit a bit more distinction (if not flux) compared to many unfocused on breadth of direct player actions, and slide in nicely with a decent mixable and scaling enemy and boss sets well even with a visibly limited asset budget. Such mix-ups are more lacking on starting builds or the standard passive perk accumulation, beyond curses or the disappointing stretching out of metaprogression currency, but for some given number of wins there's a strong variant on the format to be had.

I've come around on One Step From Eden (2020). It is one of a slim few games brandishing a certain micro-grid card-churn action grown from Mega Man Battle Network's moss-coated skeleton, and pushes such with a certain ravenous yet curious nature. Many action roguelikes thrive in a rapid twitchy manner, reliant on dodges and low total permitted injuries. While Eden's pace is much faster than its origins and most games in the market, the discrete grids allow for shaped forewarnings that a lot of pattern recognition kick in and reshape instinct. It pairs curiously with one of the few explicit assist modes I've seen for a roguelike and the only one of them I've seen outright recommended for others, and a deckbuilding style where frequent choices start to boil down to "is this worth extra vulnerability of defense or stopping to aim" plus hybridizing up some duo of signposted supported keywords. (Unfortunately, a bunch of the most interesting build-arounds and synergies pop up a little ways into metaprogression, or half way up the ascension system, or only nine months after the initial release- the last of which made me take a long while between initial acquisition's play and current Hell Pass 14 completion.) It took a long while for me to get back into it, and while difficulty is a nightmarish discourse it's unavoidable that this game is set to backbreaking levels. Still, there's little like it around, and such fusions set in such ruthlessness feel like a breath of fresh air after a hundred-year storm.

The rhythm roguelike Crypt of the Necrodancer (2015) barely needs any introduction, with its unique notion of actions mapped to beats then forged around strictly-patterned encounters presenting pressing questions how to handle bundles of half a dozen different discrete behaviours at once. There's a certain clarity of focus borne out of said behaviours being predictable but timed in a game with short and fast runs- there's more enemy varieties in the pre-dlc final zone than many games unmentioned here (and some mentioned here still) manage throughout their whole lengths. Plus, at a time where much of procgen level design has dissolved into canned room gauntlets without variety of terrain or spatial bleedthrough the digging system set in simple caves catacombs make for more memorable layouts than even the old titans' regularly manage. I do have duly note, however, that after pushing available content to my furthest capacities, the characters I play are restricted down to those who die the least easily (Melody's easy armor access, Nocturna's parrying access)- while there's many meaningful options for quite a few equipment slots, the damage numbers also just let you die in one or two specific hits for most of a 10 to 20 minute run. Probably better than face-tanking being the norm, but painful nonetheless.

Cogmind (2017+)is... noticeably, the only game I haven't beaten on this list, and one of two classical format games on this list. Without community interacting or lurking it's quite hard to learn the depths of either without a hybrid's other genre execution to help assess matters, in terms of warding off death or finding what actually distinguishes and qualifies the given game. Here, the simulationist options and modularity of provided strategies are dense in the extreme, to both its merit (over a dozen relevant things to risk at each terminal! shed your weighty armor and limbs for new ones as they rot or you flee!) and its detriment (death and generative life are both great teachers neglected in the hybrid sphere, but there's a lot of wiki reading to even learn of most unspoken options). The alert level and part fragility both contribute well to not fighting everything compared to most of these games, which also helps provide a sense of re-pacing, but when given fights can slaughter those bleeding out it's exhausting Some day I'll succeed in rhizome maneuvers, and learn to best walk through walls as a helicopter with a bazooka. (Also, the graphics are kind of always this small, as an unavoidable product of the game's own terminal use. The monochromatics approach mostly hurts on sufficient part piles and which decor machines explode, though some definitely just can't read the game at all- though, accessibility-wise, plenty can't read the faster games on this very list, anyway. No need is an island.)

Night of the Full Moon (2019) feels like something that fell out from a parallel timeline. The Dream Quest style of deckbuilder roguelike was highly muted in Slay the Spire's wake, though a few still march forward on it- centered on the core notion of enemies having their own deck and unseen hands pushing on severe build-countering gimmicks rather than direct action intent patterns. In abstract, this would allow more bluffing, more distinction, and more memorability for being blown out one way or another- in practice, without a stack, a board state, or explicit incoming threat to react to (and no, pre-emptive hand attack doesn't count), the opposing opacity feels 80% like that inaccurate reputation of card games boiling down to opposing instant games of solitaire grazing against one another. (Thanks, Master Duel.) It's sad, as there's a fair bit of undeserved dismissal in most of this particular genre intersection's other outputs, and there's a fair bit of build and map decision-making plus complicated sequencing available in much of what Full Moon is willing to do. It's also got quite the clean look and actual flavor direction many in this lack for, when the eight billion myriad talents required to make games exist need for shortcuts and genre flavour is one of the first for most to shortcut. (In particular, originator Dream Quest itself is quite scribbly.) The translation's awkwardness is almost impressively amusing on the regular for e.g. stilted translations clashing against surprisingly clean voice acting, or the absurd number of annoyingly-anchorless profile stories for countless encounters. Go beat up those townsfolk for no reason, Red.

Orbital Bullet (2022) has a certain fresh style and strength while also speaking rather openly to some obvious core issues on the standard fitting of builds and the hyper-proliferation of metaprogression climbs. The nested-rings run-and-gun play is quite unique for 2.5d arrangements and shifts the parsing flow of enemy input and player output, and the ambushes for every room with such addresses a core issue many other 2d gunplay games possess of safe strats devolving into maintaining max distance with glacial increments forward. (Looking at you, 20XX.) This is tempered twice over, alas. I tend to despise a certain degree of metaprogression locking away core gameplay system- if random new sights are supposed to cover for death, then fully parsing systems is the same whether innate or gradually unlocked. Here, that includes fundamentals for pacing and run distinction between perk upgrading, healing access, challenge rooms, and combo streak rewards. This wouldn't be completely damning if not for per-run strength gain also struggling- randomized skill tree offerings mostly concentrate on a quickly singular damage goal over the mild perks of others. It's easier to say than it is to design "just make player plans adapt mid-run", and swapping guns covers for a bunch of this, but it overall feels... weak on the overall roguelike front, where a briefer arcade spirit could have replaced extended cross-run grind for the better. Still solid on such shorter lengths, nonetheless.

Devil Slayer Raksasi (2021) is centered on small amounts of action stamina, and thus counts closest as, gasp, a (top-down camera) soulslike. In such a welltrod and visible other half it unavoidably falters in still interesting fashions- for most followers in that fashion struggle hardest with what manages to be most cherished. Many roguelikes jarringly lack focus on encounter breadth for so many given runs, and despite hundreds of such foes drawn up they each lack for distinguishing factors beyond different frames and counts for swings. (While many players evidently dive in rather than out and around like as substantially eases dks1 and 2, any such kiting caution flattens most assaults- not an unreasonable lesson to learn for any stamina-centric game, but one more than established already.) Fromsoft is also more than glad to abuse poor lighting, thin paths, blind corners, rafter snipers, pressure plates, and all other sorts of viciousness lost to the clean floors and comfort food of hack & slash spectacle fighters, which this also lacks for. What it does manage to succeed at is baked into the title- with twelve+ zones and twenty+ bosses, there are in fact a fair number of unique devils to slay who do in fact have poise and art and gimmicks afforded to the each of them, and I have to wonder how well this also would have felt without the permadeath churn exposing the endless need of broad possibility space beyond exchanging swings.

I'm still deeply mixed on Caves of Qud (????), and it feels quite the shame and disconnect for the second-most recognizable game on this list still holding up a torch for the classical roguelike format. Even at the end of all of these musings I could probably write up an essay's worth alone for this on how it's a massive mismatch for a former dcss dev like myself- a maximalist sprawling open world akin to Elder Scrolls or ADOM that hyper-concentrates difficulty and interest into select spaces and otherwise frequently gets one literally mechanically lost in a dull wilderness or metaphorically lost in various fixed grinds. Back there we never agreed with the notion that systems-abusing grind like pudding farming is its own punishment, and that players have to be saved from themselves- contrariwise, many runs feel crushed down and slowed by the fixed offerings and strategies of mechanical wings, hologram / force bracelets, monetary exploits, and the start-independent option of crafting to reroll offerings for endlessly. It especially doesn't help that emergency options beyond recoilers feel slim, and many things are more than glad to stone you dead quick. The actual interest targets have plenty of solid strength that'd carry things if not stuck in such a morass- the sheer hostility of unique terrain and fight gimmicks afforded to plot dungeons is quite strong in its own It also still has an unmatched style of prose, tangible acronym representatives, and a rarefied flavour of locale, all in a genre that struggles to. Probably this, alongside the deckbuilders I've sought out, is why I've spent the past two and a half years putting my money where my mouth is working on the writing and assets for my own roguelike of gay creatures in warped worlds.

If I went a ways further back, there'd be plenty more I could ramble and muse upon, with lingering generosity for the each of them. Nowhere Prophet's rich post-post-apoc desertpunk setting for one of the very few other polished creature-based deckbuilder rogues, Going Under's invigoratingly bitter anti-work ethic blended with brutal destructible weapons action, and Shiren 5 still holding up an unmatched style and gimmick depths for the format's old guard. There's also most likely plenty to speak of further ahead- properly beating some CRYPTARK and Invisible Inc. campaigns; getting into Voidigo and Chrono Ark like my partner heavily recommends; acquiring and assessing Arboria, Brutal Orchestra, Rhythm Fighter, and Malice & Greed. There's always so much to investigate in this combinatoric space, and such dynamics interplays demand a lot- but partial success is still interesting and supportive in and of itself, even if I could endlessly, vexingly, lovingly pick at the seams of each reality.

pyrrhic

ooph this is a long one but i hope you enjoy it! SWTOR Assault on Tython 2 electric boogaloo from the POV of my Sith Warrior Elora (aka Darth Aescir)

Just kind of going ham and thinking about what that day might have actually been like for our little up and coming sphere of offense Darth.

Only, you guys know how short lived her victory really is :)

If Tython could be described as anything, it would be impossible to not describe it as “peaceful.” Appropriate, of course, for the Order it hid, who championed and were bound by peace. Yet, like so much else, the truth could not be complete in just utterance of a singular word. The pronunciation of such a truth belied the reality of the screaming AA guns that pierced the overcast sky, the screech of tie-fighters flying overhead, and the dying yells of the Jedi. The horror of which instead articulated every word that may profane the utterance of “peace” as describing Tython any longer. Now it was impossible to enunciate the word “peace” as any other sound other than “war.” 

As impossible as it was for the young Darth to bring war to Tython.

Gone were the days when the Sith could stroll arrogantly up to the front door of the Jedi. Malgus used their one element of surprise to devastating effect some 16 years ago now. The temerity of which simply could not be replicated, no matter how many glory hunters in her ears – her Lord and Master included – told Darth Aescir otherwise. No, instead teams of special operation soldiers, paired off some of her most capable Sith, secured what they could of the area around the Temple itself. Some of the best Ciphers Intelligence could spare sabotaged defense grids in order to begin the verifiable siege of the Temple itself from the sky and orbit above. All in an effort to bring the real strength of their forces to bear on the Jedi. 

Cresting over the top of the once verdant cliffside path, she can truly witness the consequences of her success. The serene majesty of what she knew to be rolling, flowering green hills, surrounding the simple, beautiful, training grounds before the Temple itself were razed utterly, leaving nothing left but seared and ashen skeletal trees, ground ripped apart and littered, not with flowers but with the bodies and weapons of Republic and Imperial alike. In the ruins of what was once testing grounds, Padawans, Knights, and their Masters find the ultimate test of nascent and experienced skill as sabers of blue and green clash against the only unity to the Sith; red. 

Smoke and embers burned at her already flame-colored eyes and soot stung her throat as the Darth stalked through the path of ruin her army made before her keeping her power and presence masked. The path was rough hewn and shattered by blasts of ship fire, and in a startling if horrific mimic of that assault 16 years ago, a Republic transport ship made a burning trench across the front path leading to the Temple proper. The smoldering metal husk remains off the side of the Temple yet not before it left wings, panels, and other debris it it’s fiery wake. Explosions detonated as one by one what seems to be the last mechanical defense of the Order erupted into gouts of fire and shrapnel, sending black and brown robed forms leaping for cover only to be met with more aggression, more destruction wherever they landed. A cheer rings forth with the victory as a result she sweeps onto the field. Darth Aescir, Elora Makiir, would no longer languish in the safety of the sidelines.

There would be no respite, no relief, no peace found on this day for the Republic and their Jedi. Only their last line of defense remained: massive sealed doors of the Temple itself where a small group formed a dutiful yet doomed line that repelled Sith and Lord alike with admirable efficacy. Orders rang out over the comms as she defiled the first soot-stained tile leading towards the Temple with her step onto it. 

Although she still concentrates to mask her presence, heads turn, as a small group of Sith begin to march at her flank, and still others – recovered from their own smaller victories – rush to join her fray. The wind whips off her thin black and red patterned hood as she picks up speed, running towards the front of the Temple as others move to intercept the few Jedi close enough to see this development happening and try to stop it. They cover the long path leading up to the Temple in a matter of moments with the Darth at their point, a plane wing remains the only obstacle between her and the last sacrificial holdout before the doors of the Temple. Her boots find purchase on the wrought metal, and leaping forth, it takes two steps before she crests the wing.

She disappears as she launches herself off the top edge of it. For a moment everything is still; the tide of black and red remain at the bottom of the stairs around the defiant wing of the Republic transport. Trees remain uprooted and sheared by wind and fire, statues lay toppled and scattered across the ground as unseeing stone eyes bear witness to this impossibility made real. These last brave, foolish, resolute Jedi were as much fixtures of the Order as the statues that rest in pieces at their feet, are as much witnesses to such dread incomprehensibility as those stones, and all that remains is grim determination of knowing this was the moment their faith is tested – rewarded before they crumbled like those statues as well.

When she appears, she is mere feet above them, a comet of fury and rage, as she slams down between them. Lightning erupts around her as the very ground shatters and rips up underneath her feet, throwing the Jedi away from her like so many dolls tossed aside as they’re lanced through with the red emanation of her righteous wrath. She feels her own presence now cast a deep wave through the Force like a heavy rock being thrown into the center of a pond and rippling its surface. The remaining Sith ascend to her position – and descend upon this last line of defense, bolstered by her own choleric frenzy. 

In the end, and with her power finally added to the fray, the Jedi soon fall amidst the remains of the statues they personified. A select group of Sith stand before the blast door itself – and she can’t help but think how less enforced the stone around the Temple is compared to the massive metal door – one Sith in particular punches through the thing as it tears clean off whatever mechanism kept it held in place. The blowback of dust, rubble, and fire told the tale of the destruction it wrought and while the dust and wind settle, the flames still rage on.

An exaggerated bow is offered to her as she steps through the flames. 

The fire is buffeted away at her feet as she strides to the final act of her triumph. Step by step through the flames and the rubble, straight into one of the most sacred centers of the Force. A place where no Sith has set foot in of their own volition. As she follows the path of destruction through a slow methodical march she can’t help but feel a – resistance, a pressure, pressing against her, making every step forward more labored than the next until every step she took was a test of her conviction, of her resolve. The heat of the flames around her turn hotter as this presence fights against her and her concentration wavers.  What ruin has she caused, what destruction has she wrought, and how much death will saturate the land and the Force, as a result of her actions? What is the cost of this victory? The thoughts seared through her defenses, her tenacity, and as the doubts began to fester and burn away at her courage, so too do the flames grow hotter around her. She reaches out to push against it, the reticence, the fire itself. Such doubt had no place in her mind, not when she was this close, not when the Code empowered her against such idle vexations. She would not be here if she did not have the power to obtain this victory. 

Her fingertips find the end to the flames even as she remains engulfed. She reaches out of it, pulling herself through the last of the fire as she clenches her armored hand around her courage and reticence in equal measure, bringing them both to bear. On the other side she finds wide-eyed faces reflecting the bright horror of the flames, the glow and ozone smell of lightsabers being drawn, and the utter wreckage of some massive geometric statue behind this final bastion of defiance. 

A clench of her hand snuffs out the fire, and her doubt, completely. Leaving them all awash in faceless darkness beyond the low humming light of the Jedi’s sabers and glow of the Sith’s eyes. Until one by one the angry hiss of igniting sabers replaces the defiant glow of the fire with the burning red light of dozens of red lightsabers behind her. While she may not have led the initial march into Tython, as she draws both of her blades to cross over her body, the Darth is the first to strike.

The skirmish was as brutal as it was decisive. The battle in the main hall of the Temple quieted from the death knells of Jedi and Sith alike to the constant destructive rhythm of heavy blaster fire raining down around them. Intermittent screams echoed through deeper halls as the errant Sith and Imperials carry out her orders to capture any stragglers. Aescir herself stalks the halls she had only memorized in holographic recreations towards her true goal now that it was confirmed that the Council was somehow all offworld.

She tries to find satisfaction in the calculus of what that meant, in the lives of Imperials and Sith it saved as she drags her hand along the rough natural stone of the walls -- to lend some sort of realism to this whole scenario -- but cannot fight past her sudden disappointment. The shift of balance here from Light to Dark, the insidious humming that calls to her need to sharpen herself against ever harder adversaries like a blade, both cut into her ability to reason this clearly. Knowing she’s been robbed of her opportunity to better herself bleeds into and colors her reason red like the psychopaths she “commands.” Yet, the one balm to the terrible ache of her disappointment, is sensing a sizable power yet remains before her, in the very room she would expect the truly last holdout of strength would be. 

While a team Sith worthlessly break into the Jedi Council’s chambers, she has found her path to where the true value of this Temple is: the Archives. Thousands upon thousands of years of knowledge kept right at their fingertips, histories, philosophies, records of historical and current data of the Republic they purport to serve. She may not value some of the knowledge in the Archives but she knows the value of knowledge itself, and knows others will know what to do with it. Once she can secure it.

Applying a bit of Force the door to the Archives rips open, leaving an Imperial in smart dark leathers – from Intelligence, no doubt – in a tight attention off to the side where a datapad lays forgotten, attached to the security pad beside the door. Within, are the sprawling rows of data modules, walls covered with the blinking arrays, extending to rows and rows of the same, all of it glittering with the same promise that stars do in the sky. They line the edges of pushed aside tables and chairs, a clearing turn fighting ring ringed with light from a window above. It is where a man sits in repose as the still, center, of the raging hurricane that has destroyed everything around him. 

Settled into his meditation, the Jedi has tattooed blue lekku tipped in green which are wrapped casually around his armor and shoulders. He sits as yet another statuesque fixture amidst the Temple, more so than even those Jedi who held the line outside. Yet, the stone of statues at least had such decency not to be so arrogant as to maintain a calm amidst the tragedy, they had the decency to break their facade. She takes a long, slow, breath to steady herself and not allow her own arrogance to preempt her next move. A raise of her chin, a slow stroll toward him, and the man opens his dark, nearly black, eyes to regard her at last. A silence hangs between them as the building itself quakes dangerously around them, as somewhere something heavy crashes to the ground. 

“All of this death and destruction and yet you just sit here, rather than fight with your brothers and sisters Master…” she breaks the silence first, a bow of her head prompts his introduction.  

“Sunic,” he supplies with nothing more than pulling himself onto his armored feet, “Battlemaster and the closest one you’ll find to a Council member here, Darth.” He ends with purposeful punctuation. 

“Aescir,” she states regardless, as she can hardly blame him for his shortness given the circumstances.

“While I would say I was surprised, I had imagined that you would be among those I find here – after all, should anyone remain to turn the tide, it would be the Order’s most proficient warrior.” She continues as she folds both hands over a hilt on her hip. 

“I am exactly where I am needed to be, though this conversation is a surprise,” he states, and even now she can feel the hum of something under the surface, a disruption as though there was heat coming off his words. She couldn’t rightfully expect anyone to be calm during such an attack but… 

“I hear that a lot, but then you must have been expecting this, in some way. Otherwise I’m sure a warrior of your caliber would have been in the front lines,” she offers as she slowly enters into the circle of light. “But whoever ordered you to stay here must have known it would be futile, that you’d be sacrificing yourself for – what, all this?” She makes a small helpless gesture to the things around them as she shakes her head. “I’ll grant you this, Master Sunic, your loyalty is to be commended. I could never follow such an order.” 

“If I’m being honest, with the kind of deception and backstabbing that happens within the Sith hierarchy, I’m not exactly surprised,” he quips with that same heat that speaks of hate and she smothers her irritation with a smile. She’s never been one for patience, it’s a new skill she’s working on tirelessly now that she has an example to follow for it, and this is – just such a time to work at it. She starts to slowly circle around the perimeter of the light.

“I’ll give you that,” because she certainly can afford to, given the soon-to-be ruins they stand in. “However, it is not quite what I meant. Forgive the misunderstanding. It is more that I could not bear to follow an order to protect information when my fellows are outside dying around me and I know that my martial prowess could have at least saved one of them.” She levels him with and his eyes flare with outrage. 

“Any one of us is prepared to die if it means it serves the greater good as a result. I mourn for them, but the destruction of the Archives, our very history, outweighs any one of us” he grinds out. “Do you even believe in such a goal, one that is beyond yourself and your own ambition?” He begins to find his footing as well and slowly starts to circle opposite her as well.

“How does ‘ending the war’ sound to you?” She says simply enough. It stopped the Master dead in his tracks and she paused her pacing to match. “It may not be such a favorable outcome for your side, of course. But was the Treaty of Coruscant not founded upon such a similar event 16 years ago?” There’s a slow shake to his head as she watches the very thoughts play out on his face, from incomprehension to denial, stopping well before trusting her answer as true.

“And my death assures your victory then, the last remaining Jedi here to defy you,” he states as he now pushes his robe aside to show the long hilt of a saberstaff that rests at his waist. 

“Not so. Your death would be a tragedy,” and as he clasps his hand around his hilt, she removes her hand from her own hilt to extend it toward him. “Join me instead. I refuse to believe there are no such commonalities between the two of us that cannot in some way be found. I recognize in you the same fire that burns in me. So I offer you no more and no less than your life.” 

“You can’t be serious,” he openly stares, she’d be insulted at how stormy his expression was if the offer itself was not ludicrous.“I have dedicated my life to putting an end to evil where I see it and the people most dealing it out are the Empire and the Sith. You’re asking me to become one of them?” 

“I am asking you to be honest with yourself, truly honest with yourself, for perhaps the first time in years, Master Sunic, as you said you were before. Because I know that one does not achieve the rank of Battlemaster without loving what you do. And what you do is fight,” she accuses. Her words straighten his spine, touching on something even if she can’t see what. “Indeed, loving some part of the fight, whether it be the rush of the conflict, the chance to prove yourself,” she lets her hand drop away to stalk closer to him, to speak ever softer but with ever more conviction, “to feel so perfectly aligned in body, mind, and Force that you can simply allow yourself to be one with it.

The exultation of just such a moment cannot be overlooked,” she ventures, ever closer and ever more carefully. Patience. Even now she can see the thin veneer of the difficult truth come to the surface. “But so too the less acceptable moments, the pride in a vanquished enemy, the knowledge that you live due to your own superior skill over an enemy that would do you and others harm–”

“That isn’t what happens-” he raises his voice to cut through her words. 

“-I asked you to be honest! There is no one here to judge you or deny you of those feelings any longer,” she says, knowing that if she were to even touch on this common ground too forcefully it would shatter beneath their feet. “I understand it and I would have you accept all of that which you are, even those parts you wished, and meditated, and hoped would abate Battlemaster. The Code is very clear as to this. Imagine, for but a moment, yourself without any of the guilt or shame that may plague you at your --” can’t say darkest, now can she “-- most vulnerable moments?” The air weighs heavy between them, around them, as time itself seems to slow down with it.

“So this is your plan, then? To offer me mercy as the Temple falls around us?” He snarls and where he was once the center of the storm,  it seems as though the winds have finally come to churn, to whip, and to bear upon them – just as she hoped. 

“I would not insult you with my mercy, Battlemaster. I offer you freedom,” and she presents her hand once more. 

For but a moment the blaster fire stops, the chaos abates, and their gazes truly meet. She can nearly see the way the anger has seeped into the cracks of his resolve, as formidable as it may be she knows that if there were ever a time that even such an accomplished Jedi can waver, it would be at a moment like this. She bade her patience to wait just a bit longer, just crucial seconds more as he stayed his blade, as he stared her down with an intensity that spoke of his consideration. Unflinching, unblinking, unyielding she doesn’t even dare allow her hand to shake as it remains extended to him. Does he really dare? 

He blinks first.

Her hand drops away. 

“You and your Code talk of freedom. But I would never,” he seethes in his own right, “join you, while knowing that the same freedom fails to extend to the rest of those in the Empire.” She lets her eyes slide closed as her jaw snaps tight, teeth to teeth; truly the most obvious way in which the Empire runs contrary to the Sith, or even the Sith run contrary to their own Code. “I’m not so naive to think your philosophy is the Empire’s. So if it’s alright with you, I’d rather die doing what’s right, than live perpetuating such wrongs.” He spins the hilt into his hand, igniting his lightsaber one blade at a time. Yellow-gold light erupts from the hilt, coalescing into the familiar shape of the dual blades of a saberstaff. 

The sharp humming cut through the remaining silence, conducting the next volley of blasterfire to rock the Temple to its foundation, and in that deadly resonance anger roils and burns away at the ties that patience so desperately weaved. At her silent command and violent intent power surges to her fingertips, fills her and smolders just under her skin, rising to a jet of emotion that curls a grin full of teeth on her face and rips a sinister, ringing laugh through her.

“Since we are being honest …” she lets her laughter taper off and settle into a growl. “I was hoping you’d say no.” 

With a flash her sabers both ignite and catch his overhead slice in the cross of her sabers. The shock of the contact sparks lightning across her skin as once more their eyes meet between their clashing sabers. The pressure between the three blades crash in a cacophony of sibilant sparks as she holds his strike at bay, pushing against him now as she straightens against the force of the clash. Drawing closer into him, she grins as she sees the reflection and her own glowing eyes in his own. 

More than one way to have a conversation. 

He strikes quickly with the back end of his blade and she sweeps it to the side, spins and slices high, catching the front end once again as he spins it out of the way. A flurry of movement has them striking, riposting, guarding, in the staccato tempo of half and quarter seconds as seconds stretch into minutes of this improvised composition. The circular movement of the saberstaff counteracts the fluid motion of her style. Bringing both of her sabers down onto one side of his has her ducking out of the way as he follows through to bring the back of the blade around, nearly taking off her head. She thrusts toward his body, and follows the momentum of his deflection to spin, bringing her other blade down across his body – if the other side of his staff didn’t catch it before his shoulder, she kicks back square in the hilt and he stumbles back, finally putting some room between them. 

His huff of effort is answered by her growl as she now plays aggressor, closing the gap with a dash, a tight spinning flip which already parries a light flick as she lands with a  large stab down which he just barely deflects, and with a spin of his staff he blocks the followup thrust as he blasts her back with a quick gesture. Skidding back onto the balls of her feet, she sees the tight spin of his blades on one side of him, then the other, before chambering it back with a spin of his wrist and grabs it with both hands to bring it down across her. She parries it aside and catches the other blade with her offhand, trying to stab forward before it’s caught and drawn to the side, opening her body to an attack from the front. She bats the other side of his saber away and, following the momentum, she spins into a strike and flourish in equal measure before going fully on the offensive. She pushes him back with quick steps and as she spins into another acrobatic flurry of attacks. He dodges them all as he slides underneath her on his knees, catching the flurry against his blades. She lands and stabs backward towards him blind with a single blade as he’s on his feet and stabs toward her. 

Their blades pass mere inches from each other, hers finding the barest touch to one of his and his finding the air where her body used to be. 

The duel rages in a storm of sparks and clashes, in an acrobatic choreography of the fatalist kind as it all becomes instinct, and the age-old fight of Light versus Dark. He extinguishes one of his blades as she gains an upper hand in an instant, able to overwhelm him with the whirlwind of her strikes, before – she feels it, rather than sees it. The second blade is about to be ignited directly into her chest. She deflects his one blade to the side, extinguishes her own to meet nearly wrist to wrist as she wedges her own hilt aside his own. She levers it free and with her other blade to his spins his staff out of his grasp, but not before a swift strike to her arm jerks her own hilt out of her grasp. A snatch and a flourish by both of them as they spun away from each other. 

Two fingers of his offhand point towards her he flares the red saber to life in a high guard as she spins and ignites both gold blades and her own red one into a low stance.

The staff nearly vibrates in her hand as she draws herself up slowly and spins it over her hand, concentrating if only to try now and adjust to the weight and pull she has to exert, to bring it to heel. He steps forward and switches his approach, stepping to the side, then the other as he shifts his grip; both of them allowing for the adjustment. 

She offers him one appraising nod of her head, silently offering one last chance to take her offer. He answers with a narrow of his eyes and a rush forward to break her guard. A clear enough no, especially going from a defensive stance to an offensive one but appreciation of his skill can at least cut through her instincts, even in this moment.

She leaps at him stabbing toward with his own staff now. The staff flows well within the tight turns and fluidity of her use of Ataru and before long he’s caught on the defensive. The Force fuels her; makes her faster, stronger, as it amplifies the fire within her into a furious blaze that lights her from within, she spins the saberstaff down in an angle, battering her missing blade away from his face, and with a twisting, sweep of her leg she brings her heel into his face. Her back is to him she senses the sudden thrust about to happen and blindly catches red saber with red saber. Parrying  it upwards, she spins through and catches him with a shallow slash through his center with the spin of his own saber. 

The moment comes to a screeching, starting, halt as he manages a choked groan before he holds his center. He bends, but before he breaks, he releases her saber from their high guard, letting it clatter to the floor before and extinguish as he crumples onto his back. She straightens slowly as she stares down at him, not a lot of blood in a lightsaber wound, yet she knows she cut deep enough to be fatal. She extinguishes the staff and her own saber as she pulls her stolen saber from where it lay on the ground back into her hand. The headrush of her triumph is almost dizzying as she lingers the ghost of a smile on her features, but it falters as he sputters at her feet, still alive yet the pain evident in the shuddering, sharp, gasps – until it sounds more like laughter. 

“My death means nothing here,” he manages with a scratchy, ruined voice. “I return to the Force -- knowing your victory, if at all, will be brief.” Another couple of laughs that sound more like air being released from a wet bag anymore, as he just lets his hands fall away from his wound. “I am at peace with my end, Sith. I doubt you’ll say the same when yours comes.” A toothy grin coated in blood meets her as a scowl folds and creases her mouth down. 

Looking back on it, she’ll realize she got carried away but in the moment every cruelty seemed necessary. Even as she drags the man now by the collar of his armor out through the wreckage of the entrance and through the sea of black armored Sith that part and close around her like a shark through minnows. She tosses the man onto the front landing where the scattered bodies and rubble, presenting the fallen master to the destruction just beyond the safety and sequestration of the Archives. As his dark eyes come to focus she can feel the subtle ripple of his dread, the splintering cracks over the surface of his resolve. The dark sky was gray with smoke, the only bit of sun that remained merely offered an ashen haze to the once verdant landscape, massive shadows hung as harbingers of defeat in the sky, and trees served as kindling to spreading fires as she wrenches the man up to sit back on his knees. 

“Your death indeed means nothing, for all you have done has amounted to nothing,” she hisses in his ear as she holds him up with a tight grip on his armor. “Let the last thing you see be the only thing you’ll be known for: your failure to put a stop to the Empire when the Order needed you most!” She ignites his blade once more, flaring the gleaming golden blade to life and stabs down. 

The ebb of his passing sends a small ripple from underneath her hand as she releases his limp form. The momentary satisfaction and rage from crushing the comfort he might have taken in his death burns away into nothing, into emptiness that she cannot seem to fill. She extinguishes the blade as she stares at the hilt, wanting to feel – something, anything from this moment; glory at championing such a worthy foe, vindication of squashing that which tried to take her absolute victory from her. Yet all she could feel was the grim recognition of death and the shame at such a display of petty malice.

The sky darkened as shadows inked across the ground, drawing her fiery gaze toward the sky, toward those looming forms coalesced into the shape the galaxy knew as Destruction. Massive capital ships coasted in orbit, eclipsing the sun as the very tip of the shadow began to engulf the valley proper, racing up the front path as Darth Aescir lets the saberstaff fall from her hand uselessly. It clatters to the streaked stone tile as she turns from the macabre scene. 

She strides back toward the mouth of the Temple, as the shadow crests over the staircase. The ravenous void claws its way up the staircase after her, after swallowing up the rest of the valley in darkness as she draws her hood back up casting a shadow over her face as she leads the shadow towards the Temple. She crosses the threshold as all light is taken from the Temple.

Studying Earth's defences against solar storms University of Michigan researchers will play a central role in NASA's upcoming Geospace Dynamics Constellation mission—a first-of-its-kind look at a protective outer layer of Earth's atmosphere and how it interacts with solar weather. Solar weather poses a threat to Earth, with the potential to cause major damage to our power grids and satellites. NASA's Geospace Dynamics Constellation Mission, or GDC, includes three scientific investigations that will help us predict impacts from solar activity such as coronal mass ejections, solar wind and flares. U-M is a leader in solar physics research, providing improved predictive tools for solar weather and its societal and technological impacts. The six satellites that make up GDC will provide the first direct global measurements of two overlapping layers of our atmosphere that are central to our defense against solar weather: the ionosphere and thermosphere. At an altitude range of roughly 50 to 400 miles above Earth's surface, they stand between the lower atmosphere and outer space, a buffer for the charged particles of the solar wind, flares and coronal mass ejections as well as X-ray and UV radiation. Two of GDC's scientific instruments include U-M researchers: The Comprehensive Auroral Precipitation Experiment will measure high-energy particles entering the upper atmosphere. CAPE is led by U-M alum Daniel Gershman, currently with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Aaron Ridley, a U-M professor of climate and space sciences and engineering is a contributor as well. Modular Spectrometer for Atmosphere and Ionosphere Characterization, or MoSAIC, will measure the ionosphere and thermosphere's composition, as well the winds that travel through it. Ridley is a contributing researcher. "CAPE provides measurements of the northern and southern lights, or the aurora," Ridley said. "Both add energy to our upper atmosphere, causing it to swell like a balloon and altering trajectories of satellites and the International Space Station." MoSAIC will quantify the atmospheric response to incoming auroral energy by measuring pressure and winds. That data will allow satellite operators to alter orbits to avoid collisions. "I like to think of CAPE as the 'Doppler radar' of space weather," Gershman said. "Over the course of the GDC mission, CAPE will be able to produce local, regional and global space weather maps of electron and ion rain. These maps can be used to help predict big changes in the upper atmosphere, and therefore can help to keep satellites in low Earth orbit safe." Ridley's involvement with multiple missions gives him a unique perspective on what GDC is attempting to accomplish. "This is the first time that NASA will have launched this many satellites to do this sort of thing at once," Ridley said. "NASA has never dealt with this type of data before, in terms of having six satellites measuring the conditions in low-Earth orbit." Before that can happen, there is much to be done. U-M researchers study how ions and neutrons interact, and how that creates instabilities in the atmosphere. Ridley is looking to build new models for the ionosphere and the thermosphere that capture disruption from the aurora, and more accurately predict space weather events. NASA is currently considering five additional instruments—two of which may be selected—for inclusion in GDC. One instrument under consideration is headed by researchers with U-M ties. Mark Moldwin, an Arthur F. Thurnau professor and a professor of climate and space sciences and engineering, heads the Near Earth Magnetometer Instrument in a Small Integrated System—one of the additional missions under consideration to be flown as part of the launch. The GDC supplements the aurora measurements with magnetic field measurements, capturing more of the energy entering the atmosphere. This function could be an opportunity to test a relatively new magnetometer technology that can be used on the smaller satellites that have become popular in recent decades. Current satellites typically have their magnetometers attached via a long boom. The distance is necessary since spacecraft electronics emit their own magnetic field, making measurements trickier. Attaching long booms to smaller and smaller satellites is difficult. "You want to get the magnetometers closer to the spacecraft," Moldwin said. "You'll see the magnetic signal from the craft, but with three magnetometers on a shortened boom, and some very clever math algorithms to sort noise from signal, we can clean up the data. This means that with more small magnetometers on a shorter (cheaper) boom, we can take out the magnetic fields from the electronics, allowing us to study the science." IMAGE....��� The ionosphere and thermosphere (I-T) region sits roughly 50 to 400 miles above the Earth’s surface and will be studied by NASA’s Geospace Dynamics Constellation mission, which will launch in 2027 at the earliest. Credit: NASA