Tech & Science Daily podcast: UK Space Agency sets sights on Mars

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The UK Space Agency’s spending £1.6 million on a series of new projects, including plans to run biology experiments in space.

The agency announced the funding for the eight projects through its Enabling Space Exploration fund on Mars Day.

The UKSA’s Exploration Technology Manager Andrew Kuh tells Tech & Science Daily the agency’s long-term goal is to send humans to Mars.

Britain is understood to have signed a £100 million US research deal into “stratospheric uncrewed air systems”.

It follows the shooting down of a Chinese balloon after it floated over sensitive US military sites earlier this year.

Researchers in Australia have developed a simple dipstick test to screen for a highly infectious, potentially deadly virus transmitted by bats to humans and pigs in Asia.

Nipah virus was first identified in Malaysia in 1999, where it was linked with an outbreak of respiratory and neurological disease in pigs, with transmission to humans resulting in brain inflammation and deaths.

Japan has suffered a blow to its latest space launch, after being forced to blow up its new rocket due to a last-minute failure.

The country’s flagship H3 rocket was given a ‘self-destruct’ command, when its second-stage engine failed just minutes after lift-off.

And the rest

Headteacher’s warning over TikTok school protests, researchers say plants’ genetic defences may hold key for crop protection, British scientist Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock honoured with her own Barbie doll, and how a beaver in the US practises a good work/life balance.

Listen above, and find us on your Spotify Daily Drive or wherever you stream your podcasts.

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