http://www.rhci-online.net/radiogram/radiogram.htm

RSID: <<2020-03-22T01:30Z MFSK-64 @ 5960000+1500>>

RSID: <<2020-03-19T23:31Z MFSK-32 @ 9265000+1500>>

Welcome to program 144 of Shortwave Radiogram.

I'm Kim Andrew Elliott in Arlington, Virginia USA.

Here is the lineup for today's program, in MFSK modes as noted:

  1:46 MFSK32: Program preview (now)
  2:55 Russian plans first spacecraft to Moon in 45 years*
  6:37 MFSK64: German, US companies to develop COVID-19 vaccine
  8:47 Mercury has a surprising amount of ice*
12:31 This week's images*
28:16 MFSK32: Closing announcements

* with image(s)


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Twitter: @SWRadiogram







From Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:

Russia Plans To Send First Spacecraft To Moon In 45 Years

17 March 2020

Russia plans to land a spacecraft on the moon's surface next year
for the first time in more than four decades.

The country will launch Luna-25 on October 1, 2021, Igor
Mitrofanov, the head of the nuclear planetology department at the
Space Research Institute, said at a meeting of scientists on
March 17.

Moscow last launched a spacecraft to the surface of the moon in
1976 as the Soviet Union's space race with the United States came
to an end.

Luna-25 will carry out scientific research in the polar region of
the moon, including studying the properties of the soil.

According to Russia's space program agenda, the country plans
four more launches to the moon by 2028.

With reporting by Vedomosti and Ria Novosti

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-plans-to-send-first-spacecraft-to-moon-in-45-years/30492338.html

Image: Illustration of the Luna-Glob lander ...

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Shortwave Radiogram now changes to MFSK64 ...



RSID: <<2020-03-19T23:37Z MFSK-32 @ 9265000+1500>>



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From Deutsche Welle:

Coronavirus: German, US companies sign deal to develop vaccine

        Germany's BioNTech is to use its drug development platform
        alongside Pfizer to find a vaccine for COVID-19. It comes
        after Donald Trump reportedly tried to entice a German lab
        to develop a vaccine exclusively for the US.

17 March 2020

US drugmaker Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech will immediately start
work together on a potential vaccine for COVID-19, the companies
announced in a joint statement on Tuesday.

Both companies have signed a letter of intent for the vaccine's
distribution outside China and they will decide on financial
terms, manufacturing and possible commercialization over the next
few weeks.

"This is a global pandemic, which requires a global effort. In
joining forces with our partner Pfizer, we believe we can
accelerate our effort to bring a COVID-19 vaccine to people
around the world who need it," said Ugur Sahin, Co-Founder and
CEO of BioNTech.

The companies said they would use BioNTech's mRNA-based drug
development platform and will use research and development sites
from the two companies in both the US and Germany.

The two companies already work together to develop mRNA-based
vaccines for influenza.

A day earlier, BioNtech signed a deal with Shanghai Fosun
Pharmaceutical outlining its rights in China to its experimental
coronavirus vaccine.

The companies are aiming to start testing on humans from late
April.

Race for vaccine

On Sunday, German media reported that US President Donald Trump
was offering large sums of money to German scientists working on
a vaccine. He allegedly wanted to secure exclusive rights to the
CureVac company's work.

Immunity to the rapidly-spreading virus is seen as the most
effective way to stop the global outbreak.

Nearly 179,000 people around the world have been infected with
the coronavirus and more 7,000 people have died.

Massachusetts-based Moderna Inc is also competing to develop a
vaccine. The bio-technology company is collaborating with the US
National Institutes of Health and on Monday announced that it
dosed the first patient with its experimental coronavirus vaccine
in an early-stage trial.

https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-german-us-companies-sign-deal-to-develop-vaccine/a-52802822

See also:
https://investors.biontech.de/news-releases/news-release-details/pfizer-and-biontech-co-develop-potential-covid-19-vaccine








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From New Atlas:

Mercury may paradoxically use intense heat to make huge amounts
of ice

Michael Irving
16 March 2020

Despite being the closest planet to the Sun, Mercury is home to a
surprising amount of ice. Now, researchers at Georgia Tech have
put forward an explanation for how at least some of it got there
- and it turns out, the heat plays an important role.

Most of Mercury is a broiling hot hellscape, where daytime
temperatures peak at a toasty 427 °C (800 °F). But with no
atmosphere to spread the heat around, the poles remain chilly,
and the floors of some deep craters never see sunlight. There,
temperatures can be as low as -170 °C (-274 °F) - the perfect
conditions for ice to form.

And form it does, with spacecraft observations and other
calculations showing large deposits at both poles of the planet.
How it actually got there in the first place has remained a
mystery, but now the Georgia Tech team has proposed at least a
partial explanation.

The team says that protons - charged particles from the Sun -
pelt the surface of Mercury, creating minerals called hydroxyl
groups (OH) in the soil. Then, the intense heat helps release and
energize these minerals, so they collide and form water molecules
and hydrogen.

These water molecules then drift around the planet. Some will
inevitably be broken down again by the extreme sunlight, but some
molecules will settle in the polar craters, where the cold
conditions are ready to make some ice.

"The total amount that we postulate that would become ice is 10
trillion kg (11 billion tons) over a period of about 3 million
years," says Brant Jones, first author of the study. "The process
could easily account for up to 10 percent of Mercury’s total
ice."

The rest, they posit, would arrive through asteroid strikes. That
doesn’t necessarily mean the asteroid itself has to be carrying
much water - the forces of the impact itself can trigger a
chemical reaction that produces the stuff.

The research was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The team describes the idea in the video below.

https://newatlas.com/space/mercury-ice-heat-chemistry/

Image: A true color image of Mercury, snapped by MESSENGER ...

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This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK64

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This week's images:
 

A priest Miroslaw Matuszny walks on the street holding Relics of
St Anthony as he prays to stop spread of coronavirus (COVID-19)
in Lublin, Poland, 17 March. From reut.rs/3a3CgE4 ...

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Street art in Mumbai. From bit.ly/2xOUuuF ...

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A mural at municipal radio station WNYC in New York City, painted
as part of the Works Progress Administration during the 1930s
Depression. From bit.ly/2x5aTea ...

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A family enjoys the cherry blossoms at the National Arboretum in
Washington DC, 18 March. From wapo.st/2wmHUlX ...

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The Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich in London marked St
Patrick's Day. From bit.ly/2Wp4CEM ...

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During the absence of human visitors due to COVID-19, Wellington,
a 32-year-old rockhopper penguin, meets other animals while
exploring the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. From reut.rs/2Quo9zJ ...

Sending Pic:204x154C;
 

People walk through snow in Red Square during a recent stretch of
cold weather in Moscow. From bit.ly/2Ukxyen ...

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Light from a GaN laser diode, diffracting through a GaN LED wafer
etched with a photonic quasi-crystal with twelvefold rotational
symmetry for enhancing light extraction. From bit.ly/2UxlKFZ ...

Sending Pic:196x169C;








Our painting of the week is "Daffodils" by Julian Merrow-Smith.
From bit.ly/2xasyku ...

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Shortwave Radiogram returns to MFSK32 ...

 

RSID: <<2020-03-19T23:57Z MFSK-32 @ 9265000+1500>>

 

This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK32 ...


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I'm Kim Elliott. Please join us for the next Shortwave
Radiogram.