This episode is brought to you by the current account switch service. Running a small business

comes with all sorts of ups and downs. So the last thing you need are unwanted surprises, just like

when you switch bank accounts. That's why the current account switch service guarantees against

any shocks, stresses, and wait, have we been charged for 3,000 pens instead of 30 moments?

Find out more at currentaccountswitch.co.uk.

Welcome to the Kotke Ride Home 4th for Thursday, May 20th, 2021.

I'm Jackson Bird.

Why the Sun is about to get quite temperamental and how that could spell danger for NASA's upcoming lunar mission.

In other Sun news, the case for turning airports into giant solar farms, and a website that will help make your Twitter timeline a bit more pleasant if you're okay with taking a rather extreme route.

Here are some of the cool things from the news today.

NASA is supposed to go back to the moon in 2024 as part of its Artemis program, but recently

it's seemed like they may need to push that deadline back a few years.

And while it's never good to rush something as serious as catapulting human beings into space,

the MIT Technology Review points out there's one reason it might be better if they stuck to the

original timeline. And it's the sun's fault. According to a new study published today in the

journal Solar Physics, we're going to be seeing some extreme space weather, roughly around 2026 through

29, exactly when NASA might go to the moon if the current 2024 timeline is pushed back.

Now, what do they mean by extreme space weather? Mostly solar storms, quoting the MIT Tech

review. The surface of the sun erupts with gas and plasma, ejecting charged particles, protons,

and heavy ions, into the rest of the solar system at millions of miles per hour.

These particles can strike Earth and the moon in just a matter of minutes.

Earth's magnetic field protects us from them, but the particles can still

...