Artemis II Launch Window, Re‑Voice Stroke Device, Ancient Cave Art and Bat Navigation in Scientific American Science Quickly

This week’s Science Quickly roundup highlights NASA’s Artemis II mission, featuring a crewed lunar flyby on a free-return trajectory that will push spacecraft and astronaut testing into deep space. We also cover a novel speech-recovery tool called re-voice that uses a soft collar, throat sensors, and AI to interpret silently mouthed speech after stroke. In archaeology, researchers push back the oldest cave art to about 67,800 years on Sulawesi, offering new clues about early human migration to Australia. Finally, a bat-navigation study reveals how bats exploit Doppler shift cues to navigate cluttered environments, with potential implications for drone tech. Quotes from experts punctuate each section.

Artemis II: Testing humans beyond low Earth orbit

The episode centers on NASA's Artemis II mission, described as the point where the program moves from hardware demonstration to a crewed deep-space test. Artemis II will be the first crewed mission to go beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. The Orion spacecraft will follow a free-return trajectory around the Moon, looping back to Earth at high velocity, with the reentry speed around 25,000 mph and the heat shield critical to mission success. Unlike Artemis I, which was uncrewed, Artemis II places four astronauts on board for a mission that will set spaceflight records and inform future lunar surface expeditions. The rollout ceremony on January 17 at Kennedy Space Center marked a major milestone, while the upcoming wet dress rehearsal on February 2 and the launch window opening on February 6 are key steps in meeting the five-day monthly alignment windows for lunar access. "Artemis 2 is really where the rubber meets the road" - Lee Billings, CIA senior desk editor for Physical Science

Launch preparations, timelines and geopolitical context

Following Artemis I, Artemis II adds human medical studies and life-support data collection to better understand how astronauts respond to deep-space conditions. The program faces geopolitical competition and cooperation, with other nations like India and China pursuing lunar ambitions, increasing the emphasis on timely deployment and reliability. The South Pole region on the Moon emerges as a focus due to near-continuous sunlight and potential water ice, alongside permanently shadowed craters that may preserve volatile compounds. The far side offers opportunities for facilities such as a radio telescope shielded from Earth-based interference, enabling new observations about the early universe. "There will be some interesting spaceflight records" - Lee Billings

Re-Voice: giving patients their voice back after stroke

In another story, Cambridge researchers report a device named re-voice designed to speed up speech recovery for stroke patients who develop dysarthria. The soft collar contains sensors that track throat motion and heart rate and feed data to two AI agents. One reconstructs words from silently mouthed speech and throat vibrations; the other expands those words into full sentences by examining pulse cues and ambient conditions such as weather and time of day. The system aims to let patients speak with two nods of the head, potentially reducing months or years of traditional therapy. The study, published in Nature Communications, had a small sample size of five patients so far, with plans to expand to clinical trials.

Oldest cave art: Sulawesi hand stencil dated to 67,800 years

A separate Nature Communications study reports a hand stencil on the Sulawesi cave ceiling dating to at least 67,800 years ago, making it roughly 15,000 years older than previously known cave art there. Limestone caves in Sulawesi allowed easier dating, and the finding could influence our understanding of early human migration from Indonesia to Australia. Franco Viviani notes that the findings reinforce the link between art and critical thinking, suggesting that artistic expression reflects advanced problem-solving. This discovery adds a crucial data point to discussions of when and how humans settled Sahul—Australia and New Guinea combined—through maritime routes. "they confirm what is known today, that art is positively correlated to critical thinking and creative problem solving skills" - Franco Viviani, physical anthropologist

Bat navigation and Doppler-shift cues

A further study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B examines how bats navigate object-rich environments. Researchers built a bat accelerator track with 8,000 movable acoustic reflectors to mimic a hedge full of leaves. Over three nights, 104 Pipistrellus bats flew through an eight-meter course, revealing that bats rely on Doppler shift cues—sound changes caused by their own movement—to gauge their surroundings and regulate speed. The implications could extend to drone navigation and autonomous sensing in cluttered spaces, illustrating how biological strategies can inform technology design.

Closing thoughts and future questions

The episode invites listeners to share kissing memories for a future program, underscoring Science Quickly’s aim to connect science news with everyday experiences while continuing to explore the frontiers of space, medicine and Earth science. The hosts note the interactive potential of AI-assisted curation to bring trusted science content together across formats and topics.

Quotes are used to highlight key points from each topic, reflecting expert perspectives and study authors’ observations throughout the episode.