Science News Roundup: Moderna, Switzerland's Lonza strike deal on potential COVID-19 vaccine; SpaceX to bring astronauts to short-handed Space Station for longer stay and more

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Musk's SpaceX, Bezos' Blue Origin land contracts to build NASA's astronaut moon lander

NASA on Thursday selected space firms SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Dynetics to build lunar landing systems that can carry astronauts to the moon by 2024, the White House's accelerated deadline under the space agency's moon-to-Mars campaign. The three companies, which include firms of tech billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, will share $967 million from NASA, though specific amounts each company will receive were not immediately known.

Moderna, Switzerland's Lonza strike deal on potential COVID-19 vaccine

Moderna Inc and Swiss contract drugmaker Lonza Group AG said on Friday they would accelerate the manufacturing of the U.S. drug developer's potential coronavirus vaccine. The announcement comes at a time when drugmakers are pausing clinical trials for other disease areas as they focus on testing potential treatments for the coronavirus.

Swiss soldiers pick up smartphones to fight COVID-19

In the battle against coronavirus, Swiss soldiers are using smartphones to test a new contact tracing application that could prevent infections while also protecting users' privacy. Switzerland hopes to launch the app on May 11 based on a standard, developed by researchers in Lausanne and Zurich, that uses Bluetooth communication between devices to assess the risk of catching COVID-19.

The sun is less active than similar stars. That's good news

The sun appears to be far less active than similar stars in terms of brightness variations caused by sunspots and other phenomena - a "boring" personality, according to scientists, that may not be a bad thing for us, Earthlings. Researchers said on Thursday that an examination of 369 stars similar to the sun in surface temperatures, size, and rotation period - it takes the sun about 24-1/2 days to rotate once on its axis - showed that they displayed on average five times more brightness variability than the sun.

SpaceX to bring astronauts to short-handed Space Station for longer stay

Two NASA astronauts gearing up to ride SpaceX's new space taxi will now be on a mission planned to last more than a month, instead of a week, to help the short-handed crew aboard the International Space Station, the U.S. space agency said on Friday. The launch is scheduled for May 27 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida and will arrive at the ISS the following day. The mission, SpaceX's first carrying humans, marks the company's climactic test before NASA can certify its Crew Dragon capsule for regular operational flights.

Robots on hand to greet Japanese coronavirus patients in hotels

Coronavirus patients with light symptoms arriving to stay at several Tokyo hotels are likely to get a lift from a pleasant surprise - a robot greeter in the lobby. Japan is now using hotels to house patients who have tested positive for the coronavirus but whose symptoms are too light to need hospitalisation, and several in the capital of Tokyo just opened on Friday feature robots to help lighten the burden on nurses.