Science News Roundup: NASA sets out to buy moon resources mined by private companies; Japan space agency delays H3 rocket flight due to technical issues and more

Japan space agency delays H3 rocket flight due to technical issues The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said on Friday that it was delaying the maiden flight of its H3 Launch Vehicle rocket, citing a technical problem identified with the new first-stage engine now under development.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

NASA sets out to buy moon resources mined by private companies

NASA on Thursday launched an effort to pay companies to mine resources on the moon, announcing it would buy from them rocks, dirt and other lunar materials as the U.S. space agency seeks to spur private extraction of coveted off-world resources for its use. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine wrote in a blog post accompanying the announcement that the plans would not violate a 1967 treaty that holds that celestial bodies and space are exempt from national claims of ownership.

Japan space agency delays H3 rocket flight due to technical issues

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said on Friday that it was delaying the maiden flight of its H3 Launch Vehicle rocket, citing a technical problem identified with the new first-stage engine now under development. JAXA said in a statement it would delay the first test flight from the current fiscal year that ends on March 31, to fiscal 2021, and the second test flight by a year to fiscal 2022.

Mexican airport site emerges as major graveyard of Ice Age mammoths

Amid busy construction crews racing to build an airport in Mexico, scientists are unearthing more and more mammoth skeletons in what has quickly become one of the world's biggest concentrations of the now-extinct relative of modern elephants. More than 100 mammoth skeletons have been identified spread across nearly 200 excavation sites, along with a mix of other Ice Age mammals, in the area destined to become the Mexican capital's new commercial airport.

Scientists confounded by new findings on universe's mysterious dark matter

Dark matter, mysterious invisible stuff that makes up most of the mass of galaxies including our own Milky Way, is confounding scientists again, with new observations of distant galaxies conflicting with the current understanding of its nature. Research published this week revealed an unexpected discrepancy between observations of dark matter concentrations in three massive clusters of galaxies encompassing trillions of stars and theoretical computer simulations of how dark matter should be distributed.

(With inputs from agencies.)