NASA fired the four engines of its towering Space Launch System rocket for the first time Saturday after a decade of development, but the engines were cut off well short of the intended duration, a sign that something went wrong. NASA had been hoping to fire the four RS-25 rocket engines for eight minutes, but […]
Steve Carell stars in the new Netflix satirical comedy Space Force. A newly minted four-star general is assigned the thankless task of establishing the sixth branch of the United States Armed Forces in Netflix’s highly anticipated new satirical comedy series, Space Force, starring Steve Carell. Netflix just dropped the official trailer, showcasing an all-star cast and […]
If you have a genius idea for a tiny exploratory robot, then NASA wants to hear from you. The space agency is calling on the public to submit their designs for miniature rovers which could be used to explore the moon as part of the Artemis project or even help establish a long-term moon base […]
NASA has released a report detailing how it intends to set up a base on the moon, and from there send astronauts to explore Mars as part of its Artemis program. Having a long-term lunar presence would allow more efficient travel to distant parts of the solar system as well as the potential for more […]
One of the more mundane, but critical, challenges when it comes to building future space habitats, such as moon bases, is the prohibitive cost of transporting materials from Earth. The cost of transporting just 0.45 kilos (that’s roughly equal to about five blueberry muffins) from Earth is around $ 10,000. The Holy Grail, therefore, would […]
This year, both Israeli organization SpaceIL and the Indian space agency experienced sad endings to their planned lunar missions when each of their crafts crashed into the moon. With the quantum leaps we’ve made in computing, AI, and other technologies in recent decades, it seems as if landing on the moon should be easier now. […]
The crazy idea: A new space and biotech startup wants to build a pyramid on the Moon to store the DNA of every plant and creature on Earth — yours included. The crazier idea: It may not turn out to be so crazy, after all. The San Francisco-based startup LifeShip is the work of engineer and entrepreneur […]
The mission control crew looks on as India’s space agency loses contact with its moon lander. ISRO India’s space agency lost contact with its Chandrayaan-2 moon lander Friday as it attempted to do what it was made for: Land on the moon. The robotic lander — nicknamed Vikram — attempted to descend to the moon’s […]
The shadow of the Chang’e 4 lander is visible in this image, as are its tracks. CLEP/CNSA China’s Chang’e 4 mission is currently exploring one of the lesser-known areas of the moon — the far side, which faces away from Earth. Previously it found minerals which may have come from deep beneath the lunar surface, […]
ISRO India’s Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft just captured a mesmerizing photo of its view of the moon, just weeks before it lands there. The spacecraft reached the moon’s orbit on Tuesday after launching on July 22. On Thursday, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) tweeted the first photo of the moon captured by the uncrewed mission’s spacecraft. […]
Samantha Seddon We expect rockets and other space technology to remain on the cutting edge of what’s possible, so why should spacesuits be any different? The short answer: they shouldn’t, which is why the company responsible for designing the classic spacesuits for NASA’s Apollo program has just unveiled its next-gen prototype astronaut suit for future […]
Conceptual illustration of permanently shadowed, shallow icy craters near the lunar south pole. UCLA/NASA A new study suggests that there could be thick deposits of frozen water on the moon, located in craters near the lunar pole. Discovering potential frozen water on the moon is not only of scientific interest. It could also be important […]
NASA has tapped Elon Musk’s SpaceX to figure out a way to allow ships to refuel in orbit, the space agency announced Tuesday. According to a news release, SpaceX will help to advance propulsion technology — specifically, NASA has tasked SpaceX to solve the problem of in-space refueling, which would be groundbreaking since it’s never […]
Astronaut Alan L. Bean walks with a Hasselblad camera attached to his suit while holding a container filled with lunar soil collected during extravehicular activity on the Apollo 12 mission in 1969. NASA This article is part of Apollo: A Lunar Legacy, a multipart series that explores the technological advances behind Apollo 11, their influence […]
Illustrations by Chris DeGraw This article is part of Apollo: A Lunar Legacy, a multi-part series that explores the technological advances behind Apollo 11, their influence on modern day, and what’s next for the moon. You may have heard that freeze-dried food was invented to feed astronauts on the Apollo missions, and although “astronaut ice […]