Things are looking up for digging deep on Mars. Progress is palpable on how best to extract subsurface ice to generate drinkable water, rocket fuel and other useful resources on the Red Planet. But boring down from the topside of Mars to reach available icy reservoirs is no slam dunk. Tackling that challenge is the company Honeybee Robotics, which calls its approach the RedWater concept. Related: Mars ice deposits could pave the way for human exploration Dual purposes Honeybee Robotics’ ice drilling hardware for Mars encompasses coiled tubing and the…
Read MoreCategory: The Moon
Our moon
Astronauts’ mementos packed on Boeing Starliner for crew flight test
A NASA astronaut who had the honor of naming her spacecraft will fly items inspired by that name when she launches to the International Space Station next month. Sunita “Suni” Williams, who is set to fly with fellow NASA astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore on Boeing’s first Crew Flight Test (CFT) of its CST-100 Starliner capsule, will reveal the “Calypso”-related items once she is in orbit. “A little homage to other explorers and the ships they rode on, I think we are going to call her ‘Calypso,’” said Williams in 2019,…
Read More‘Spaceman’ director Johan Renck on making a romantic sci-fi fable (exclusive)
It’s not easy to be truly original in today’s “go along to get along” world, but rebellious Swedish filmmaker Johan Renck (“Chernobyl”) has achieved that rare designation by composing a transcendent fable in the new Netflix film, “Spaceman.” Starring Adam Sandler, Paul Dano as the voice of the ancient arachnid creature named Hanuš, Carey Mulligan, and Isabella Rossellini, “Spaceman” had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival last week and will now launch onto Netflix starting on Mar. 1, 2024. Here Sandler portrays Jakub, a lonely Czech cosmonaut…
Read MoreMassive explosions may be visible on the sun during the April 8 total solar eclipse
If you’re in the path of totality for the April 8 total solar eclipse, you’ll experience a brief period of darkness — totality — for a few seconds or minutes. This is the only safe time to look directly at the sun without solar eclipse glasses. If you observe the sun‘s corona during totality, you may see dark-pink towers and loops of electrically charged plasma stretching many times the diameter of Earth into space. During the last total solar eclipse, in Australia on April 20, 2023, these “prominences” were spectacular…
Read MoreSatellites watch Iceland volcano spew gigantic plume of toxic gas across Europe
Scientists are tracking a massive plume of toxic gas moving across northern Europe that was spat out by the ongoing volcanic eruption in Iceland. The gas cloud is unlikely to cause any serious health problems. However, it could impact the ozone hole above the Arctic, experts warn. On March 16, an underground volcano in Icealnd’s Reykjanes Peninsula blew its top for the fourth time in as many months, opening up the largest fissure of the current eruption cycle and unleashing a massive lava flow that narrowly missed the evacuated town of Grindavík. There…
Read MoreFlight attendant becomes 1st Belarusian woman in space on ISS-bound Soyuz launch
For the first time, a spacecraft has lifted off with a flight attendant aboard, but there will be no drink service during the flight. Marina Vasilevskaya, who also served as a flight instructor for Belavia Airlines in her home country of Belarus, traded her attendant uniform for a Russian Sokol pressure suit to become the first Belarusian woman to fly into space. On Saturday (March 23), she launched on Russia’s Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft with cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky of Roscosmos and NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson on a mission to the…
Read MoreWatch shock waves ripple from SpaceX’s giant Starship rocket during 3rd test flight (video)
The incredible power SpaceX’s Starship megarocket can be visualized in a new video of the rocket’s third test flight. On March 14, SpaceX’s massive Starship vehicle — the world’s largest and most powerful rocket — lifted off from the company’s manufacturing and test launch facilities near Boca Chica Beach at 9:25 a.m. EDT (1325 GMT). During the launch, shock waves propagate from the rocket in a stunning new slow motion video. Large clouds of smoke billowed out around the two-stage spacecraft, consisting of the reusable Starship cruise vessel mounted atop…
Read MoreTexas Eclipse Festival offers a ‘choose your own adventure experience’ for April total solar eclipse
On April 8, 2024, a range of cities from Texas through Ohio and up to Maine will be in the direct path of experiencing a total solar eclipse. But instead of just having one day to take in the historic minutes while the sky goes dark, one festival will span for multiple days in Central Texas. What organizers are calling a “celestial creation,” the Texas Eclipse Festival at Reveille Peak Ranch in Burnet will be an entire experience where you will not just watch the total solar eclipse in the…
Read More‘Space headaches’ are a literal pain for astronauts. Why do they happen?
Spaceflight can be a real headache — literally. Since the days of the Apollo program, astronauts have reported experiencing head pain during their stint in microgravity. And many of them had never dealt with recurrent headaches on Earth. It seems that something about space travel sometimes triggers migraine or tension headache–like symptoms, including pain, sensitivity to light and occasionally nausea. Until recently, though, these reports were largely sporadic and anecdotal. Now a new study, published in Neurology on March 13, demonstrates that these mysterious “space headaches” are actually quite common. Researchers analyzed data from 24 astronauts who…
Read MoreAstronomers call for radio silence on the far side of the moon
There’s a growing and passionate call for preserving radio silence on the far side of the moon. A first-of-its-kind international symposium is being held this week, turning up the volume to mull over the prospect of protecting real estate on the moon’s far side exclusively for dedicated scientific purposes. Despite the moon being surrounding by a vacuum, there’s an air of urgency to the meeting. Held under the auspices of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), the first IAA Moon Farside Protection Symposium is taking place March 21-22 in Turin,…
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