Does Australia need space capabilities? Well, as Senator Kate Lundy said this month when announcing the government’s new space policy: “Australians, whether they know it or not, rely on satellites every…
The International Space Station after undocking from the now-retired Endeavour space shuttle.
NASA
As the most visible man-made object in the night sky the International Space Station (ISS) is of significance to humankind. It takes humans from being explorers of space to being residents of space.
The…
Hands up if you want to be a citizen scientist.
__Jens__
Amateur astronomers in Russia made a discovery last week any professional would envy – it seems they may have identified the remnants of the ill-fated Soviet Mars 3 lander, 30 years after it lost contact…
An artist’s impression of water particles ‘raining’ onto Saturn from its rings.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/University of Leicester
In space no one can hear you scream, but you may get a bit wet.
In particular, if you were thinking of journeying to take in the sights of Saturn, it would be a good idea to pack an umbrella.
This is…
The universe is a big place, and the temptation will be to shape it in our image.
t.abroudj/Flickr
With the global population now well over seven billion people there are few remaining parts of the world relatively untouched by human activity. We assess the current state and future prospects of five…
The commercialisation of space is already underway.
Rick Sternbach/Keck Institute for Space Studies
Harvesting space resources will raise living standards worldwide, without further damaging Earth. So how can those resources be tapped in a way that will produce a return on investment?
That question…
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin and his colleagues on the Apollo 11 mission inspired generations to be interested in lunar exploration.
EPA/NASA
Like all relationships, our association with the moon has had its ups and downs.
In this series we’ve talked about the nature of the satellite and how we think it was formed – in a giant collision that…
What do we know about how the moon was created?
EPA/Ali Ali
The more we learn about the formation and evolution of our solar system, the more we realise it was far from a sedate, gentle process. Everywhere we look we find evidence the final stages of planetary…
The moon in total lunar eclipse as seen over Sydney in 2011.
AAP/Sydney Observatory
The moon. Our nearest neighbour. The main source of the ocean’s tides, and a beacon that drives the lives of animals across the globe. And also, to date, the only object beyond Earth on which humans have…
How is the spin of black holes measured, and what can it tell us about our universe?
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Astronomers have measured the spin of a black hole buried in the heart of a galaxy located 56 million light years away, and discovered it was spinning quickly – about as quickly as it could go. That was…
Observations from NASA’s Van Allen Probes have revealed that a third radiation belt can sometimes appear above Earth.
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA revealed this morning (AEST) that its Van Allen Probes have discovered a third, previously unknown, radiation belt around Earth. The belt appears to be transient, depending strongly on solar activity…
The chances of the weekends two asteroid events being related are next to zero.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
By Simon O'Toole, Australian Astronomical Observatory
One of the most exciting things about science is the detective work, and never was this more the case than Friday.
Within an hour or so of the event, almost everyone had seen the dramatic footage of the…
When it comes to asteroids, alert but not alarmed may be the best approach.
NASA
By Simon O'Toole, Australian Astronomical Observatory
An asteroid named 2012 DA14 will come within 27,700 kilometres of Earth early on Saturday morning Australian time (around 6:30am AEDT). At this distance the asteroid will pass within the orbits of several…
Space missions have a long tradition of Christmas celebration.
Wikimedia Commons
Christmas – whether you’re religious or not – is a time when people gather their families together to reinforce the bonds that make us human.
In the era of modern telecommunications, distance no longer…
Unless something is done about space junk, it might become too unsafe to have satellites in Low-Earth Orbit.
ESA
At some point in the next few months, Australia will get its first ever national space policy.
The release of the report, following consultation by experts in the space industry, will be a defining moment…
Just as the sun set (temporarily) on Woomera in 1980, the current era of Australia’s space endeavours is coming to close.
Australian Science Media Centre
At some point in the next few months, Australia will get its first national space policy. This document will help mark a new era in Australia’s contribution to space-related endeavours, not least how we…
Australia relies on foreign-owned satellites to deliver a range of critical services.
A draft of Australia’s first national space policy was recently considered by federal cabinet and is currently undergoing a consultation process with experts within the space sector.
The document, which…
It’s not everyday you get to chat with a spacecraft that’s nearing the edge of the solar system.
NASA
Interviewing a spacecraft isn’t something one does every day. It certainly wasn’t an option back in the late 1970s, when Voyager 1 and 2 set off on a mission like no other before or since: to visit some…
All going well, Baumgartner will become the first person to break the speed of sound in free-fall.
AAP Image/Red Bull
UPDATE: After adverse weather conditions delayed earlier launch attempts, Felix Baumgartner has finally made his historic skydive.
Red Bull Stratos reports that Baumgartner climbed to an altitude of over…
When Curiosity lands on Mars next Monday, expect the social media buzz to be out of this world.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Social media is the new frontier for space exploration, shaping an age of innovative public participation in space missions.
While online communities are a-Twitter about NBC’s poor Olympic coverage, there…
Asteroid impacts make for impressive images and movies, but how realistic is the threat?
NASA
By Simon O'Toole, Australian Astronomical Observatory
How many times have you read a headline about our impending doom due to a “Deep Impact”-style annihilation?
In a way it’s not surprising – we have an insatiable appetite for disaster stories, a hunger…
There’ll be a human colony on the red planet by 2023 if Mars One has its way.
Mars One
Private space venture company Mars One announced earlier this month that it intends to send people on a one-way colonisation mission to Mars in 2023, largely funded by sales of the mission’s media rights…
The 8km-high volcano, Maat Mons, is only one of the reasons to head back to Venus.
NASA/JPL
Last week the world stopped to watch as the black disc of Venus inched its way across the face of the sun.
But beyond the transits that capture our attention roughly twice per century, Venus has always…
We’re a long way off finding little green men, but we might find evidence of life on Mars within a year.
The building blocks of life have been discovered on Mars … in Martian meteorites that fell to Earth.
Let me rephrase that: according to a paper by published in Science Express on Friday, meteorites from…
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk stands in front of a Falcon 9 rocket at SpaceX’s launch site in Florida.
SpaceX
Late tomorrow evening (AEST), all going well, a Falcon 9 rocket will lift-off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. A few days after launch the craft will rendezvous in low-Earth orbit with the International Space…
Where there’s mineral wealth, people always follow.
MGM
As history has repeatedly shown, where there are valuable minerals to be unearthed, adventurous humans will arrive in droves – even if it means battling extreme conditions and risking life and limb.
So…
When we start building structures outside Earth, the raw materials will likely come from asteroids.
Planetary Resources
There will be a future mining boom, as heralded in recent media stories. But this mining will take place in a location even more hostile than the Australian Outback – space.
More specifically, the ore…
Russia is no stranger to ambitious space exploration – and has produced several notable firsts.
Maxim Shipenkov/ EPA
For decades, the Soviet Union was a major player in the exploration of space, famously locking horns with the US in the “Space Race” – a competition for orbital supremacy and solar system exploration throughout…
There’s all kinds of rubbish in orbit, and it can cause serious damage.
James Vallejo
In mid-February, the Swiss Space Centre announced a plan to start removing space debris from orbit. Their proposal involved using a satellite, called CleanSpace One, to approach, grapple and then “de-orbit…
Does the US suffer from its desire to go it alone in space?
NASA
In its newly released budget request to Congress, the Obama Administration is seeking to reduce NASA’s funding by US$59m to US$17.7 billion – a reduction of just 0.03%, not that you would know that from…
Nearly 8,000 objects have been identified for possible collision with Earth.
Pat Dalton...
In the past six months, it seems something has fallen from the sky every second minute.
In September, the UARS satellite re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere, causing a media frenzy. In October, the German…
New infrastructure is putting the Australian space industry on the map.
RSAA
Space exploration is one of the few science-rich human endeavours that captivates both expert and layperson alike. There is a mystery – a romanticism – associated with space research and technology that…
What’s so special about the latest big discovery by NASA’s Kepler?
NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech
On Monday, to much fanfare, astronomers working with the Kepler space observatory (which was launched in March 2009) announced their first discovery of a planet orbiting within the “habitable zone” of…
NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
It seems we’re about to come one step closer to putting man (and woman) on Mars. Is this exciting? Of course it is. Nothing fires the imagination quite like the prospect of walking around on a planet other…
China is becoming a superpower in space as well as on earth.
AAP
In the early hours of this morning, the tranquility of the remote Gobi desert was shattered by the sound of a brand new spacecraft hurtling towards the sky.
The rocket, Shenzhou-8 or “Divine Vessel…
Our understanding of the universe has been changed for ever.
A. Caulet (ST-ECF, ESA)/NASA
Occasionally, very occasionally, a discovery comes along that reshapes our view of the universe.
Some discoveries teach us about ourselves; some teach us how to better interact with the world around us;…
Stars are immense, but the space between them is truly phenomenal.
chefranden
“Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.”
Douglas Adams…
Look on the bright side, earthlings: it’ll probably never happen.
Shanon Wise
You might want to look up. Or maybe not.
At some point between now and Saturday, a 6.5 tonne, bus-sized NASA satellite will burst through Earth’s atmosphere, breaking into fiery chunks that could land…
We may finally have an answer to a long-standing cosmic/ cosmetic issue.
NASA
As of today, we have a cataclysmic new explanation for one of solar system astronomy’s most long-standing questions: why do the near- and far-sides of the Moon look so different?
This new theory, published…
Malcolm Walter talks space, science and NASA’s future with Dr Greg Chamitoff.
Download the full interview with Dr Chamitoff as a podcast by clicking here.
For the latest in our In Conversation series, Malcolm Walter, Professor of Astrobiology at the University of New South…
Could Stanley Kubrick’s classic offer direction for the future of space travel?
slagheap
Tomorrow morning (AEST), weather depending, the Space Shuttle Atlantis will blast off from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, marking the end of NASA’s 30-year-old Space Transportation System.
But as the…
Has NASA’s 30-year space experiment been worth it?
EPA/NASA TV
All going well, the final Space Shuttle mission will be launched from the Kennedy Space Centre early on Saturday morning (AEST). This flight, being made by the Space Shuttle Atlantis, will be the 135th…
A computer-generated artists impression of the thousands of objects in orbit around Earth.
AFP
By Fred Watson, Australian Astronomical Observatory
Since the launch of the first artificial satellite in 1957 – the Soviet Union’s Sputnik 1 – countries around the world have been putting satellites and spacecraft into Earth orbit.
While the majority…
There’s something happening, but it’s way above your head.
bluedharma/Flickr
Four planets – Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus – will be aligned at dawn tomorrow. What does this mean? Should we be running for the hills?
You’d be forgiven for thinking so. A search on Google or YouTube…
Keeping the space shuttle together is a tremendous feat of engineering.
Stan Honda/AFP
The Space Shuttle Endeavour, one of the most complex machines ever created, is about to take its last trip into space.
But not just yet.
The countdown to Endeavour’s final flight began a few days ago…
It is inevitable that we will one day venture into space beyond the moon not just with robots but in person.
Exploration is part of the human psyche: we are risk-takers with an insatiable curiosity. No…
