Soviet space station Mir hosted astronauts from a significant number of countries – laying the foundation for the ISS. But how long will this collaborative spirit last?
Tragedy: Challenger exploded shortly after launch from the Kennedy Space Centre.
Nasa/Reuters
Dawn’s mission director and chief engineer describes his ‘dream come true’ job – and how the new data coming back from Ceres could unlock some of the secrets of the earliest days of our solar system.
‘I am C-3PO, human-cyborg relations. And this is my counterpart R2-D2.’
Gordon Tarpley
What does it feel like to prepare for a journey to space? Space scientist Monica Grady followed astronaut Tim Peake around for a few days before his launch to find out.
New research shows that bacteria is thriving on the ISS. But is that really such a bad thing?
Unlike science fiction films featuring grotesque aliens and faraway galaxies, Ridley Scott’s The Martian depicts a sci-fi space mission that could soon be science fact.
20th Century Fox
NASA has set a target date of 2030 for a manned mission to Mars. With no real scientific breakthroughs needed, success depends on developing the proper technology.
This digital false-colour image shows the dark, narrow streaks on Martian slopes inferred to be formed by seasonal flow of water on the planet. The streaks are roughly the length of a football field.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
New research provides a compact but powerful way for Mars rovers to communicate directly with Earth via an array of smaller antenna elements, bypassing the need for an intermediary.
The House proposes slashing funding for earth science from NASA’s budget, yet this science is critical to understanding – and coping with – the dramatic effects of a warming Arctic around the world.
Many of the bodies in our solar system’s contain precious resources that could be used here or in space.
NASA
In the long lead-up to our ultimate flyby of Pluto, space science has reconfigured our notions of what it means to be a solar system, a planet, a world.
Pluto’s newly clear topography.
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Scott Kenyon, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Photos from the spacecraft’s close approach are dazzling. They and other data from the mission will fill in some of the blanks about Pluto and provide a snapshot of the infant solar system.
Jupiter’s moon Europa is one of the most enticing objects in our solar system, and a future NASA mission may help reveal whether it is a suitable for life.