The moon’s Orientale impact basin, with rings. Red corresponds to ‘hills’ and blue to ‘valleys’.
Ernest Wright, NASA/GSFC Scientific Visualization Studio.)
Recent high-profile disappointments make it tempting to this our efforts to explore Mars are cursed. But landing anywhere in space is hard – not least on the Red Planet.
Researchers got 128 students at a middle school to use Twitter to further their science learning. And what happened? These students learned how to connect science to real life.
CSIRO’s Birdsville station is one of several in Australia that monitors aerosols in our skies.
CSIRO
A leading NASA scientist has asked CSIRO to stay in its global network that monitors atmospheric dust and pollution. The data are vital to understand the effects on weather and climate.
Robotic construction of Lunar and Martian infrastructure using 3D printing.
Contour Crafting
Inflatable space habitats, like the one installed on the International Space Station this week, could see wide application in space and planetary exploration.
The only way to fly the friendly skies – or dark voids of space.
Tom Simpson/Flickr
We’re on the cusp of being able to consistently launch and land rockets, greatly reducing the cost of space travel. But how long before there’s a Millennium Falcon in every garage?
Soviet’s Mir space station in 1986.
NASA/wikimedia
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