Cassini is about to crash into Saturn to avoid contaminating its habitable moon Enceladus.
A view from the ‘Kimberley’ formation on Mars taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover. The strata in the foreground dip towards the base of Mount Sharp, indicating flow of water toward a basin that existed before the larger bulk of the mountain formed.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
We could learn a lot from any mission to send people to Mars, such as whether there’s life elsewhere in the universe or even the technology for new household appliances.
This enhanced-color image of Jupiter’s south pole and its swirling atmosphere was created by citizen scientist Roman Tkachenko using data from the JunoCam imager on NASA’s Juno spacecraft.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Roman Tkachenko
We may need to re-think our models of Jupiter’s formation thanks to the first results from Juno probe orbiting the planet, and new observations from Earth.
To get us to Mars and beyond, a team of students from around the world has a plan involving lunar rovers mining ice and a space station between the Earth and the moon.
Ultrasonic “tractor beam”
Asier Marzo, Bruce Drinkwater, Sriram Subramanian
Saturn and its rings backlit by the sun, which is blocked by the planet in this view. Encircling the planet and inner rings is the much more extended E-ring.
NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Often eclipsed by Apollo 11, the final manned moonshot left far more than bootprints in the dust. In these troubling times, it also left us with a lasting message of hope.
Letters from would-be girl astronauts in the 1960s tell part of the complicated story of sexism – in both NASA and the US at large – at the dawn of the space age.
Jupiter’s South Pole, as seen by NASA’s Juno spacecraft on August 27 2016.
Credit: NASA/SwRI/MSSS, processed by R. Tkachenko
Asgardia is calling for unrestricted research but history has given us many examples where this has resulted in unacceptable consequences.
The idea that there’s a moral imperative for humans to expand beyond Earth is echoed by influential proponents of space exploration.
Tamara Craiu/Flickr
Technology had enabled humans to explore the deep sea, the Earth’s poles, and outer space. But we shouldn’t forget historical lessons about frontiers in the process of traversing them.
The health of astronauts will be one of the main challenges for Musk.
D Mitriy/wikimedia
Musk’s know-how cannot be dismissed but there are significant challenges standing between him and his dream of colonising Mars.
Comet 67P taken with a wide-angle lens from an altitude of about 15.5km above the surface during the spacecraft’s final descent on September 30.
ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
It has been an epic journey, much more than 12 years in the making, but Rosetta is just about to go out in a blaze of glory. The final commands were uploaded to the spacecraft mid-morning on September…
Workers wave flags as the rocket carrying the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft being moved to the launch pad.
EPA