Missions to asteroids are opening up the secrets of the Solar System
The exoplanet K2-18b might host a water ocean.
Credits: Illustration: NASA, CSA, ESA, J. Olmsted (STScI), Science: N. Madhusudhan (Cambridge University)
Space exploration is often propelled by competition, driven by national pride and with little thought about consequence. It is time to consider space as a commons, not just a resource to exploit.
The Vikram lander should carry the rover to the lunar surface.
ISRO
The Voyager 2 spacecraft is 20 billion kilometres away and has lost track of Earth. A radio dish near Canberra is the only channel for re-establishing communication.
Stanley Kubrick’s science fiction masterpiece was released in 1968.
Collection Christophel/Alamy
One person recently spent 100 days underwater. Another lived 500 days in a cave. What can we learn from such extreme experiences?
NASA’s Artemis I Space Launch System rocket, with the Orion capsule attached, launches at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on November 16, 2022 in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
As signatories, Nigeria and Rwanda are demonstrating their commitment to safe, sustainable use of outer space. This should have multiple benefits.
Jupiter has more than 80 moons, the largest of which were discovered by Galileo. Many will be studied in depth by the scientific instruments of ESA’s JUICE mission.
ESA, NASA, JPL, ATG, DLR, University of Arizona, University of Leicester
A US-led coalition and China are both planning to establish bases on the Moon. How the two nations will navigate actions on the Moon and how other countries will be involved is still unclear.
Virgin Orbit is launching satellites using a rocket slung under the wing of an aircraft.
Virgin Orbit
Spacecraft are just a small part of what it takes for humans to become an interplanetary species. A political science professor explains how there is much more to creating a spacefaring society.
NASA astronaut Winston E. Scott on an EVA in 1996.
NASA JSC
The stars, planets and Milky Way we see at night are part of a wilderness shared across the globe and across centuries. But does BlueWalker 3 herald a night sky polluted with bright satellites?
A camera mounted on the tip of one of the Orion capsule’s solar array wings captured this footage of the spacecraft and the Moon
NASA