Later this year I will spend time with former NASA astronaut instructors, before receiving high-G training, crew resource management training and spacesuit training, among other skills.
Some of the baby radio galaxies found may not be ‘babies’ at all. Rather, they may be ‘angsty teens’, rapidly growing into adults much faster than researchers had anticipated.
Considering what we know about the key ingredients for life’s formation on Earth, here are three explanations for how this process may have occurred on our sister planet.
Bacteria can become more deadly and antibiotic-resilient in space. And while more research is needed to figure out how severe the risks are, they could be catastrophic.
Governments and corporations must get serious about the legal, technical, economic, social and ethical implications of a potential space-based resource economy.
If you want to live on Mars, you’re going to need to grow food. Seeds are naturally equipped to handle challenging Earth environments, but how well can they survive what they’ll encounter off-planet?
Space may seem calm, but it is a more hostile environment than that on Earth. Invisible radiation is a big problem for space enthusiasts and scientific instruments. Substituting electronic devices to do…
Australia has had an active civil space program since 1947 but has much to learn if it is to capture a bigger share of growing billion dollar global space industry. The potential size and scope of the…
Almost all of the reflections and eulogies of Colin Pillinger, who passed away on May 8, will focus on his role in the Beagle 2 space mission to Mars. But this only occupied a small part of his career…
The cosmological community is bubbling with the news that the BICEP2 experiment may have detected gravitational waves through measuring the radiation left over from the big bang. If the findings are correct…
To say space research is a waste of money is wrong. For every US$1 put into US space agency, its citizens get US$10 as payback; in Japan and the European Union that amount is more than US$3. The growing…
Planetary science is beginning to catch up with science fiction. Since the launch of the Kepler space telescope in 2009, a deluge of planets outside of our solar system has been found, with many oddball…
According to Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal, establishing a permanent presence beyond Earth is the first step humans will take towards the “divergence into a new species”. Plans to visit and even colonise…
Out of hibernation, Rosetta stirs at last. As one of the scientists involved in the mission, news that the unmanned spacecraft has woken up and restored contact with Earth comes as a great relief. It contains…
Habitation of outer space needs solving air, water, energy and food supplies within a tight space. And this isn’t a problem of an apocalyptic, remote future. Developing this technology addresses some of…