Today marks the halfway point for the crew of the simulated mission to Mars. Mars 500, as it’s called, is a study that mocks the conditions of space travel inorder to study the effects on astronauts. The 18-month study has volunteers from Italy and Russia placed in a sort of Biodome structure where they can’t leave, eat only space food, and shower once per week. → Read More
We’re knee-deep in Valentine’s Day festivities here at CG, so I thought I’d take a moment to help you figure out what not to buy your significant other. One thing you don’t want to get them? A star, or any other sort of celestial property. I have just as much right to sell you the Great Wall of China as a company has to sell you a star or an asteroid. Don’t be fooled! → Read More
This is nothing if not a fun story, and the world could use more fun stories. It would appear that the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, along with Nitto Seimo Co (an honest-to-goodness fishing net company), has come up with a plan to create a giant “fishing net” of sorts that would surround the planet. Why would we want a giant net around the planet? Oh, you know, just to collect space junk… → Read More
We need more stories like this next one. A crew of six researches has been locked inside a “steel capsule” (presumably not the Elimination Chamber) for an astounding 520 days on a mock mission to Mars. The point of the mission is to study how long-term spaceflight affects the human mind and body. Do people freak out like in that episode of Ren & Stimpy? Do they lose a dangerous amount of… → Read More
NASA is putting a cap on the long-running Space Shuttle program with STS-135, the final flight by Space Shuttle Atlantis, just recently announced to be taking place on June 28th. There are no more missions planned after this, and the 30-year old shuttle program will finally give way to its successor. This will presumably the Constellation Program, aimed at creating unified architecture for… → Read More
Astronaut Pro Tip: Shave your head before entering zero gravity environments. You’ll feel like Captain Picard (because you’re on a spaceship) combined with the nearly mind-over-body control of Professor Xavier. Plus, you won’t look like a fool on the annual Christmas card. → Read More
In order to better judge the hardware requirements for some ready-made satellites that Skynet Google may or may not be making in the future, Google decided it would be a pretty cool idea to strap a few of its brand-spankin’ new Nexus S phones to some weather balloons, and send them skyward and out into the edges of our atmosphere.
There, the phones met with tiny little aliens, and they discussed… → Read More
Wait a minute, Nasa, developing something great? Did we wake up in the 1960s, back when Nasa actually had a budget to, you know, do things? Either way, this is great news. So, Nasa plans to develop a new type of hypersonic jet that would reduce the flight time from New York to Sydney, which currently takes 21 hours, to two-and-a-half hours. Two-and-a-half! You can’t even drive from New York to… → Read More
Among the many things about living in the year 2010 that blow my mind (robot vacuums, smartphones, Google Books), the fact that we are at the beginning of commercial space flight is, incredibly, not constantly on my mind. Yet advances are constantly being made, most visibly by Virgin Galactic, which just this last week inaugurated the commercial facility for vertically- and horizontally-launching… → Read More
Wisconsonian Craig Smith wrote in to Make to show off his homemade photo setup for taking pictures of planets and such. This really isn’t something you could do without a lot of astronomical and mechanical know-how, but it’s worth admiring. → Read More
Perhaps after Nasa well and truly runs out of money our astronauts should ring up Richard Branson? The British professional rich person says that he plans to launch commercial space travel—space tourism, in other words—within the next 18 months. What do I have to do to be on that first flight? → Read More
Well this stinks. Space Shuttle Discovery is in the closing stages of preparation for its final flight ever. After that I guess American astronauts will have to hitchhike their way into orbit, which is pretty lame, I think you’ll agree. The launch is scheduled for November 1. → Read More
In our childhood years, long before we ever put our hands on CPUs, cell phones, or e-book readers, there were toys and household items that served as the foundation for our future geek obsessions. Maybe you were fascinated by the cockpit of your X-Wing fighter as a child. Maybe you scribbled detailed blueprints for Spiderman’s web shooters during your math class. Maybe you took a wooden kitchen… → Read More
Remember the Robonaut? It’s (he’s?) a joint project between NASA and GM aimed at creating a robot that can perform many of the tasks humans do in space. The funny thing is, though, he’s being sent into space as if he’s a crate of eggs. If this guy is going to stand up to heat, vacuum, and micrometeorites, shouldn’t he be able to handle a rocket launch? When they send… → Read More
Stephen Hawking, perhaps the brightest mind this planet has to offer, says we’re doomed. That is, life on Planet Earth—summers at the beach, winters spent indoors playing World of Warcraft while listening to Paul van Dyk compilations—will come to an end unless we either A) stop being jerks to each other or B) colonize other planets. Woo! → Read More
We reported about the plans last year and again just a few months ago, and now they are getting more concrete: Japan seems to be finally ready to send robots to explore the moon. An advisory panel launched by the Japanese government has spent one year preparing a report that proposes a lunar exploration program that will cost no less than $2.3 billion. → Read More
Lord British, now in space. The Ultima creator has spent $30 million hitching a ride aboard the commercial spacecraft Space Adventures. Bonus: he just won a $28 million settlement. Must be nice. → Read More
Not to alarm you, but we only have 172 years to live, so better ding 80 (soon 85) while you still can. Scientists have spotted an asteroid that, if all goes well (er, bad), will smash right into Planet Earth in the year 2182. → Read More
Maybe on one of these other Earth-like planets the iPhone 4 actually works? I kid, I kid. Scientists have recently discovered some 140 Earth-like planets using the Kepler telescope that launched in January, 2009. Even more exciting than that, scientists now estimate that there could be as many as 100 million (!) planets in our galaxy alone—remember that there’s estimated to be 100 billion… → Read More
This is what I like to see, homebrew space equipment. It’s a spacesuit that was invented by the two gentlemen at Final Frontier Design, one that made its debut at the Eyebeam Center for Art + Technology in New York last week. (Wonder why we weren’t invited?) Besides merely looking neat, it provides all the protection and functionality of a Nasa spacesuit, but only costs about one-fifth of what… → Read More
OK, this is great. It’s an updated version of Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope, and t’s all about Mars. Microsoft spent three years developing this new version of the application, with its engineers put together after studying super high-resolution Nasa photos. The result is, much like Google Earth, you can zoom around the Red Planet, taking in the sights and sounds right from your computer. → Read More
Oh, the joy this photo brings me. It was taken by the European Space Agency’s Planck telescope over the period of a year, and it shows, among other treasures, some of the oldest light in the universe. We’re talking light from right around the time of the Big Bang, light that’s 13.7 billion years old. I dare you to look at this and not be completely amazed. → Read More
The very last Space Shuttle flight will take place on February 26, 2011. After that, American astronauts will have to bum rides with the Russians if they want to visit the International Space Station. Shame. → Read More
You’re looking at the possible future of space flight. It’s known as the Supersonic Green Machine, and the rationale behind it is was to create a spacecraft that minimizes the effect of sonic booms. The craft, designed by Lockheed Martin for Nasa, incorporates what amounts to a spoiler. The “inverted V” should improved airflow over the craft, thereby lessening that destructive boom. → Read More
First off, let me say that neatorama.com could be my favorite URL ever. Moving on… A Massachusetts high school science teacher recently put his three best students on a special assignment. They were told to imagine a world where some sort of spacecraft was hurtling toward Earth, and that it was up to them to figure out how they would record the event while onboard a separate aircraft. As you… → Read More
Interrupting your busy Monday (ha!) with a pretty crazy photo. You know the Northern Lights, Aurora Borealis? Well these are the Southern Lights… as seen from Space! → Read More
The federal government can’t be bothered with space exploration anymore (which is terribly disappointing, by the way), so private industry has to pick up the slack. A company by the name of Bigelow Aerospace plans to put an entire space station in orbit within the next four years. → Read More
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=12292912&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1 Awesome video is awesome? Yes, yes it is. Something smashed into Jupiter a few hours ago, and an amateur astronomer caught the event on video. A similar event happened almost a year ago to the day. → Read More
The Voyager 2 transmission hiccup appears to have been identified. The problem? “A value in a single memory location was changed from a 0 to a 1,” said JPL’s Veronia McGregor. As I’ve said countless times to end users complaining about “computer problems”: computers are all ones and zeroes inside, and who can tell what will happen when a one unexpectedly becomes a zero, or vice versa? Kudos to… → Read More
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