space exploration

Spacecraft headed to Mars or beyond may harness a new source of propulsion that could refuel almost anywhere in the solar system. Last week, the VASIMR prototype plasma rocket achieved 200 kilowatts of power, the milestone the team was striving for. Now they are beginning development of a flight-capable version, slated for launch in 2013.

NASA’s Messenger spacecraft recently made its third flyby of Mercury, in order to get a gravity boost that will enable it to enter into orbit around Mercury in 2011. Scientists used the close encounter to capture images of Mercury's surface that had never been seen before.

Imagine you’re driving across the Mojave Desert, and somewhere in the middle of absolutely nowhere you realize that the next gas station is further away than your car can travel on its current supply of gasoline. What next? That’s the problem NASA mission planners are facing as the agency's supply of plutonium-238, the fuel used to power deep space probes like Cassini and surface scouts like the upcoming Mars Science Laboratory, are dwindling.

Although science news is often muddied by qualifiers, the news today is clear. After decades of believing that the moon was a dry, dusty wasteland, we now know that there is water on the moon's surface. This discovery means that colonizing the moon could be a bit easier, since water could be used to produce oxygen and fuel, not to mention a delicious glass of refreshment.

The Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) on the Indian lunar satellite Chandrayaan-1, which stopped operating last month, detected water by analysing the way that light from the sun reflects off the lunar surface. Light is reflected in different wavelengths off of different minerals, and the researchers detected wavelengths of reflected light that would indicate water is present. Similar instruments were also present on Deep Impact which went past the moon in June and the NASA's Cassini probe which passed the moon ten years ago, and both have confirmed the finding.

To anyone who's ever pondered what urine looks like in space -- c'mon, don't be shy -- we say: wonder no more, because photos of the phenomenon have finally hit the internet.

Last Wednesday, a number of skygazers were lucky to sight a mysterious flare in the night sky, that, as it now turns out, was a 150-pound cocktail of astronaut urine and waste water released from the shuttle Discovery.

Packing for space missions has always faced weight limitations due to fuel costs. But NASA's successful test of an inflatable heat shield signals a way forward for future spacecraft to reenter Earth's atmosphere, and maybe even land heavier loads on Mars.

One the major differences between visiting the moon and staying on the moon involves resupply. In fact, the prospect of constantly hauling water and oxygen to the moon is so daunting that NASA offered a million dollars to the first lab that could extract 11 pounds of oxygen from a simulated pile of moon rocks.

Well, it seems like scientists at the University of Cambridge may want to start thinking about how they're going to spend their million.

Get ready for the greenest federal building ever built, and maybe also the smartest. NASA plans to channel decades of space exploration technology into its upcoming Sustainability Base in California.

China's future astronauts can't have bad breath, cavities, or scars if they hope to join the next wave of Chinese space exploration. Hospitals have begun the first of three rounds of tests to weed out candidates who fail to meet the rigorous standards.

Former NASA administrator Mike Griffin once likened himself to Spock in his rational, emotionally-detached approach. Now Griffin's replacement, Charles Bolden, seems ready to inject new passion into a space agency that is struggling to reevaluate both long term goals and its vision for space exploration.

When it comes to space, what goes up must be sturdy, safe and secure if it's to live very long. Satellites must survive the bone-rattling jostle and pressure of launch, and once they reach orbit, they've got to weather the vast temperature changes they experience with every sunrise and sunset. Their skins must be thick enough to survive pummeling by micro-debris, and they'd better have trusty gyroscopes to be able to change directions or keep their balance.