Ah, the things we do for the sake of scientific inquiry. These volunteers for the European Space Agency just got out of bed for the first time in 21 days. To examine the effects of spaceflight on astronauts' bodies, the "pillownauts" laid at a 6 degree angle with theirfeet upin a medical facility in Toulouse, France while scientists poked and prodded them for three weeks.
The European Space Agency's XMM-Newton space telescope has been in orbit since 1999, and it's constantly collecting information, even when it's just adjusting its position. This picture, a composite of more than 73,000 images, shows what happens when the telescope moves across the sky as it focuses its attentions from one object to another, leaving a slew of x-ray data in its path.
Mining is incredibly dangerous for lots of reasons, but simple fatigue is the worst - after long shifts operating heavy equipment, it's easier to make a mistake. Sixty-five percent of mining accidents are caused by fatigue. The European Space Agency has a solution, using satellites and gyroscopes designed for space.
Electric solar sails use long metal tethers that conduct electricity and interact with solar wind ions and propel a spacecraft. Invented in 2006, the technology could allow us to sail through space cheaper and faster than ever before: One day, the European Union's ESAIL project could take us to Pluto in as little as five years.
In 2011, the European Space Agency launched Earth's weirdest creature, the tardigrade, into orbit for twelve days on an unmanned spacecraft. And I mean on the spacecraft - scientists attached the organisms to the outside of the rocket to test just how alien-like the very alien-looking tardigrade is.
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