While NASA has plans to possibly send a lander to Europa in the coming years, a new discovery might make touchdown tricky – there’s a chance that large swathes of Europa’s surface are covered in ice spikes almost 50 ft (15 m) high.
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Lockheed Martin has taken the wraps off its vision for a future manned lunar lander that's designed to show how a reusable lander, in conjunction with NASA's planned deep-space orbital outpost, can support an indefinite human presence on the Moon.
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Although it’s basically a sure thing that exomoons are out there, astronomers haven’t been able to spot any – until now. Scientists using NASA’s Hubble and Kepler space telescopes have found evidence of a large moon orbiting a gas giant planet some 8,000 light-years away.
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NASA has laid out a detailed plan of its goals over the next six years and beyond that includes the commercialization of low Earth orbit, the long-term return of US astronauts to the Moon, and testing of technologies for a future manned Mars mission.
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A collaborative research team called MoonMars is developing a simple, versatile way of building off-world habitats using origami. Made of high-performance textiles, the origami bases could be self-assembling and able to reconfigure themselves to meet future needs.
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If Elon Musk’s palms were sweaty during any SpaceX rocket launches of late, just imagine eight famous cultural icons were strapped in for the ride. "We will be doing everything we possibly can to make sure that is a good flight," the CEO said today, and not in a hypothetical sense.
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SpaceX is forging ahead with its plans to launch tourists into space, today announcing that it has signed a contract with an unknown individual who will become the world’s first private passenger to fly around the Moon.
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Following a long drip feed of ambiguities and highly suggestive hints, scientists have confirmed once and for all that the evidence for water on the Moon is rock solid. So how easily will we be able to collect it? And what would we do with it if we could?
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A NASA team has found definitive evidence of water ice at the poles of the Moon. Using data from NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper aboard the Indian Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter, the new discovery indicates that not only is water present on the Moon, but it is readily accessible from the surface.
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ESA researchers are looking at lunar dust as a raw material for making bricks to build habitats for future manned outposts on the Moon. Using "simulants" that mimic the properties of actual Moon dust, the goal is to determine if the gray, fine, rough-edged dust is suitable for making habitats.
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