Space exploration
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We have to cut the 47-year-old space veteran some slack – it's faring much better than our 2019 laptops – but Voyager 1's five months of communicating nonsense to Earth may be over, thanks to Mission Control's 15-billion-mile remote IT fix.
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Apple TV+ has clearly invested in top-shelf science fiction as a defining pillar of its offering – and overall, it's put together an impressive slate. From outright successes to grand artistic swing 'n' misses, here's our ranking, worst to best.
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A three-legged robot could one day be hopping across the surface of asteroids, searching for valuable minerals. Known as the SpaceHopper, the bot was recently put to the test on a zero-gravity aircraft flight.
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Thanks to Albert Einstein, the US Government wants to establish an official time zone for the Moon. It has less to do with jet lag and more to do with how gravity affects time and can throw a lot of very precise technologies seriously off track.
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A spacecraft about the size of a gas pump is being developed for the US Space Force program to refuel orbiting satellites. The goal is to extend the lifespan of craft that have run out of juice instead of simply decommissioning them.
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NASA has selected three companies to develop extreme off-road vehicles that astronauts will drive on the Moon during Artemis missions starting in 2030, awarding US$4.6 billion in contracts to Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost and Venturi Astrolab.
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Rocket science got a bit more science-fiction-like as RocketStar announces it has successfully demonstrated a new ion drive that incorporates nuclear fusion. It's not the sort of fusion that powers the Sun, but it does improve thrust by 50%.
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A giant quantum vortex has been created in superfluid helium in a lab at the University of Nottingham. Its behavior was found to mimic that of black holes and may help astrophysicists gain deeper insight into these galactic gravity gobblers.
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A revolutionary alternative to conventional rockets that uses controlled explosions has completed its first long-duration engine test as part of Venus Aerospace's partnership with DARPA to develop a Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine.
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Data from NASA's Juno Jupiter orbiter suggests that the Jovian moon Europa produces about 26 lb/s (12 kg/s) of oxygen or almost 100 times less than previously estimated. This changes the probability of life being found in the moon's subterranean ocean.
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As the Odysseus Moon lander faces its final hours, there's one final twist in the saga: The spacecraft broke one of its legs on landing, thanks to a cascade of mistakes that began back on Earth, when a safety switch wasn't flicked on prior to launch.
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Beating incredible odds, Japan's SLIM lunar lander came back to life after surviving the intense dark and cold of the Moon's night. On February 25, JAXA confirmed that it had temporarily reestablished communications with the robotic spacecraft.
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