Space

T-Minus: New SpaceX fashion, a Mars mystery, and more

Freethink’s weekly countdown of the biggest space news, featuring new spacesuits, a mission to the dark side of the moon, and more.

Kristin Houser

Three people in astronaut training suits and helmets smiling inside a spacecraft simulation chamber.

Outer Space

Life on Mars, together

Researchers spent two weeks at the Mars Desert Research Station conducting an analog mission for potential future trips to Mars.

Rachel Ornitz | Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics | MIT News

A digital rendering of a martian landscape with rugged, reddish mountains and textured ground under a dark sky.

Outer Space

NASA hopes private space companies can rescue its $11 billion Mars rock mission

If this ambitious NASA mission unraveled, scientists would lose their chance to learn much more about the red planet.

Chris Impey

Aerospace

Want to visit the moon? NASA is accepting astronaut applications

NASA has announced plans to begin accepting applications for its next class of Astronaut Candidates, some of whom may go on to visit the moon or even Mars.

Kristin Houser

Series| Guardians of the Apocalypse

NASA’s plan to stop an asteroid headed for Earth

8:02

In 2013, a small meteor exploded above Chelyabinsk, Russia that sent over 1,200 people to the hospital. Now, NASA has plans to detect Earth-bound asteroids and defend the planet from another large-scale catastrophe.

Outer Space

Closer to the Sun: NASA’s Parker Solar Probe

NASA is getting closer to the sun than ever before with the Parker Solar Probe, leaving researchers excited and bewildered by the data they saw.

B. David Zarley

Extraterrestrials

Is anybody out there?

New breakthroughs in the technology used for exoplanet discovery mean we could find proof for the existence of extraterrestrials in our lifetime.

B. David Zarley

Series| Through the Looking Glass

AR in use: NASA's Dragonfly mission to Titan

3:46

With a keen curiosity to learn more about how life formed on Earth, NASA has plans to send a spacecraft called the Dragonfly to Saturn’s largest moon, and they’re using augmented reality to make it happen.

Robotics

The construction robots building space colonies

Sending construction robots into outer space will help pave the way for human exploration, but there are some real challenges that lie ahead.

Tien Nguyen

Astronomy

What is inside a black hole?

6:15

In partnership with John Templeton Foundation

Rendering the first black hole image was an important milestone. But in many ways, the true value of the project lies in how it created an opportunity for researchers to change the way they explore the world.

Extraterrestrials

How to talk to aliens

Let's imagine aliens exist. You have the extraordinary task of crafting a message that they might conceivably understand. How would you do it? And what would you say? Daniel Oberhaus has a few ideas.

Tien Nguyen

How NASA’s space food lab will feed the farthest journey in history

5:53

These food scientists are making it possible for us to explore space in ways we haven’t yet as a species.

Outer Space

Tiny satellite “constellations” could bring the entire world online

SpaceX is out in front, but the race for global satellite internet is getting crowded.

Daniel Bier

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