Space Flight Archives

November 17, 2024November 17, 2024 by Mark Thompson

What Should Light Sails Be Made Out Of?

The Breakthrough Starshot program aims to cross the immense distances to the nearest star in just decades. Using a high-powered laser to propel a reflective sail technology to relativistic speeds is their mission. The selection of sail material is key to its success as it must be lightweight while being able to withstand acceleration and radiation from the laser. A recent study explores various materials and proposes that core-shell structures—spherical particles composed of two different materials—could be a promising solution.

November 12, 2024November 12, 2024 by Evan Gough

A Spider Stellar Engine Could Move Binary Stars Halfway Across a Galaxy

Illustration of a millisecond pulsar consuming material from a companion star. Pulsars that evaporate their companions rather than consuming them could serve as stellar engines. Credit: NASA / GSFC SVS / Dana Berry

Eventually, every stellar civilization will have to migrate to a different star. The habitable zone around all stars changes as they age. If long-lived technological civilizations are even plausible in our Universe, migration will be necessary, eventually.

Could Extraterrestrial Intelligences (ETIs) use stars themselves as stellar engines in their migrations?

October 28, 2024October 28, 2024 by Evan Gough

Add Astronaut Nutrition to the List of Barriers to Long-Duration Spaceflight

NASA Astronauts Kjell Lindgren (center) and Scott Kelly (right) and Kimiya Yui (left) of Japan consume space grown food for the first time ever, from the Veggie plant growth system on the International Space Station in August 2015. Credit: NASA TV

Though there are no firm plans for a crewed mission to Mars, we all know one’s coming. Astronauts routinely spend months at a time on the ISS, and we’ve learned a lot about the hazards astronauts face on long missions. However, Mars missions can take years, which presents a whole host of problems, including astronaut nutrition.

Nutrition can help astronauts manage spaceflight risks in the ISS, but long-duration missions to Mars are different. There can be no resupply.

August 29, 2024August 29, 2024 by Nancy Atkinson

NASA's New Solar Sail Extends Its Booms and Sets Sail

An artist's concept of NASA's Advanced Composite Solar Sail System spacecraft in orbit as the Sun crests Earth's horizon. Credits: NASA/Aero Animation/Ben Schweighart

Solar sails are an exciting way to travel through the Solar System because they get their propulsion from the Sun. NASA has developed several solar sails, and their newest, the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (or ACS3), launched a few months ago into low-Earth orbit. After testing, NASA reported today that they extended the booms, deploying its 80-square-meter (860 square feet) solar sail. They’ll now use the sail to raise and lower the spacecraft’s orbit, learning more about solar sailing.

“The Sun will continue burning for billions of years, so we have a limitless source of propulsion. Instead of launching massive fuel tanks for future missions, we can launch larger sails that use ‘fuel’ already available,” said Alan Rhodes, the mission’s lead systems engineer at NASA’s Ames Research Center, earlier this year. “We will demonstrate a system that uses this abundant resource to take those next giant steps in exploration and science.”

July 29, 2024July 30, 2024 by Evan Gough

Astronauts’ Muscle Loss Mimics Age-Related Muscle Loss

Researchers grew muscle cells on tiny chips then sent them to the ISS to study them. Researchers hope to develop drugs to help astronauts combat muscle atrophy during space flight. Image Credit: NASA. CC BY-SA

One of the hazards astronauts must contend with is muscle loss. The more time they spend in a microgravity environment, the more muscle loss they suffer. Astronauts use exercise to counter the effects of muscle atrophy, but it’s not a perfect solution. Researchers want to develop drugs to help, and understanding the muscle-loss process in space is a critical first step.

July 24, 2024July 24, 2024 by Evan Gough

The Shelf Life of Many Medications Is Shorter Than A Round Trip To Mars

Color mosaic image of Mars, taken by the HRSC instrument aboard the ESA's Mars Express orbiter. Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Michael)

Check any container of over-the-counter medicine, and you’ll see its expiration date. Prescription medicines have similar lifetimes, and we’re told to discard old medications rather than hold on to them. Most of them lose their effectiveness over time, and some can even become toxic. We’re discouraged from disposing of them in our wastewater because they can find their way into other organisms, sometimes with deleterious effects.

We can replace them relatively easily on Earth, but not on a space mission beyond Low Earth Orbit.

July 18, 2024July 18, 2024 by Evan Gough

The Most Dangerous Part of a Space Mission is Fire

This AI generated image shows a fire spreading in a spacecraft. Researchers are working to understand how fire behaves differently in spacecraft environments so they can protect astronauts. Image Credit: ZARM/ University of Bremen

Astronauts face multiple risks during space flight, such as microgravity and radiation exposure. Microgravity can decrease bone density, and radiation exposure is a carcinogen. However, those are chronic effects.

The biggest risk to astronauts is fire since escape would be difficult on a long mission to Mars or elsewhere beyond Low Earth Orbit. Scientists are researching how fire behaves on spacecraft so astronauts can be protected.

July 16, 2024July 16, 2024 by Evan Gough

Astronauts Struggle To Eat Their Space Food and Scientists Want to Know Why

Researchers in Australia used Virtual Reality to understand why food tastes bland to astronauts. Image Credit: Seamus Daniel, RMIT University. CC BY-SA

Astronauts sometimes struggle to consume enough nutritious food on the ISS because it tastes bland. But astronaut food is of high quality and designed to be palatable and to meet nutrition needs. What’s the problem?

June 14, 2024June 14, 2024 by Evan Gough

Warp Drives Could Generate Gravitational Waves

This artist's illustration shows a spacecraft using an Alcubierre Warp Drive to warp space and 'travel' faster than light. Image Credit: NASA

Will future humans use warp drives to explore the cosmos? We’re in no position to eliminate the possibility. But if our distant descendants ever do, it won’t involve dilithium crystals, and Scottish accents will have evaporated into history by then.

June 1, 2024June 2, 2024 by Alan Boyle

Japanese Billionaire Calls Off His Starship Trip Around the Moon

Illustration: Starship flying over the moon — An artist's conception shows SpaceX's Starship flying over the moon. (Illustration via DearMoon)

Six years after he announced a grand plan to fly around the moon with a crew of artists in SpaceX’s Starship rocket, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa said he was canceling the project due to delays in Starship’s development.

In a series of postings to the X social-media platform, Maezawa said he signed his contract with SpaceX “based on the assumption that dearMoon would launch by the end of 2023.”

“It’s a developmental project, so it is what it is, but it is still uncertain as to when Starship can launch,” he wrote. “I can’t plan my future in this situation, and I feel terrible making the crew members wait longer, hence the difficult decision to cancel at this point in time. I apologize to those who were excited for this project to happen.”