Space Exploration Technologies
A Robot With Expandable Appendages Could Explore Martian Caves And Cliffs
Plenty of areas in the solar system are interesting for scientific purposes but hard to access by traditional rovers. Some…
Could Puncturing A Satellite’s Battery Help It Deorbit Faster?
A few years ago, there was a panic about lithium-ion batteries that exploded and could do things like take down…
An Improved Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator Could Dramatically Reduce The Weight Of Interplanetary Missions
Radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) are the power plants of the interplanetary spacecraft. Or at least they have been for going…
Graphene Could Be A Game Changing Material In Space – With A Bit More Research
Graphene has long been put forward as a wonder material. Undeniably, it has astounding properties - stronger than steel, a…
A Rocket-Powered Spaceplane Completes a Successful Test Flight
Access to space is getting easier and more accessible as more and more platforms are coming online that can significantly…
Tiny Spacecraft Using Solar Sails Open Up a Solar System of Opportunity
Some parts of the solar system are exceptionally hard to reach. Despite the interesting scientific data we could collect from…
The State of Suborbital Space Science
Think there's nothing to learn through suborbital flight and that space science is only done in orbit? Think again. Recently,…
Exploring Lava Tubes on Other Worlds Will Need Rovers That Can Work Together
Planetary exploration, specifically within our own Solar System, has provided a lifetime of scientific knowledge about the many worlds beyond…
Exploring the Outer Solar System Takes Power, Here’s a Way to Miniaturize Nuclear Batteries for Deep Space
As science and technology advance, we're asking our space missions to deliver more and more results. NASA's MSL Curiosity and…
Want to Colonize Space? Unleash the Power of Microbes
If space colonization is in our future, we'll have to use the resources available there. But we won't be able…