Space

Man-and-woman Mars trip by 2018? Can you say 'couples counseling'?

A wealthy space tourist announced plans today to launch a high-risk manned flight to Mars in 2018, sending a man and a woman on a bare-bones 501-day round-trip flyby, passing just 100 miles above the Red Planet before heading back to Earth.

Dennis Tito, the first private citizen to fly aboard the International Space Station, said he will provide two years of funding to support the Inspiration Mars Foundation, a nonprofit he started to execute the proposed venture. Additional money will be raised from private sources.

"We have 50 years of experience," he told reporters during a news conference. "We can do things a lot faster, we just need a commitment. I'm not worried about getting this done from that standpoint. The vehicles are there, we have time to get it together."… Read more

Canada orbits suitcase-size camera to hunt asteroids

Aside from giant laser beams, can eyes in the sky help save us from asteroid hits?

Canada thinks so, and it has launched a space telescope to track hazardous objects including asteroids, space junk, and satellites.

The Near-Earth Object Surveillance Satellite (NEOSSat) was launched from an Indian rocket this week as the first dedicated space-based sentinel of its kind.

Managed by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), NEOSSat is about the size of a suitcase and orbits some 500 miles above Earth, circling every 100 minutes. … Read more

Google Nexus fired into space to see if screams are audible

One of the all-time best sci-fi film taglines is to be put to the test. Is it true that "in space no one can hear you scream"?

You could survive exposure to the hard vacuum of space for several seconds, long enough to attempt a yell or yodel. After that, however, bad things will happen.

But thanks to some British boffins at the University of Surrey's Surrey Space Centre and Surrey Satellite Technology, humanity doesn't need to test the "Alien" tagline firsthand. They've launched a satellite into orbit equipped with a screaming smartphone. … Read more

Trekkies conquer contest to name Pluto moons

Earlier this month, astronomer Mark Showalter and the SETI Institute asked the Internet to help name two Plutonian moons. The results are in after 450,324 votes from around the world on the Web site Pluto Rocks.

Pending authorization from the International Astronomical Union, the new names for Pluto's smallest moons -- currently called P4 and P5 -- could end up changing to Cerberus and Vulcan.… Read more

Mars, the Red Planet, is actually pretty drab underneath

Mars has established a pretty pervasive image for itself. It's the big Red Planet. It's the Clifford the Dog of space. You don't confuse it with all those other, less glamorous, planets. Still, Mars isn't all that it seems. Scratch the surface and it appears to have more in common with the skin tone of an elephant than the ruddy glow of a tomato.

The Curiosity Rover recently broke new ground by drilling into a rock sample, the first time such an activity has been accomplished on a planet other than Earth. What lay beneath wasn't the familiar rust color of the surface, but a decidedly dull gray.… Read more

New titleholders to vye for crown of fastest spacecraft ever

Of all the spacecraft humans have launched, there have been some impressively fast movers. But which holds the record?

It's not an entirely idle question. Apart from the wow factor, it's an interesting yardstick for gauging our capacity to explore the cosmos, from familiar planets to the icy depths of space.

However, as I quickly discovered in writing this post, it's not always an easy quantity to evaluate. For one thing, launch velocities differ from eventual cruise velocities. And fancy interplanetary maneuvers like the " gravity assist" can provide temporary speed boosts that have to be … Read more

Mystery mission of the X-37B now two months old

It's now been a couple of months since the U.S. Air Force's X-37B space plane lifted into orbit amid the expected shroud of secrecy. What's remarkable about this third classified mission in the X-37B program is how little the public knows about it. We don't know how long the craft is supposed to orbit the Earth, and we don't know the mission's objectives. The unmanned space plane ventured into orbit twice before on hush-hush missions for the Air Force. One tidbit that is known: the craft now in Earth orbit was also used … Read more

Watch: How to make a peanut butter sandwich in space

Everything is more interesting in space. Even the lowly peanut butter sandwich becomes fascinating when the person making it is an astronaut and the "kitchen" is the International Space Station.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield takes you on a culinary tour of the cosmos in this simple and entertaining video.… Read more

Spacecraft watch perfect for Imperial officers

I'm not sure, but I think I saw one of these for sale in Mos Eisley.

If you thought RJ-Romain Jerome's DeLorean watch was a nice if pricey testament to your retro cred, its new Spacecraft timepiece is another sleek throwback, but for more than double the price.

The luxury brand announced a limited set of 99 of these old-school science fiction timepieces, each priced at $33,400. How many Galactic Standard Credits is that?

In looks and function, this "pilot's watch" is a bit like one of those puzzling Tokyoflash Kisai pieces, but it'… Read more