A NASA NIAC project will try to Mapping Alien Continents using formation-flying optical interferometer. Two hierarchical nullers ~100 km apart that first suppress the host star by ~10¹⁰ in visible light, then combine the leftover planet light as a Michelson interferometer. That baseline gives an angular resolution of order 1 µas at 500 nm. An …
NASA Advanced innovation study will try to enable the next generation of solar sails featuring very high characteristic acceleration–potentially up to 2 mm/s²–and large effective areas exceeding 10,000 m², to support future ultra–high delta-V missions. These advanced solar sails would significantly transform space exploration and utilization, making possible a range of missions currently beyond the …
SpaceX can achieve daily flight turnaround even with imperfect tiles. The shuttle’s problem was not just that the tiles were expensive. But one bad tile would cause loss of the vehicle. SpaceX Starship metal structure and ablative layers means a single lost tile in most places does not lose the ship. Starship tolerant to losing …
Starfall is explicitly designed for mass production (like Starlink satellites), so unit costs drop sharply with volume. It is tiny compared to a Starship upper stage (~2.1 t dry mass vs. ~85–100 t), with far simpler systems (no main propulsion, parachute landing, jettisonable shield). Here is a realistic BOM (Bill of Materials) breakdown and cost …
The NASA planned 2028 nuclear powered ion drive spacecraft, SR-1 Freedom will have a 20 kilowatt nuclear reactor. SR-1 Freedom will use 20-plus kilowatt fission reactor fueled by High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium and Uranium Dioxide, encased in a Boron Carbide Radiation Shield. This will power a xenon ion drive. Previous nuclear spacecraft designs involved more powerful …
Imaging earth like exoplanets around Sun-like stars from the ground is challenging. We have never done it and here is an advance that could make it possible. A Nature paper predicts the performance of a hybrid space–ground approach that combines a large ground-based telescope, such as the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), the Thirty Meter Telescope …
The first flyby images of the Moon captured by NASA’s Artemis II astronauts during their historic test flight reveal some regions no human has seen, including a rare in-space solar eclipse. During the lunar flyby, the crew documented impact craters, ancient lava flows, and surface fractures that will help scientists study the Moon’s geologic evolution. …
Orion is more than two-thirds of the way to the Moon, traveling at high speed and breaking the Apollo 13 distance record (about 248,655 miles from Earth). It will enter the Moon’s sphere of influence early on April 6. A lunar flyby will happen Monday, April 6, 2026 at about 2:45–9:40 p.m. EDT . Orion …
Blue Origin has several NASA missions, AST Space Mobile and Amazon LEO satellite launches planned. The plan is for four launches of New Glenn in 2026. There is an upcoming NG-3 for AST Space Mobile and then three launches. An Amazon LEO mission, a NASA moon mission and then another AST Space Mobile mission. Brian …
Thursday, NASA’s Orion spacecraft fired its main engine for five minutes and 50 seconds beginning at 7:49 p.m. EDT, to successfully complete the translunar injection (TLI) burn, sending the crew in Orion out of Earth orbit and on a trajectory toward the Moon. Congratulations to NASA for what has been a broadly successful mission so …
The NASA Lunar Gateway program was cancelled but pieces of it will be used for the early parts of the moonbase and as part of the nuclear mission to Mars. NASA wants to fly two crewed missions to the moon every year. Japan is helping to build a large 15 ton lunar rover that will …