Top space news #7 2015: Mars is our next step
This week it’s all about Mars. We have discussions on how to get there, a NASA video showing off a spacesuit design for Mars and an interview with three people intending to die there. Also a photo of the Martian polar ice cap that appears as if it’s made out of ice-cream.
Europa is in the news again with suggestions for sending a private mission and a design for a submarine to explore its oceans. The moon’s sub-surface oceans that could potentially, maybe, possibly harbour life… but we won’t know, unless we go… or send a clever submersible robot.
New Horizons is now close enough to Pluto to clearly see it wobble as Charon spins around it. These two are a binary system because they orbit each other.
Last of all, an awesome movie trailer for Star Wars vs Star Trek. I’d pay to see that!
Spaceflight
- ALASA space launch system turns airports into spaceports
- European space cargo ship’s fiery demise [Video]
- Next stop: Mars. [Video]
- New NASA Spacesuit [Video]
- Plasma thrusters can leave our Solar System
- US Concerned by China & Russia space capabilities
- SpaceX mission to captured in amazing photos
The Solar System
- Rosetta’s Comet Really “Blows Up”
- Details of Titan submarine concept
- Mysteries of Earth’s core unlocked
- Known Near-Earth asteroids double since 2010
- Cosmic Cappuccino: Delicious Swirls in Mars’ South Pole [Image]
- Mars is the Next Step for Humanity
- Let’s Send a Private Mission to Europa
- A ‘Gold Rush’ on the Moon?
- Pluto and Charon are a double planet
- Lunar dust is toxic stuff
- The Sun Will Far Outlive Earth
- Three People Who Intend to Die on Mars
- Does Charon Harbor a Buried Ocean?
Exoplanets
- Planets orbiting red dwarfs may have Life
- Icy worlds might be alive on the inside
- Overcoming tidal lock around lower mass stars
- 250 Years of Planetary Detection in 60 Seconds
- ‘Mirage Planets’ complicate search for life
The Universe
- Two white dwarfs on collision course
- Rogue hypervelocity stars
- Dark matter may be an unknown particle
- Astronomy in the era of large surveys [Video]
- Exploring the antennae [Image]
- “Interstellar” science team makes real-world discoveries
Everything else
- How did multicellular life evolve?
- The whole space economy [Infographic]
- LEGO Death Star installation captured by drones
- Star Wars/Star Trek mashup is the best thing in the galaxy [Video]
A very complicated plot…