Category: Space

As reported on Engadget. BY MARIELLA MOON Now that we’re this close to sending humans to Mars, NASA thought it best to start preparing for one of its biggest goals: deep space exploration. Three NASA Ames Research Center studies that aim to explore the effects of deep space exploration on astronauts’ health just got a total of $17 million in funding. One of the proposals is looking for ways to mitigate spatial disorientation after a lengthy space flight, while another will…

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As reported on The Verge. By Adrianne Jeffries Last month, NASA asked people to vote for their favorite out of three possible designs for the outer shell of its Z-2 spacesuit. The winner has just been announced: 63 percent of voters felt very strongly about the aqua-blue enhanced “technology” design, which resembles the costumes in the classic sci-fi movie Tron. The designs weren’t that different, mostly varying in color scheme. All featured electroluminescent trim and geometric chest emblems. The…

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As reported on The Verge. By Andrew Webster The wildly popular strategy game series finally leaves Earth Civilization is setting its sights on the stars. After years of building epic strategy games that follow the course of human history, developer Firaxis Games is taking the next entry in the series into the future with Civilization: Beyond Earth, slated to launch later this year. It’s a game that follows a similar path to its predecessors, putting you in charge…

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As reported on Engadget. BY MARIELLA MOON NASA’s Morpheus lander has gone a long way since it crashed and burned in 2012. The agency’s vertical landing and takeoff test vehicle now has a number of successful flights under its belt, including one that’s just concluded at the Kennedy Space Center. On this most recent flight, the lander easily traversed 1,300 feet at a speed of 36mph for 98 seconds, proving that it has a future in delivering cargo to space.…

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As reported on Engadget. BY MARIELLA MOON For the first and perhaps the last time ever, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, whose mission is to orbit Saturn, has captured a new moon emerge from the Jovian planet’s rings. As you might know, the birth of a moon is an extremely rare event, and in Saturn’s case, it might never happen again. You see, there’s a theory that the sixth planet from the sun used to have a much larger…

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As reported on Engadget. BY MARIELLA MOON Looks like NASA wants to add more zing to its futuristic Z-series spacesuits, because the agency just revealed three far-out outer shell designs for the newest prototype. The new model (called the Z-2) is a follow-up to NASA’s Buzz Lightyear-esque Z-1 spacesuit prototype, which was named one of Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2012. There are several differences between the two, including the quality of their upper torsos: while the Z-1’s is soft, the Z-2’s…

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As reported on Wired. BY ADAM MANN The detector inside the BICEP2 telescope that found primordial B-mode polarization in the cosmic microwave background. Image: Anthony Turner (JPL)   The physics world was on fire yesterday after an announcement that astronomers had detected a signal from the beginning of time. This is exactly as cool as it sounds. Maybe even cooler. And it might lead to us learning further crazy things about our universe. Besides coming as a shock…

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