Missions

Final Construction Starts for Europe’s 2016 Methane Sniffing Mars Mission

June 18, 2013

Want to stay on top of all the space news? Follow @universetoday on Twitter Has life ever existed on Mars? Or anywhere beyond Earth? Answering that question is one of the most profound scientific inquiries of our time. Europe and Russia have teamed up for a bold venture named ExoMars that’s set to blast off [...]

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The Epitome of Cool: Neil Armstrong and David Scott, 1966

June 13, 2013

So, you’ve just endured a harrowing experience where your orbiting spacecraft has gone wildly out of control. You somehow — while undergoing the incredible, vertigo-inducing G-forces of your spinning spacecraft — figure out a plan, undock your spacecraft from another spacecraft and abort your original mission. Six and a half orbits and ten hours and [...]

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The Most Unique Eclipse Image You’ll Ever See

June 12, 2013

You’ve probably never before seen an image like the one above. That’s because it is the first time something like this has ever been created, and it is only possible thanks to two fairly recent NASA missions, the Solar Dynamics Observatory and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. We’ve shared previously how two or three times a [...]

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Plastic Protection Against Cosmic Rays?

June 12, 2013

It could work, say researchers from the University of New Hampshire and the Southwest Research Institute. One of the inherent dangers of space travel and long-term exploration missions beyond Earth is the constant barrage of radiation, both from our own Sun and in the form of high-energy particles originating from outside the Solar System called cosmic [...]

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Human Voyages to Mars Pose Higher Cancer Risks

June 2, 2013

New measurements of the energetic space radiation environment present in interplanetary space taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover confirm what has long been suspected – that lengthy years long voyages by astronauts to deep space destinations like Mars will expose the crews to high levels of radiation that – left unchecked – would be harmful to [...]

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