Space Exploration

Recent Articles

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  Could We Send a Spacecraft to a Black Hole?

  By Andy Tomaswick - July 25, 2026

  Black holes represent some of the most extreme environments in the universe. They’re the sources of the strongest consistent gravitational fields, which allows us to test Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity to an extent that’s impossible with small objects. But we’re also reaching our limit of what we can learn about one remotely. So various authors have put forward ideas for how we might eventually send a probe directly to a black hole to observe it up close. One of the most vocal of those authors is Cosimo Bambi of Fudan University in Shanghai - and he recently released a paper, available in pre-print on arXiv, about what it would take for us to send a gram-size probe to a nearby black hole.

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  How the American Public Really Feels About the Booming Space Economy in 2026

  By Andy Tomaswick - July 24, 2026

  In democracies, opinion polls are one of the most common ways to measure public and therefore political support for an issue. Because space exploration is still closely tied to the government policy and funding, public opinion can play an important role in shaping America’s space priorities. In May 2026, Global Strategy Group (GSG) surveyed 1,000 U.S. voters and found broad support for space exploration. The report, [The Next Frontier: Public Attitudes Towards Space and the Space Economy](https://globalstrategygroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/GSGs-The-Next-Fronter-Public-Attitudes-Toward-Space-and-the-Space-Economy.pdf), reveals an electorate that is enthusiastic about a future beyond Earth, but views it through a practical, Earth-focused lens.

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  Electrically Charged Mars Storms Threaten Future Exploration

  By Laurence Tognetti, MSc - July 22, 2026

  Martian dust storms are some of the most fascinating and mysterious planetary surface processes ever observed, as Earth, Mars, and Saturn’s moon Titan are the only known planetary bodies to have active dust storms. However, the major difference for Mars is its dust storms can blanket the entire planet at once, resulting in the surface becoming completely unobservable and blocking out sunlight, with the scientific community concerned this might hinder robotic, and even human, space exploration. But what if covering the surface and blocking sunlight wasn’t the only issue Martian global dust storms pose for future missions?

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  Scientists are Teaching Shrimp to Eat in Microgravity for Future Moon Bases

  By Andy Tomaswick - July 17, 2026

  As far as we know, food doesn’t exist naturally in space. We have to bring it with us if we want to explore the final frontier. One of the oldest and most common types of food on planet Earth is seafood, yet we know surprisingly little about how aquatic animals would react to the microgravity environment they would experience in space. A new paper by researchers at Japan’s Okayama University of Science, which was recently published in Microgravity Science and Technology, hopes to tackle that question. It used a novel way to simulate microgravity to watch how crustaceans would react to the space environment, and found that they could likely be good candidates as part of a future space food chain.

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  Rebooting a Spacecraft, 140 Million Kilometres From Home.

  By Mark Thompson - July 13, 2026

  Engineers have just upgraded the software running a spacecraft 140 million kilometres away, then held their breath through two full reboots with an eight minute delay on every command. The prize for getting it right is a close up look at an asteroid humanity has already changed forever, and the answer to a question nobody has been able to answer since 2022, what did we actually do to it?

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  China Successfully Tests Reusable Long March-10B

  By Matthew Williams - July 12, 2026

  On Friday, July 10th, China achieved a major milestone as its Long March-10B completed a its maiden test flight, which included the retrieval of its first stage booster.

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  Wally Funk, Aviation Pioneer and Oldest Woman to Travel to Space, Dies at 87

  By Matthew Williams - July 11, 2026

  Wally Funk, an aviation pioneer who was the oldest woman to launch into space, has died. She was 87.

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  Could Permanent Magnets Protect Astronauts from Solar Storms?

  By Andy Tomaswick - July 09, 2026

  Shielding astronauts from the killer radiation they face is a central challenge facing any designer of a deep-space crewed mission. Even relatively low levels of exposure for long periods of time can lead to everything from central nervous system damage to cancer. But current solutions, such as passive water shells or active superconducting magnets, have their own limitations. To get around those, a new paper, available in pre-print on arXiv by Valerio Parisi and a team of researchers from Italy and Germany, looks at the feasibility of using a permanent magnet (and its associated permanent magnetic field) to potentially block some of that deadly radiation without the costs of competing technologies.

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  NASA Is Calling on Industry to Build Its Lunar Infrastructure

  By Andy Tomaswick - July 09, 2026

  NASA is serious about going back to the Moon. Ongoing missions like the recently completed Artemis II trip around the Moon are just one such sign. But perhaps more importantly, NASA is recognizing how much additional work will have to go into funding technology development if we hope to stay on the lunar surface permanently. To reflect that understanding, the agency recently released a request for public feedback on what it calls the Lunar Enabling Infrastructure Accelerator - which might have been named after a Star Wars fan, since its acronym is LEIA.

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  University Team Proposed Retractable, Pressurized Tunnels for Missions to Mars

  By Matthew Williams - July 06, 2026

  As part of NASA's Moon to Mars eXploration Systems and Habitation (M2M X-Hab) 2026 Academic Innovation Challenge, a University of Michigan team proposed an actuated, pressurized tunnel system that would save countless hours of work and preparation by connecting the astronaut's habitat with other surface elements.

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  A New Net-Membrane Could Clean Up Some Tricky Space Debris

  By Andy Tomaswick - July 06, 2026

  We’ve reported on all kinds of wacky ideas for capturing and deorbiting space debris safely. From electric tethers to lasers, engineers and scientists have been trying everything they can think of to deal with the ever-increasing orbital debris problem. But one simple design keeps popping up over and over again - a net. A new paper from researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China details one of the most advanced net concepts yet - but whether we can actually build one remains to be seen.

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  In Anticipation of New Horizons Entering Interstellar Space, Researchers are Developing a Solar Wind Forecasting Method

  By Matthew Williams - July 04, 2026

  Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) scientists are using a solar wind forecasting method combined with analytic and numerical heliosphere models to find out where the first plasma boundary of the outer heliosphere lies as NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft hurtles toward this mysterious region of space.

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  The Quiet Conversation Between Muscle and Gravity, and What Happens When It Stops

  By Mark Thompson - July 01, 2026

  Every muscle in the human body is, in a sense, in constant conversation with gravity, sensing load and responding accordingly to stay strong. Remove that conversation, as happens to astronauts in orbit, and the consequences unfold at a molecular level long before they become visible. New NASA-supported research is tracing exactly how that breakdown happens, using a purpose-built model that mimics weightlessness here on Earth. The surprising twist is where else this knowledge might apply

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  Weaving the Future of Space Suits

  By Andy Tomaswick - June 30, 2026

  The famous opening scene of the Martian has Mark Watney stabbed in the torso with a communications antenna. While this accident sets up the plot for what is widely regarded as a modern classic of sci-fi storytelling, what if he was wearing a space suit that would have stopped the impact altogether? That’s the idea behind a recent NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I program run by researchers from Materials Research & Design, Fiber Materials, Inc, and NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Their work, which was recently presented at the National Space & Missile Materials Symposium, showcased a type of advanced 3D-reinforced fabric that could have saved Watney and his compatriots a whole lot of trouble.

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  How NASA Taught Four Astronauts to Read the Moon

  By Mark Thompson - June 26, 2026

  When Artemis II swept around the far side of the Moon this April, carrying the first humans beyond Earth orbit in more than fifty years, NASA had prepared its four astronauts for something more than flying the spacecraft. It had trained them to see. Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen spent two years learning to read the Moon like field geologists, hunting through impact rocks in Labrador and volcanic ash in Iceland, so that when they finally gazed down on the terrain, they could describe its colours, shadows and history with a scientist's judgement. It’s a quiet revolution in what we send astronauts to the Moon to do, and a glimpse of how the next explorers will work when they finally land.

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  Beyond Fermi's Paradox XVIII: What if We Make Contact?

  By Matthew Williams - June 25, 2026

  Welcome to the final installment in the Fermi series, where we look at the impact that making contact with extraterrestrials could have and the rules governing how such an event should be treated.

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  Ariane 6 Sets New Record for Europe with More Powerful Boosters

  By Matthew Williams - June 23, 2026

  On 17 June at 09:21 local time (13:21 BST, 14:21 CEST) Ariane 6 flight VA269 soared to orbit from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. 36 satellites for Amazon’s Leo constellation were placed into their orbit just over an hour after liftoff – the eighth successful mission insertion in a row for Europe’s newest rocket.

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  Using Plants, Astronauts Could Create Their Own Medicine

  By Matthew Williams - June 19, 2026

  A new pharmaceutical production method could allow astronauts on long space missions to "grow" fresh medicines on demand using plants. The work could also bring low-cost pharmaceutical production to resource-limited areas on Earth.

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  Future Martian Colonists Will Need a New Relativistic Clock

  By Andy Tomaswick - June 16, 2026

  We think of atomic clocks as the definitive timekeepers. They are famous for being accurate down to the picosecond. Unfortunately, they are still subject to general relativity, so if you put them on a different planet, they will track time slightly faster or slower than on Earth, depending on the planet’s gravity. In Mars’ case, an atomic clock on its surface is sitting in a slightly shallower gravity well, meaning that time moves slightly faster there. Therefore, as we begin to expand our technological footprint on the Red Planet, we will need a way to standardize how time is measured there. Dr. Slava Turyshev, a researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, proposes just such a framework in a new paper available in pre-print on arXiv.

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  New Study Assesses Titan's Resources and their Potential Uses

  By Matthew Williams - June 15, 2026

  In a recent NASA-supported study, researchers assessed Titan's resource base and how it could be leveraged for ISRU. Compared with other locations under study (the Moon, Mars, etc.), they concluded that there is unrivaled potential for human exploration and settlement.