space stories

Will we need to mine asteroids to support our gadget addiction?

Monday, July 19, 2010 - 7:47am
 
Gadgets are a hot commodity these days, with everyone owning at least one computer and one cellphone, not to mention things like iPads, video game systems and other such devices. But all of them require platinum, an extremely rare metal. And you know where platinum is plentiful? In asteroids.

NASA satellite blinded by largest burst of gamma rays ever

Friday, July 16, 2010 - 12:49pm
 
A gamma-ray burst from a star that collapsed to form a black hole long before our sun and planets formed overwhelmed NASA's orbiting Swift observatory, temporarily blinding it. The explosion from the flare-up, known as GRB 100621A, reached Earth on June 21, and its light was 140 times brighter than the brightest steady source of X-rays, a neutron star 500,000 times closer to Earth.

NASA hands down a secret mission to… three high schoolers?

Kevin Hall
Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - 4:11am
 
It's the kind of story that every kid dreams up: a school project turns out to be a secret mission from an agency such as NASA, and all of a sudden it's up to the youngster to solve it. That's exactly how it played out for three high school students in Massachusetts, who, it turns out, were helping NASA solve quite the conundrum.

Japan tests the world's first solar sail spacecraft in orbit

Kevin Hall
Friday, June 11, 2010 - 12:39pm
 
The Ikaros, launched back on May 21st, is safely in orbit and today Japan's space agency reports that the craft's solar sails are fully extended. The Ikaros's claim to fame is that it'll use only the sun to propel itself and continuously generate power, making it an ideal candidate for deep space missions.

Coming solar storms could wreck technology worldwide

Thursday, June 10, 2010 - 8:13am
 
Uh oh. "The Sun is waking up from a deep slumber," NASA 's Richard Fisher says. It looks like old Sol is going to be in a cranky mood when it becomes fully awake, ready to wreak havoc on gadgets across the globe. Could this be the 2012 disaster superstitious fraidy-cats are babbling about?

Aerospace company plans TWO private space stations by 2016

Kevin Hall
Tuesday, June 8, 2010 - 2:25pm
 
Bigelow Aerospace is looking to get in on this whole privatized space game with an ambitious plan. The company wants to have not one but two space stations in orbit by 2016, which will then serve as rental space for countries that can't afford such programs of their own. This is why private companies may be better than NASA in space: they aim to turn a profit.

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