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Freelance science and technology journalist, specializing in space.
Everyone loves a beautiful space image, and it seems like every week there's a stunning new visual for us to marvel at, from Hubble photographs of distant nebulae to the entire universe imaged in the X-ray wavelength. But how do scientists get from a bunch of ones and zeros captured by a telescope to the images we love and admire?
When NASA launches the Perseverance rover on its trip to Mars this week, it will have a companion tucked next to it in the Atlas V rocket's nose cone: A helicopter called Ingenuity, which is set to become the first rotorcraft ever to fly on another planet.
In recent years, we have discovered an astonishing array of planets outside our own solar system. In addition to those that are potentially habitable, we've also found exoplanets that are hotter than stars, have iron rain and yellow skies, and that have the density of cotton candy.
NASA recently announced that it would be renaming its headquarters in Washington, D.C. after Mary W. Jackson, the trailblazing first Black female engineer at the space agency made famous by the film Hidden Figures. Current NASA staff say that she remains an inspiration in both the day-to-day operations and the broader overarching goals of the agency.
Elon Musk often talks about getting a SpaceX Starship ready for a manned mission to Mars within a decade, with a first launch of the craft as early as next year. But as intimidating as sending humans to another planet for the first time may be, getting there is only half the challenge.
When NASA's Perseverance rover launches this summer, it will face one of the most ambitious missions in any space exploration project to date: To search for evidence of life on Mars. If there ever was life on Mars, there almost certainly isn't now - so how do you go about hunting for evidence of something billions of years old on another planet?
In humanity's quest to explore Mars, getting there is only half of the battle. To keep astronauts safe while they explore the planet, we'll need sophisticated habitats, life support systems, and communications. We'll also need a new type of spacesuit.
Later this month, two NASA astronauts will enter the brand new SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and be launched into orbit. This final test flight of the capsule will mark the first time that American astronauts will launch from American soil since the shuttering of the Space Shuttle program in 2011. We spoke to one of the two astronauts who will be on board, NASA’s Doug Hurley, about what the mission means for the future of human space exploration.
A few months from now, a pair of Danish architects will travel to the Arctic and lock themselves in a 600-cubic foot isolation pod (roughly the size of a two-car garage) for three months. Why? Believe it or not, they're not doing this to escape the coronavirus. They're doing it for science.
When it comes to space missions, we normally think about the challenges in terms of technological developments. But if we ever hope to send a manned mission to Mars, then we're going to have to confront not only our technological but also our psychological limitations.
From NASA's Moon to Mars program to Elon Musk's ambitious plan to send a million people to Mars by 2050, the race is on to get human feet on the red planet. With increasingly sophisticated rockets and robotics, the technological challenges standing in the way of this goal are fast being eroded.
When you think of rocket launches, you probably think of huge companies like Boeing or SpaceX manufacturing massive rockets like the Starship. But one company is taking the opposite approach to launches, making rockets which are smaller, lighter, and more affordable.
Last April, a coalition of hundreds of scientists from around the world came together to achieve something that had previously been considered impossible: Producing the first-ever image of a black hole, as part of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project.
The race to populate Mars is on. But before humans can visit the red planet, we need to send out robot scouts to see the lay of the land. The next generation of Martian robotics will use sophisticated AI, novel propulsion methods, and flexible smallsats to meet the challenges of colonizing a new world.
Kessler Syndrome is a scenario in which the density of objects in low Earth orbit is high enough that collisions between objects could cause a cascading effect that ultimately traps humanity beneath a ceiling of space junk. We spoke to the man who coined the term.
NASA has announced it will be allowing tourists to visit the International Space Station, and soon companies will begin offering private space flights, charging millions of dollars for the privilege. But experts who spoke to Digital Trends warn that space tourism could hurt the environment.