Space

International Space Station gets 'Man Cave' Complete with Robot Butler

There might be a new favorite hang-out for astronauts aboard the International Space Station later this year. The Multi Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) known as Leonardo – which will be going to the ISS on the upcoming STS-131 mission carrying cargo and supplies — will be transformed after the mission into a Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM), and brought up to stay on the station on STS-133 as a storeroom for supplies. But it might also become a haven to get away from it all.Read More

Hyperwall-2 is spread across 128 monitors and is used for displaying images from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope

You may think you've got a pretty good widescreen set-up at home, but nothing comes close to NASA's hyperwall-2.Read More

Who needs a Space Shuttle? Amazing pictures of Earth captured with balloon and duct-taped compact camera

The beauty of this image taken high above the planet would make NASA proud. But it didn't take millions of dollars of technology to capture. Just a little ingenuity using a standard digital camera duct taped to a helium balloon and floated into the sky.Read More

Virgin Galactic's VSS Enterprise took off on its first "captive carry" test flight at 7:05 a.m. Monday from the Mojave Air and Spaceport in Mojave, California. The spacecraft, which was unveiled on December 7, 2009, took the journey while remaining attached to its mothership for the entirety of its 2 hour and 54 minute flight, reaching an altitude of 45,000 feet in the process.Read More

NASA and GM Create Cutting Edge Robotic Technology

NASA and General Motors are working together to accelerate development of the next generation of robots and related technologies for use in the automotive and aerospace industries.Read More

SPHERES robotic satellites fly in formation on space station

MIT has a set of robots called SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient Experimental Satellites) on board the International Space Station to test out algorithms for autonomous navigation and docking maneuvers. Each sphere is about 8" in diameter and has 18 sides.Read More

NASA's Mars exploration rover Opportunity is allowing scientists to get a glimpse deep inside Mars

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell

Found on a Martian plain, a dark rock not much bigger than a basketball was the target of interest for Opportunity during the past two months. Dubbed "Marquette Island," the rock is providing a better understanding of the mineral and chemical makeup of the Martian interior.Read More

New Constellation space suite developed for the next trip to the moon

Worcester, MA-based David Clark Company has developed an early prototype of the Constellation space suit, NASA's next suit for travel to the moon.Read More

Physicist John Hunter wants to shoot stuff into space with a 3,600-foot gun.

Building colossal guns has been John Hunter’s pet project since 1992, when, while a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he first fired a 425-foot gun he built to test-launch hypersonic engines. Its methane-driven piston compressed hydrogen gas, which then expanded up the barrel to shoot a projectile.Read More

A solar eclipse that reduced the sun to a blazing ring surrounding a black disk has entered the record books as the longest annular eclipse for 1000 years.Read More