The southern lights from space as photographed from the ISS by astronaut Ron Garan (@Astro_Ron), who is on his way back to Earth.
—via jtotheizzoe:(via Boing Boing)
vruz: aurora australis. we can haz them.
Reblogged from It's Okay To Be Smart
NASA Announces Plans for New Deep Space Rocket
—via astrotastic
vruz: the traditional apollo-like and saturn-V-like artistic depictions are in all likelihood incorrect anyway, without further information. modern orbital or at least suborbital launch systems will probably be used by 2030.
going to Mars would be great, but it really doesn’t make much sense to do anything like this on such grand scale unless you’re planning to make at least part of the project pay for itself doing some asteroid mining for metals and other materials which are rare and/or expensive to synthesise on earth.
so maybe both things are in the equation.
Reblogged from Astrotastic!
Mars journey simulator breaks isolation record
ABC Australia
—via emergentfutures:
The six participants in a project simulating the long journey to Mars have set a record for the longest time away from the natural world.
Aiming to stay in isolation for 520 days - the time scientists think it would take to get to Mars and back - the participants are finding out exactly how hard it may be even to make the psychological leap required.
Reblogged from Emergent Futures Tumblelog
It’s time to take action – again
—via itsfullofstars:
On Wednesday, September 14, the U.S. Senate subcommittee overseeing NASA’s budget – the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies — will meet to “markup” the bill that will provide the space agency with the money it needs to do its job of exploring space.
The next day, Thursday, September 15, their markup will go the full committee on for their markup.
Somehow, the U.S. Senate has decided it can move quickly – to decide the fate of space exploration for the next year and beyond.Please send an urgent message to your Senators asking them to keep our exploring spacecraft flying!
Reblogged from It's Full of Stars
