Space is getting crowded. Aging satellites and space debris crowd low-Earth orbit, and launching new satellites adds to the collision risk. The most effective way to solve the space junk problem, according to a new study, ...
Space Exploration
May 25, 2020
22
1355
China's first space station, Tiangong-1, is expected to fall to Earth sometime in late 2017. We've known for several months that the orbital demise of the 8-metric ton space station was only a matter of time. But Chinese ...
Space Exploration
Sep 23, 2016
2
86
Tractor beams -- the ability to trap and move objects using laser light -- are the stuff of science fiction, but a team of NASA scientists has won funding to study the concept for remotely capturing planetary or atmospheric ...
General Physics
Oct 31, 2011
38
0
The chance that ESA's Solar Orbiter spacecraft will encounter space debris during its upcoming Earth flyby is very, very low. However, the risk is not zero and is greater than any other flyby ESA has performed. That there ...
Space Exploration
Nov 29, 2021
0
205
There will be all sorts of risks for any future colonists on Mars, such as extreme weather and temperatures, radiation, and the human physiological problems associated with living in with decreased gravity. But another issue ...
Space Exploration
Jun 25, 2021
1
653
SBUDNIC, built by an academically diverse team of students, was confirmed to have successfully reentered Earth's atmosphere in August, demonstrating a practical, low-cost method to cut down on space debris.
Space Exploration
Aug 24, 2023
0
154
Space station astronauts opened the world's first inflatable space habitat Monday and floated inside.
Space Exploration
Jun 6, 2016
23
1619
A great offshoot from commercial space companies getting a foothold in real missions to orbit is that the old entrepreneurial space spirit seems to have been revived. People are attempting to develop and build what could ...
Space Exploration
Nov 2, 2012
41
0
This past weekend, a lot of attention was focused on the Tiangong-1 space station. For some time, space agencies and satellite trackers from around the world had been predicting when this station would fall to Earth. And ...
Space Exploration
Apr 4, 2018
0
62
On Feb. 10, 2009, disaster struck hundreds of miles above the Siberian Peninsula. That evening, a defunct Russian satellite orbiting Earth crashed into a communications satellite called Iridium 33 moving at a speed of thousands ...
Space Exploration
Jun 1, 2023
1
171
