In Star Trek, the crew of the starship Enterprise could instantly acquire any meal by ordering up their preference on the food-producing “replicator.” Now that was a Meal-Ready-to-Eat. Such technology may seem like a pipe dream of the far future , but it provided inspiration for scientists developing high-tech food ideas for Army troops. In a newly released scientific report commissioned by the Army, scientists suggest, among other ideas, that soldiers could one day carry specially engineered seeds that would sprout from the ground in a matter of days, instead of weeks.
June 22nd, 2001
Touching the Universe
What does a star feel like? Since nearly all astronomical knowledge is based on light
June 15th, 2001
Saving the Planet
Scientists Say Adjusting Earth’s Path Could Rescue It From the Dying Sun. “We started thinking that if you could move the Earth, you could buy some time,” says Don Korycansky, lead author of a recent paper in Astrophysics and Space Science and a researcher at the University of California at Santa Cruz. He and two other scientists propose gradually shifting Earth’s orbit to keep pace with the expansion of the sun.
June 13th, 2001
Overload
NASA is bracing for a flood of radio signals as more than 25 spacecraft exploring the solar system all phone home. And with Japan, Europe and the United States all launching probes to Mars and other destinations, the stress on the web of antennas tuned to space will only increase, scientists say. The crunch time will be during late 2003 and early 2004, when many of the missions reach crucial points in their journeys, according to NASA.
May 24th, 2001
Forget About the Face
Nearly 25 years after an orbiting spacecraft caught the Red Planet
April 12th, 2001
The Dawn of Space Travel
At the Russian words “Let’s go,” rockets fired and Yuri Gagarin became the first person to blast into outer space, forever altering human perception of what was possible, and sending U.S. engineers desperately scrambling to match his feat. Today, spaceflight may seem routine, now that man has reached the moon and NASA’s space shuttle program recently logged its 100th trip. Many hope the next big space project will be to deliver people to Mars, a journey that could take up to two years of space travel. NASA has no formal Mars program but continues to explore the planet using robotic craft.
April 6th, 2001
Looking for a Comeback
The Mars Odyssey, due to blast off for the Red Planet on Saturday from Cape Canaveral, will carry with it a hefty list of objectives, from snapping detailed images of Mars, to detecting the planet’s mineral content, to measuring radiation levels in its orbit. From these measurements
October 26th, 2000
NASA Researching Ways For Future Missions to Reuse Waste
So you want to go to Mars? Here
February 18th, 2000
Need Shelter on Mars? Grow Trees, Scientist Says
Trees that can grow their own protective greenhouses and computers smart enough to figure out things for themselves are some of the tools that will help future space explorers settle Mars, scientists predicted on Friday.
December 14th, 1999
Scientists Go to Camera in Search for Mars Lander
Scientists will try to learn later this week whether the ill-fated Mars Polar Lander landed on the Martian surface even though they have not been able to make direct contact with the spacecraft.