Most space fans hope that humans will eventually reach Mars. As for cows and chickens, that’s another question.
Animal rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has sent a letter to space entrepreneur Elon Musk, founder of rocket company SpaceX, urging him to make any SpaceX missions to Mars vegan.
“We can get off on the right foot on our new biosphere by ensuring that SpaceX crafts traveling to Mars are stocked only with vegan food and that Mars’ colonists commit to enjoying an animal-free diet once they’ve arrived,” the group wrote in the Aug. 8 letter.
August 30th, 2011
Vegans on Mars? PETA Says Yes, Please
August 15th, 2011
NASA Opens New Office for Deep Space Missions
To embark on its next chapter in human space exploration, NASA has created a new department to oversee manned spaceflight in the post-space-shuttle era.
The department is called the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, and combines two previous organizations, the Space Operations Directorate and the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate.
The reorganization is part of top-to-bottom changes moving through the space agency, which finds itself at a turning point. This year NASA retired its 30-year-old space shuttle program, which was the focus and most visible part of its activities over the last few decades. The agency is now gearing up for an era of human missions to deep space, including trips back to the moon, then on to asteroids and Mars.
August 9th, 2011
Potential Mars Water ‘A Big Deal,’ Scientists Say
Claims of water on Mars have been made before, but a new discovery of potential liquid water on the Red Planet’s surface last week is still making waves in the science world. What differentiates the new find from previous discoveries is the fact that it’s the strongest evidence yet for liquid water, as opposed to ice, and it’s on the Martian surface, as opposed to miles underground where it would be difficult to verify its presence.
July 22nd, 2011
NASA’s Next Mars Rover to Land at Huge Gale Crater
It’s official: NASA’s next Mars rover has a landing site and it’s a giant crater called Gale. NASA’s $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission is slated to launch in late November, and will drop a car-size rover named Curiosity at the Gale crater.
July 22nd, 2011
Gale Crater FAQ: Mars Landing Spot for Next Rover Explained
NASA has just selected Gale Crater as the landing spot for its next Mars rover, Curiosity, which will launch late this year and arrive at the Red Planet in August 2012. Here’s what you need to know about Gale Crater.
June 18th, 2011
Huge Heat Shield Has Huge Task: Protecting NASA’s Next Mars Rover
When NASA’s newest Mars rover dives into the Martian atmosphere next year, it will be cocooned in the largest “beat the heat” system ever sent to the Red Planet.
To ensure that the nuclear-powered rover — called the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), or “Curiosity” for short — survives its fiery entry and reaches a pinpointed landing spot, it will have a huge heat shield and back shell that together form a protective aeroshell.
The heat shield is outfitted with something called the Mars Science Laboratory Entry, Descent and Landing Instrument (MEDLI) — a set of sensors that will record atmospheric conditions and gauge how well the heat shield thwarts the brutal welcoming that Curiosity will receive high above the red Martian dirt.
April 18th, 2011
Private Spaceship Builders Split Nearly $270 Million in NASA Funds
NASA has tapped four private companies to receive grants totaling $269.3 million to spur the development of new commercial spaceships and rockets capable of launching astronauts on trips to the International Space Station.
The announcement today (April 18) concerned the second round of funding awards for NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program, which aims to stimulate growth within the private sector to develop and demonstrate viable human spaceflight capabilities. The Space Act Agreements between NASA and the four companies will begin this month and run until May 2012. [The Best Spaceships of All Time]
February 13th, 2011
Sex and Pregnancy on Mars: A Risky Proposition
Astronauts sent to colonize Mars would be well advised to avoid getting pregnant en route to the Red Planet, according to a review of radiation hazards by three scientists.
High-energy particles bombarding the ship would almost certainly sterilize any female fetus conceived in deep space, making it that much more difficult to establish a successful Mars colony once the crew lands.
“The present shielding capabilities would probably preclude having a pregnancy transited to Mars,” said radiation biophysicist Tore Straume of NASA Ames Research Center, lead author of the review published in the Journal of Cosmology.
December 30th, 2010
Mars Rover to Celebrate New Year’s Eve at Big Crater
NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity has its plans for New Year’s Eve all sorted out — it will be poking around a football-field-size crater called Santa Maria.
Opportunity made it to Santa Maria, which is about 295 feet (90 meters) wide, on Dec. 16. It will spend a few more weeks examining rocks exposed at the crater, checking out minerals that likely formed in the presence of water billions of years ago, researchers said. The Santa Maria stop marks a slight detour for Opportunity, which is making its slow, steady way to a giant crater called Endeavour.
December 8th, 2010
SpaceX Falcon9/Dragon Private Space Capsule Splashes Down After Successful Maiden Voyage
The first unmanned space capsule built by millionaire rocket maker Elon Musk blasted off on a maiden voyage today (Dec. 8), in a historic milestone for his private spaceflight company SpaceX and the commercial space industry. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the company’s robotic Dragon space capsule, lifted off at 10:43 a.m. EST (1543 GMT) from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Launch Complex 40. The capsule’s successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean more than three hours later made SpaceX the first commercial company to re-enter a spacecraft from low-Earth orbit.