SPACE.com today introduced SPACE Illustrated, a bi-monthly magazine dedicated to conveying the wonder of humankind’s greatest adventure through spectacular space imagery and real and imagined content. “Our mission is to popularize space by providing the most comprehensive and compelling coverage of the biggest story of our age,” said Lou Dobbs, SPACE.com Chairman and CEO. “We are delighted to extend the reach of our brand into print media with the launch of SPACE Illustrated.” The magazine’s first cover features an image of a young member of “Gen S” – the Space Generation – the first generation to live on Mars. Space visionary Robert Zubrin discusses what life will be like for these future children.
September 4th, 2000
Balloon to Soar Over Martian Atmosphere
Engineers have demonstrated a new technology that could take flight high over Mars in future years. The work may lead to a platoon of balloons drifting through the thin Martian atmosphere. They would relay back to Earth outstanding aerial views of a variety of Red Planet wonders. By taking to the air via a Martian balloon, supporters of the work see a way to out-distance the slow crawl of ground-bound Martian rovers.
September 3rd, 2000
Russian Institute to Build Life Support System for Martian Spacecraft
Getting to Mars will make a trip to the moon seem like a piece of cake. Along with the daunting engineering problems that will have to be solved before humans can travel to the Red Planet, a number of biomedical concerns will also need to be addressed. Particular attention will have to be paid to protecting crews from space radiation and providing them with oxygen, water and food during the long journey. While shielding crews from radiation is a primary concern of engineers, providing people with life supplies in flight is an area for biomedical specialists. In Russia specialists of the Institute of Biomedical problems (IBMP) have developed a concept for a closed-loop life-support system (LSS) for interplanetary voyages.
September 1st, 2000
NASA Rolls Out the Class of 2000
With happy-to-be here smiles on their faces, 17 candidates met the press Thursday before starting intensive training to turn them into NASA astronauts. Andrew Feustel left a job as a geophysicist at a major oil company here for a chance to join the astronaut corps. With his background in Earth sciences, he dreams of exploring the moon and Mars, though his wife hasn
August 31st, 2000
When Humans and Robots Team Up
In the not too distant future, flesh-and-bone astronaut explorers may meet their match as automatons become increasingly imbued with the robotic “right stuff.”
August 29th, 2000
Smaller is Better: Microscouts Make the Grade
Small may soon be big for NASA. A tiny rover vehicle studying an asteroid and a diminutive glider swooping through Martian skies are among the pint-sized spacecraft likely to help explore the solar system over the next decade, says a NASA official.
August 29th, 2000
Life Amidst Glaciers Thrives and Survives
A new study shows that life can not only survive beneath tons of ice at the dark, near-freezing junctions between glaciers and Earth, but actually thrive there. Researchers say the discovery reinforces the notion that the bottom of the ice cap at Mars’ north pole should be a primary target in the search for life.
August 28th, 2000
Discovery Project: Which Mission Next?
Promising NASA the most bang for its buck, scientists have flooded the space agency with proposals for Discovery-class projects, including bids to return lunar samples to Earth, hunt extrasolar planets and fly pilotless gliders through the Valles Marineris on Mars.
August 28th, 2000
Twin Rovers for Mars: A Primer
The twin rovers NASA hopes to send to Mars in 2003 might well be the most capable rock hounds the American space agency has ever sent to another planetary body since geologist-astronaut Jack Schmitt roamed the moon on the Apollo 17 lunar mission. NASA announced this month it will launch
August 21st, 2000
Water on Mars: The Debate Rages Anew
Diverging from decades of conventional wisdom, a science team says liquid water can exist and pool on the surface of Mars, ideal for sustaining Martian life across the entire planet. If correct, the finding would build on images released in June that scientists have interpreted as showing liquid water at or near the surface of the Red Planet in recent geologic times. Many scientists were baffled by those images as it is widely assumed that liquid water cannot exist at Mars’ surface due to the planet’s thin atmosphere.