March 25th, 2025
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Eye-patch on and crank up your best “grrr.” And while you’re at it, plop down a stack of doubloons and conjure up visions of “Captain” Jack Sparrow! Talk about “high crimes” and misdemeanors. The growing pace of space as a commercial resource brings with it the prospect for misdeeds, corruption, piracy, and war. The Center […]
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The Blue Ghost Mission 1 spacecraft sitting on the Moon completed more than 14 days of surface operations (346 hours of daylight), and operated just over 5 hours into the super-chilly lunar night. Final data from the lunar lander was received on March 16. “This achievement marks the longest commercial operations on the Moon to […]
It’s a wait-a-minute moment as featured in a new issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. “Mars Attacks: How Elon Musk’s plans to colonize Mars threaten Earth” is the work of Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith, adapted from their book A City on MarsCan we settle space, should we settle space, and have we […]
Call it a pre-emptive strike, as well as a “wait-a-minute” moment in U.S. rocketry. A Boeing-backed website is in full-advocacy mode for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS). On one hand, pundits are poking at the Boeing SLS contract, at a time of internal and external looks at NASA’s budgetary condition. For good measure, toss in […]
Book Review: Space Piracy – Preparing for a Criminal Crisis in Orbit by Marc Feldman and Hugh Taylor, Published by John Wiley & Sons; 256 pages; E-Book Starting at $18.00; Hardcover Starting at $30.00. This book is quite the lean into it, forward-thinking volume that takes on topics few researchers have tackled. It’s an invaluable […]
China is turning its attention to future space mining. A multifunctional space mining robot is being pursued by experts at the China University of Mining and Technology (CUMT). Liu Xinhua at CUMT explains that the space mining robot differs from the widely known humanoid robots and robotic dogs. Instead, the mining robot adopts a six-legged […]
That IM-2 Moon lander’s true fate has grabbed the attention of Scott Manley as posted in his YouTube video: “Why Did the Latest Lunar Lander Fall Over, Why Is Landing On The Moon Harder Than We Thought.” In an impressive “Citizen Science Investigation” (CSI), Manley uncovers new details about how the Intuitive Machines’ Athena Moon […]
That recent eclipse many viewed here on Earth was also witnessed by the Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost Moon lander. Blue Ghost captured imagery during the totality of the solar eclipse. The images were taken from the lander’s top deck camera taken using different exposure settings. Red hue They were stitched together, […]
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) posted today for public review a Draft Environmental Assessment (EA). This document analyzes the SpaceX proposal to increase Falcon 9 operations from 50 to up to 120 per year from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The Draft EA also […]
The Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost Moon lander got a first look at the solar eclipse from the Moon around 12:30 am Central Daylight (Texas) Time. In a photo released by the group, you can see the glowing ring of light emerge in the reflection of the lunar lander’s solar panel as Earth began to block […]
