Scientists at the US agency offer advice about remote working, social isolation and quarantine. Scott Bolton knows a thing or two about distance. He is the principal investigator of NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter, and at the best of times his experiment is more than 500 million kilometres away, orbiting a gas giant in the […]
space
From design to lift-off: blasting experiments into outer space
If you want an astronaut to run your experiment alongside their many other responsibilities, keeping it simple is the key. On 25 July, an experiment that Charles Cockell had spent years planning blasted into space. A SpaceX rocket blasted off from Florida, heading to the International Space Station (ISS). It carried 18 bioreactors, each the […]
Asteroid-Mining Bacteria Blast Off for Space Station
Test of mining prowess of microbes lifted off yesterday. The moons, planets and asteroids of our solar system are full of useful stuff: water to make hydrogen fuel, metals and minerals for construction, even rocks that can be broken down into soil-like material for farming and terraforming. “Virtually all the raw materials you need to […]
How Space Technology Will Produce the Best Weed Ever
Mike Dixon wants to send plants to Mars. Growing crops in space is the best way to provide proper nutrition to the crew on a long-duration mission, this University of Guelph researcher believes—but because there’s no manned mission to Mars scheduled at the moment, it’s hard to get funding for this type of research. In […]
Canadian Space Agency chief quits unexpectedly
While Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has been captivating the Internet with his live updates and photos from the International Space Station, his colleagues back on Earth are having a tough time. On Tuesday the president of the Canadian Space Agency, former astronaut Steve MacLean, announced he would be leaving the agency on 1 February. Read more in Nature.