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surfing the light fantastic: how nanoscale etchings could revolutionize solar sails
# space

surfing the light fantastic: how nanoscale etchings could revolutionize solar sails

If you want to explore our solar system, you need to prepare for multi-year journeys. But a new discovery in nanoscale engineering could help cut the travel time between worlds.

why nasa may be trying to quietly put the sls out of its misery
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why nasa may be trying to quietly put the sls out of its misery

NASA appears to be sick and tired of having to wait until the mid-2020s to return to the Moon on a future rocket that will be inferior to the private ones already flying, and easily lapped by ones currently being built.

how can we save earth from a doomsday asteroid? with robotic space jujitsu!
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how can we save earth from a doomsday asteroid? with robotic space jujitsu!

It may be tempting to use our nuclear warheads to save the planet from rogue space rocks instead of pointing them at each other, it would be a waste of perfectly good nukes.

home is where the mars rover is
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home is where the mars rover is

Now that Opportunity’s mission is complete, many wistfully lament about “bringing our robot home.” There’s just one problem: it’s already home.

why the future is steampunk: steam-powered spacecraft could explore asteroids
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why the future is steampunk: steam-powered spacecraft could explore asteroids

Buckle up steampunk enthusiasts, it turns out that not only are steam-powered space probes possible, they might be perfect for hopping between comets and asteroids on research and mining missions.

why we need to learn more about super-earths
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why we need to learn more about super-earths

Super-Earths are often thought of as just bigger version of our own planet on steroids. But these worlds offer us amazing insights into everything from plate tectonics to planetary formation and classification.

there may not be dark matter or energy, just gravity. we just don’t know how.
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there may not be dark matter or energy, just gravity. we just don’t know how.

Theoretical physicists seem ready to move on from looking at dark matter as unknown particles we’ve yet to discover, and consider it a side-effect of gravity at cosmic scales.

was mars one the fyre festival of space startups?
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was mars one the fyre festival of space startups?

Mars One was an impossible dream. No, literally. As in not possible and could never happen. Now the company is bankrupt and its mission plans abandoned, which is really for the best.

how we know the milky way is warped and twisted, and how it got that way
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how we know the milky way is warped and twisted, and how it got that way

If you imagine galaxies as tranquil clouds of gas and dust, lit up by billions of pinpoints of light, a 3D map of the Milky Way and the details behind it will show you otherwise.

oldest earth rock found in lunar exile
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oldest earth rock found in lunar exile

Scientists think they found a time capsule from Earth’s earliest days buried just under the Moon’s surface for the last 4.1 billion years.

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