Space Exploration

According to a new study published in the journal Nature, the Sun may not have evaporated away all of the Martian surface water after all; instead, Mars’ water was absorbed by the planet’s crust over time, leaving its surface essentially dry. This artist’s concept depicts the dry environment seen at …

NASA solicited proposals for new robotic missions as part of its New Frontiers exploration program, and it got a dozen of them this past April. Now, the agency has whittled the list down to two contenders. One mission seeks to explore the second largest moon in the solar system, and …

NASA has selected two finalist concepts for a robotic mission planned to launch in the mid-2020s: a comet sample return mission and a drone-like rotorcraft that would explore potential landing sites on Saturn’s hazy moon Titan. Dragonfly is a dual-quadcopter lander that would take advantage of the environment on Saturn’s …

The next big step for private space firm SpaceX is the long-awaited Falcon Heavy launch platform. After years of planning and a handful of delays, the massive rocket is just a few weeks away from launch. Will SpaceX actually get the Falcon Heavy in the air on time? SpaceX founder …

In this stunning image taken by ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, Mars is seen with north at the bottom, and the equator at the top. A stunning view of Mars from the north pole to the equator. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. The …

It’s been decades since humans set foot on the moon, but we could be going back as part of a push into the outer solar system. Scientists have increasingly thought of the moon as a launchpad for deep space missions, since NASA confirmed water ice exists in craters there. Before …

Scientists have studied plenty of asteroids and comets — the ESA even landed a spacecraft on one. However, the mysterious object known as ‘Oumuamua is something new. It’s from someplace outside of our solar system, the first such object ever detected. It’s moving too fast to be studied closely, but …

SpaceX has launched a resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS), which would have been big news a few years ago. Now, it happens all the time. However, there is something very important about this most recent flight. For the first time, SpaceX has reused a Falcon 9 for …

Blue Origin, the private space firm started by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has successfully completed a test launch of its revised New Shepard rocket. This is the first launch for Blue Origin in more than a year, and it’s also the first time it has tested its new Crew Capsule …

The Juno space probe was launched back in 2011 on course for Jupiter. It arrived in orbit of the gas giant in summer 2016 after five years of travel, and it began sending back stunning images and extensive scientific data early this year. One of the primary duties of Juno …