ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Lost Astronaut Tool Bag Spotted With Telescope

The toolbag lost by astronaut Heidi Stefanyshyn-Piper last week is quickly becoming the most famous piece of $100,000 junk floating around in space. In fact, countless nerds have pointed their telescopes into the night sky attempting to catch a glimpse of the backpack-sized bag orbiting the Earth. At least one man has succeeded in this … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Good News: Astronauts Can Drink Their Own Urine

Recently, the International Space Station got a hot new piece of equipment installed: a waste recycler. This fancy machine turns pee into delicious, delicious water. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get it working right off the bat. Well, they finally did it. They are a go for pee drinking up there on the ISS. Well, not quite. … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

The International Space Station Celebrates Its 10th Birthday

This month, the International Space Station turns 10. One of the coolest examples of humanity’s huge leaps forward in technology, it’s still an amazing sight to behold 10 years later. And now The Big Picture has collected over 30 photos of our beloved ISS. Hit the jump for another of my favorites and then head … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Astronauts Jiggle ISS Water Recycler Handle But Crew Can’t Drink Pee Just Yet

The multimillion dollar water recycler recently installed by astronauts aboard the International Space Station is still experiencing some minor issues this evening, meaning crew members will just have to wait to have their first peetinis, Long Island Iced Pees, Whiskpee Sours and other lame pee-themed drinks I have yet to think of. The prototype recycler, … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

NASA’s New Ejector System Borrows Tech From Yesterday’s Apollo Program

If something goes wrong with the upcoming space shuttle replacement program, and we hope it does not, this is what could save the astronauts’ lives. As they hurdle hundreds of miles per hour into the heavens, and their ship begins to break apart, mission control will scream “ABORT!” (or perhaps something a bit more technical), … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Finnair Shows Us How We’ll Fly in 2093

Finnair thinks it knows how your children’s children might be flying around the skies (and space) in about 90 years. One way might be in a flashy personal craft; another way could be a slick hybrid craft that transitions from 35,000ft. to low earth orbit with ease. The planes each have that sleek look we’d … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

NASA Adds Smell Detector To Space Station, Insert Fart Joke Here

Apart from remodeling their home, astronauts on board the International Space Station are installing a new piece of equipment that may save their lives one day. Or embarrass them. It can go either way: Containing 32 sensors in a device the size of a shoebox, the ENose—or electronic nose—will be able to detect even the … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

NASA Astronaut Loses Tools, Gets Screwed Over By Space

A NASA astronaut lost her bag of tools outside the International Space Station earlier today when she went outside to clean up a solar panel. Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper’s grease gun exploded all over her helmet camera and gloves, and while wiping off the mess, she shifted her attention off the tool bag. She lost her grip … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

30 Mars Phoenix Discoveries NASA Will Never Show the World

For this week’s Photoshop contest, I asked you guys to show us what the Mars Phoenix really discovered that government didn’t want us to know about. Well, apparently Mars is a popular destination for politicians, terrorists, Bigfoot and assorted other bizarre life forms. If most of this stuff did exist on Mars, the Men in … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Indian Lunar Probe Crashes On Moon Surface

After a 25-minute descent, Chandrayaan-1’s Moon Impact Probe has successfully crashed on the Moon’s surface, taking images of the descent like these ones and making yet another man-made hole on the battered Earth’s satellite. The Moon Impact Probe (MIP), one of the 11 payloads of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, successfully hit the lunar surface today at 20:31 … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

NASA Scales Up 1966’s Moon Image to Amazing Ultra-High Resolution

When NASA released this image from their Lunar Orbiter 1 back in 1966, the first photograph ever of the Earth rising above the Moon’s surface, it was low resolution but they still amazed the world. This week, they have surprised every space aficionado re-releasing the same image in ultra-high definition. The cool part now is … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Meet Veronica McGregor, Mars Phoenix Lander’s Humanoid Personality Construct

Over the last few weeks here on Giz, the Mars Phoenix Lander, already a prolific Twitterer, became the first spacecraft to blog from its cold, unforgiving home tens of millions of miles away on Mars as its mission came to end—culminating in a touching goodbye this past Monday. As some of you may have guessed … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

The NASA Spirit Rover Lives!

Nerds cheered and wept with happiness as NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit responded to ground control commands today via the Mars Odyssey orbiter. Earlier this week, NASA feared that the rover would fall victim to the same problem that killed our beloved Phoenix Mars Lander. The dust storm is still a problem, but Spirit has … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Moon Dust-DNA Watch Made From Actual Moon Dust and Parts From Apollo 11

Romain Jerome’s Titanic DNA Watch was such a success that the company has decided to take the concept to the moon (literally) with their new Moon Dust DNA watch. Like the Titanic version, the moon watch will feature actual artifacts. The face includes dust from a rock retrieved during our first mission to the moon, … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Meade ETX-LS Motorized GPS Telescope Basically Does Astronomy For You

Some details on Meade’s ETX-LS telescope have snuck out ahead of its early 2009 launch, and it looks like an amateur telescope for the digital age. That’s because it’ll drive itself to locate the stars you’ve chosen to look at automatically, using its database, in-built GPS and electronic level-detector system. And then there’s a sensor … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Astronomers Take First Ever Pics of Other Planetary Systems

Huge astronomy news! For the first time EVER, galaxy researchers have taken pictures of planets orbiting a sun-star, much like our own. The first, taken by the much beloved Hubble Telescope, shows a planet orbiting the bright southern star Fomalhaut, located 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Australis. The second picture, snapped by upstaging … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

China’s Chang’e 1 Probe Beams Back Completed Map of The Moon

With help from its moon photographing probe, the Chang’e 1, China’s created the country’s first full map of the lunar surface and they’re calling it the best one yet. According to the heads of the space program, the map is the most complete image of the moon’s surface, as well as the richest in detail, … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Spirit Mars Rover May Be Dead Too Now

More bad bad news. Just two days ago Phoenix Mars Lander sent his last words, and NASA announced the end of the mission because of a storm that covered its solar panels with Martian dust. Today, we have learnt that the Mars Spirit rover may be dying too because exactly the same problem. In fact, … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

This is My Farewell Transmission From Mars

If you are reading this, then my mission is probably over. This final entry is one that I asked be posted after my mission team announces they’ve lost contact with me. Today is that day and I must say good-bye, but I do it in triumph and not in grief.As I’ve said before, there’s no … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Astronauts Getting First Space Kitchen Fridge Ever Actually Wanted a Kegerator

They may be rocket scientists and spend years training for things going awry in the void of space, but NASA has revealed that astronauts in the International Space Station will face the biggest, most dangerous challenge humans have ever encountered through thousand of years of history: Home remodeling. Next weekend, the ISS will get the … Continued