These guys hope to launch a hovercraft to the moon which can mine, place things there and do scientific experiments in 2013. They’re expecting to be able to do it with a budget of around $70m, because they’re based on existing technologies. HOME. Interview with owner here

Astronomers discover planet made of diamond | Reuters.

Russian company Orbital Technologies reveals plans for space hotel, visit to cost nearly $1 million | News.com.au.

Atlantis and its four astronauts left Earth for the final space shuttle mission, which will cap off an amazing 30-year program of exploration, which launched great observatories, built an International Space Station, and taught us more about how humans can live and work in space. With the International Space Station flying 220 miles high and [...]

They keep discovering more and more water everywhere! Scientists detect Earth-equivalent amount of water within the moon.

Today, astronomers unveiled the most complete 3-D map of the local universe (out to a distance of 380 million light-years) ever created. Taking more than 10 years to complete, the 2MASS Redshift Survey (2MRS) also is notable for extending closer to the Galactic plane than previous surveys – a region that’s generally obscured by dust. [...]

SpaceshipSize_ComparisonChart.jpg (JPEG Image, 2000×2000 pixels).

On Dec. 6 at 1:31 a.m. EST, NASA for the first time successfully ejected a nanosatellite from a free-flying microsatellite. NanoSail-D ejected from the Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology Satellite, FASTSAT, demonstrating the capability to deploy a small cubesat payload from an autonomous microsatellite in space. via NASA ejects nanosatellite from microsatellite in space.

There is water on the moon … along with a long list of other compounds, including, mercury, gold and silver. That’s according to a more detailed analysis of the chilled lunar soil near the moon’s South Pole, released as six papers by a large team of scientists in the journal, Science Thursday. via Moon Blast [...]

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency JAXA would like to announce that we have confirmed the successful acceleration of the Small Solar Power Sail Demonstrator “IKAROS” by photon 1 in the course of determining its precise orbit after its sail deployment. The IKAROS was launched by JAXA on May 21 2010 Japan Standard time and all [...]

Dr. Anthony Zuppero has managed to find a way that we could affordably make the push into outer space and get to inhabit the solar system. A physicist, he’s got the whole thing calculated out, this guy is the real deal. He’s written a very very readable book about his undertaking, which you can download [...]

YouTube – The Known Universe by AMNH.

So… you want to be immortal… you want a celestial body named after you. What next? Unfortunately, the one body that does officially name stars and galaxies – the IAU – won’t let you put your name on one (their regulations are here). Or on a comet or asteroid either. Fortunately there are plenty of [...]

Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites has unveiled the Virgin Galactic sponsored Spaceship two, the ship that will bring commercial space travellers into space at reasonably affordable prices. News – Virgin Galactic unveils SpaceShipTwo, the world’s first manned commercial spaceship | Virgin Galactic.

The Allan Hills 84001 Meteorite which landed on earth has been examined and they’ve discovered that the tiny magnetite crystals it contains are chemically consistent with being formed in bacteria – they’re basically little fossils. They’re pretty sure the rock, which has floated around for around 16 million years, comes from Mars as it matches [...]

This site lists satellites, the ISS and other astronomical objects you can see in the sky based on your own location. It’s a very comprehensive, easy to use astronomy site with object you can and can’t see. Heavens-Above Home Page.

They are on now, and the first teams are already succesful, being able to climb 899m at 3.9 m/s! The game is to get a robot up a line being held by a helicopter in flight. The robot is powered by just a laser beam. The Space Elevator Games.

Japan is committed, now NASA has 3 teams qualified to try to get their laser powered robot to climb a cable hanging from a helicopter one km in the air. Elevator to space? They’re really trying :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Nation.

Three independent missions have confirmed this. SPACE.com — It’s Official: Water Found on the Moon.

Between the planets and moons are gravitational corridors, tubes that intersect at lagrange points, which can be used to travel between celestial bodies using hardly any fuel, only for course correctional purposes. These corridors can be likened to ocean currents. The trade-off is now between speed and fuel consumption: you can use almost zero fuel [...]

Japan has an automated logistics supply vehicle for the International Space Station, which has been launched today for the first time. It’s composed of pressurised and upressurised areas and will be stopped at 10 m from the ISS. Using the robo hand, astronauts can dock it. It’ll stay there as a kind of larder for [...]

These guys are claiming that gyrocontrolled inflatable modules that allready exist (well, without the gyrocontrols then) could be stacked onto each other initially up to 15 km high. If placed on a mountain that could get it up to 20 km. This could then be used for tourism, atmospheric research, telecoms or spacecraft launches. Eventually [...]