The NASA Centennial Challenges: Inspired by the X-Prize, NASA has begun a series of challenges to private inventors with cash prizes for things ranging from extracting oxygen from moon rocks to building better astronaut gloves to improving personal aircraft. Thanks to Congressional approval, NASA will be launching larger challenges of up to $50 million in value, including a new multi-million dollar lunar lander contest. With government space efforts criticized by private entrepreneurs, is this the right direction for NASA?
posted on May 6, 2006 - View this thread

This so reminded me of ...... Salvage (1979) (TV) Andy Griffith stars as a junkyard owner who builds a space ship from his scrap pile in order to retrieve valuable parts left on the moon by American Astronauts. Please discuss..................
posted on Mar 25, 2006 - View this thread

Cosmos 1 is officially lost! However, fellow solar sailors, it's not too late to buy a t-shirt. I, however, can't help but focus my attention on this educational BBC News article; I believe I'm having some sort of pavlovian response to that last diagram, but thankfully it seems I'm not the first solar sailing pervert out there.
posted on Jun 29, 2005 - View this thread

Catch NASA's solar capsule!
Via B3ta
posted on Sep 10, 2004 - View this thread

Space Art through the ages.
posted on Jun 24, 2004 - View this thread

solar system [note: requires anark plugin]
posted on Nov 15, 2003 - View this thread

Let's go on a rocket trip to the Moon! A collection of space art in children's books, 1883 to 1974. These books, and their evocative art, instilled in a generation the romance and wonder of space flight. I grew up in the 1950's, and as a kid I could pour over this book and its illustrations for hours, dreaming.
via A Voyage to Arcturus
posted on Sep 26, 2003 - View this thread

NASA thinks we can find another Earth in another nearby star. When we do, how can we possibly travel light-years to get there? It might not be as hard as you'd think . . .
posted on Aug 17, 2003 - View this thread

Highlift Systems may have found a better location for their space elevator in Perth, Australia. Calm waters, few thunderstorms, not too far from the equator, international airport. (Slashdot discussion) I live in Perth, so I'm excited about the prospect, but our current premier may need a little prod.
posted on Feb 16, 2003 - View this thread

It's kind of weird how people in East Texas seem to have to "pose" with the debris, like it's a dead deer or a fishing trophy...
posted on Feb 3, 2003 - View this thread

Houston we have a problem! At 9:00am EST communication was lost with space shuttle Columbia. The touch down should have been occurred at 9:16am.
posted on Feb 1, 2003 - View this thread

The Rosetta Project In Spaaaace. Agh, it's a great concept... I just wish they'd made the text something a little more secular. The aliens will probably take it all too literally.
posted on Jan 13, 2003 - View this thread

omg we're all going to die, which means the hurricanes, the war against terrorism, high school free speech... it's all a big nothing!
posted on Oct 2, 2002 - View this thread

There's something out there
Target Body: J002E3 Spacecraft (UNCONFIRMED)
Observer Location: Los Angeles, CA
Coordinates: 118°14'27.6''W, 34°03'15.1''N

Since September 5th, the Minor Planet Mailing List (MPML) has been abuzz with speculation about an unidentified 16th- magnitude object. During the next 10 days the object will be moving rapidly across Aries and then Taurus, passing between the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters.
posted on Sep 13, 2002 - View this thread

A computer aided simulation builds a spiral galaxy from its beginning. In all, 390,000 particles were placed in an arrangement similar to a newborn galaxy. The end result after three months is an event that is believed to take billions of years to occur. (animation)
posted on Aug 7, 2002 - View this thread

The engine canna take any more, captain! So, we're going to ground the fleet. I guess our friends in the space station are just going to have to wait until NASA is done checking under the hood.
posted on Jun 25, 2002 - View this thread

The romance versus the reality of man in space. According to this article, unless NASA gets an innoculation of a whole bunch of money, we are likely to be limited to maintaining no more than three longterm residents of the space station we are committed to building. How does this bode for our Star Trek vision?
posted on Dec 5, 2001 - View this thread

Bloink! Leonids touchdown in northwest Indiana.
posted on Nov 20, 2001 - View this thread

First French woman in space set to go up again. Can Jerry Lewis be far behind?
posted on Oct 21, 2001 - View this thread

"Tears don't flow the same in space." Frank Culbertson provides the most unusual eye-witness account of the attack I've heard of. He's the only American on the International Space Station right now, and saw the aftermath of both attacks from orbit.
posted on Oct 11, 2001 - View this thread

Reflections on a Mote of Dust "We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam." Carl Sagan "Pale Blue Dot"
posted on Sep 11, 2001 - View this thread

Germs from Jupiter? Viruses from Venus? Nope, just live space-borne bacteria discovered floating around Earth. "Although the bugs from space are similar to bacteria on Earth, the scientists said the living cells found in samples of air from the edge of the planet's atmosphere are too far away to have come from Earth." (via waldo.net)
posted on Aug 2, 2001 - View this thread

Good Old British Ingenuity ;-) Nasa Schmasha, Steve Bennet is out to claim the X-Prize ($10M) in his cement mixer, i mean um rocket....
posted on Jun 26, 2001 - View this thread

Zooooom in from space! Very cool views of our planet
posted on Apr 20, 2001 - View this thread

Capitalism wins! Does anyone need more proof than seeing sponsors in Russia's mission control room?
posted on Mar 22, 2001 - View this thread

Millionaire space tourist rebuffed by NASA. Russian cosmonauts walk away in protest. I find the NASA decision disappointing. I wonder how the rest of the World will react? NASA's approval ratings could be better.
posted on Mar 20, 2001 - View this thread

Mir spotted in skies over India, millions panic? While the fall of Mir has been getting plenty of press coverage, this is the first blatantly alarmist piece I've seen, and it's from CNN/Reuters. Does this kind of "reporting" border on criminal?
posted on Mar 13, 2001 - View this thread

The Andromeda MIR Strain. Russia pushed back the MIR deorbit dates by another two weeks on Tuesday. Meanwhile, questions have surfaced about whether the mutant micoorganisms that inhabit the station will survive the fiery decent. Just another sci-fi story? Or should we be worried both about the ISS and Biosphere One (a.k.a. Earth)?
posted on Mar 8, 2001 - View this thread

Skydiver to jump from edge of space I hope all the inaccuracies in this article are the journalists fault and not this guy trying to make this seem more important and pioneering than it is. It's not like this wasn't done over 40 years ago. What "...emergency procedures for people exploring space" would this create? If he went much higher or came in from outer space he'd vaporize. Less extreme science than just plain old extreme sports, 21st century style.

Millner claims that scientists have helped him on the project, but it is not known if the human body is capable of enduring such a descent. (sigh) Figures.
posted on Mar 4, 2001 - View this thread

All your spaceship are belong to LEEIF. Someone stole the source code to the guidance package for the US space program, including GPS. Tomorrow Never Dies, anyone?
posted on Mar 2, 2001 - View this thread

NASA admits "Dreaming isn't our job, anymore."

<sigh> We're never going to get off this planet. Crap.
posted on Mar 2, 2001 - View this thread

NEAR shoemaker lands and survives. The NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touched down on a barren space rock called Eros on Monday, in history’s first attempt to land an object on an asteroid. Scientists said the probe still appeared to be sending signals back to Earth after making contact, hinting that the car-sized probe survived the descent. The speed at impact was between 1.5-1.8 m/s. This marks the first time that a US spacecraft was the first to land on another body of the solar system. And, if the server is back up, it's worth checking out the project's website.
posted on Feb 12, 2001 - View this thread

Hey! What's this thing suddenly coming toward me very fast? Very, very fast. So big and flat and round... Are you one of those people in search of a new extreme sport? Have you considered spacediving?
posted on Feb 5, 2001 - View this thread

Mission To Mars What if we could get there in about two weeks?
posted on Feb 1, 2001 - View this thread

The first "space tourist" is scheduled be lifted to the ISS by the Russians, in exchange for millions of dollars, on 30 April.
posted on Jan 31, 2001 - View this thread

Is this really very likely to happen? The Russians plan a new space station.
posted on Jan 10, 2001 - View this thread

Lucifer's Hammer... misses. Well, ok, maybe it was only his tack-hammer, but the people in London would have hated it... [scroll down to second story]
posted on Dec 25, 2000 - View this thread

please lord, make it stop--- just a little quote from red meat. i was looking up the times for the last eclipse of the millenium and thot i'd share. view at your own risk (%*)
posted on Dec 24, 2000 - View this thread

Buy 1777.58 acres of the Moon "Probably the most romantic and original present you could ever give to a loved one." My ass!! You too can claim ownership to planets/stars throughout the universe and sell them over eBay....
posted on Dec 17, 2000 - View this thread

Mir to be dropped into the Pacific Ocean next February. Is it wise to bring a vessel with a toxic fungus back into our atmosphere and let it swim in the Pacific?
posted on Nov 16, 2000 - View this thread

Rocket (Wo)man! Jumping out of an airplane is one thing I'd never do. But jumping out of a balloon in sub-orbital space...nope, don't think I'd do that either.
posted on Nov 4, 2000 - View this thread

Momentus occasion ignored. Well, mostly, or at least buried in the inner pages of most major U.S. pages. Isn't this sort of more important than the Knicks and Nets loosing their opening games? You wouldn't think so, since those stories were carried on the front pages on newspapers in the Northeast while this one was back on page 14 between two full page ads.
posted on Nov 2, 2000 - View this thread

Grrrrr! Space.com is a relatively high-profile site that usually promotes science. That is until today when they started listing horoscopes. I guess after securing $50 million in second round funding, they will do anything for hits.
posted on Aug 7, 2000 - View this thread

Farstar International is probably one of the best examples of bad Wed design ever, but obviously that's not the guy's bag. Apparently his bag is collecting really awesome pictures of galaxies and stars and other such spacey things. The shots aren't big enough for wallpapering, but might be neat source material for designy people. (The link isn't showing up in the preview, but here it is: http://www.cliffr.com/galaxies/banner.htm)
posted on May 13, 2000 - View this thread

The Shuttle Endeavour launched earlier today and thanks to those rocket scientists at NASA, you can see the exact part of the world they are flying over, right now.
posted on Feb 11, 2000 - View this thread

The Space Shuttle team is having problems getting their email. They wouldn't happen to be using Outlook, would they? :) (I didn't intend it, but today is looking to be 'Bash Microsoft Day' here at MetaFilter)
posted on Dec 22, 1999 - View this thread