Group items tagged

An interesting infographic that details some of the costs associated with space travel.

"In science fact, though, there's greater concern that Earth-dwellers-specifically bacteria and microorganisms-could arrive at extraterrestrial destinations. As NASA sends rovers to Mars, plans a trip to Jupiter's icy moon Europa, and looks for an ocean on Saturn's moon Enceladus, the hope is to find life-forms on those interstellar bodies. To ensure that doesn't include forms that originated on Earth-and that the new environment isn't compromised the way Earth ecosystems can be by invasive species or infectious diseases-NASA is now thoroughly cleaning its space-bound vessels."

Today, Bill Nye launched a Kickstarter campaign to help gather funds for the project. While the May 20 test of the LightSail prototype is good to go, the CubeSat won't be sailing on this trip. The test is merely to see if the sail can deploy. The Planetary Society sill needs money for their primary mission in fall 2016, when they will launch the CubeSat high enough into space for some sun sailing.

A constantly updated collection of articles from PopSci about the efforts of private companies to get involved in space travel and exploration