Bigelow Aerospace was the unnamed partner when Charles Bolden, NASA’s administrator, stated that the space agency would not “take the lead on a human lunar mission.” There has been a lively debate on LinkedIn regarding this with many seeing the decision as a retreat

Most of you, my readers, are too young to remember the old Perry Como song “Catch a Falling Star” but I think the lyric captures the mission that NASA is proposing. Described as a “capture and redirect” of an asteroid by a robotic spacecraft followed by a visit

Headlines that caught my eye in the last week:   Astronomers Predict 100 Billion Earth-Like Planets Inhabit the Milky Way; Bladeless Wind Energy Technology Debuts in Delft; Micro Hydro-Electricity and Mini-Grids a Cost Effective Option; Post-Sandy New York Builds Steel Wall to Pr

There are 26 million square kilometers (10 million square miles) of northern land under vegetation. Over the past 30 years 34 to 41% (9 million square kilometers or 3.5 million square miles) have seen increased plant growth while 3 to 5% have seen a decline. The area of enhanced veget

In a recent article I asked the question has NASA lost its bearings? Well in the last two weeks NASA announced and presented its new four-year plan that looks at objectives with an end timeline that stretch out for as much as two decades in the future. The plan includes 4 key pillars:

Several interesting space announcements have made headlines in the last couple of weeks. Among them: Russia is once more putting money into their space program with plans to develop new rockets, and cooperate with ESA on robotic missions to Mars, NASA announces partnerships with agenc

Bigelow Aerospace has a dream to create hotels in space using inflatable, expandable modules. Awarded a $17.8 million contract by NASA this week, Bigelow, owned by Robert Bigelow of Budget Suites of America, plans to launch an inflatable module into space where it will remain for two

NASA through the latter part of the 20th century developed two programs, one manned, the other robotic. The former initially was driven by a political agenda in a race with the Soviet Union to get a human to the Moon and back. The latter was dedicated to building a space-based Earth s

This week’s five stories look at: Marine Survey of China’s Coast Shows Disturbing Results; With Obama Victory NASA Ready to Reveal Future Human Flight Plans; Firing Up Your Mobile Phone Literally with New Device; Robotic Dragonfly the Latest I-Spy Gadget; Powering Medical

A few days ago the weather report from Gale Crater measured air temperatures in the afternoon at 6 Celsius (43 Fahrenheit). What is even more surprising is Gale Crater is still in the winter season on Mars. And the 6 degrees measured on October 1 was not an anomaly. Temperatures at Ga