Lifeboat Foundation

The thought of colonizing Mars has science fiction aficionados, scientists, and billionaire entrepreneurs staring up at the night sky with renewed wonder and inspiration. But the key to achieving the lofty goal of colonizing and building extensively on a new planet may not exist out among the stars, but under our feet right here on Earth.

Christopher Maurer, an architect and Founder of Cleveland-based Redhouse Studio, and Lynn Rothschild, a NASA Ames researcher, believe algae and mycelium (the vegetative part of a fungus that consists of a network of fine white filaments) may make the perfect building material on Mars.

Popping champagne in outer space is now possible, thanks to a new kind of bottle created by Maison Mumm. The champagne company made the product specifically so that space tourists can share bubbly in zero gravity (astronauts aren’t allowed to drink liquor on the job—sorry, NASA).

The Japanese space agency just launched a prototype space elevator to the International Space Station to test motion along a taut cable in space.

AN ASTEROID the size of a 44-tonne lorry will zip past the planet tonight, astronomers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have warned.

Japan’s space agency just made history by landing robots on an asteroid.

Stephen and Neil deGrasse Tyson take NASA’s Mars Rover for a ride around Midtown Manhattan.

Rings Shadows, and Rhea and Epimetheus, Moons of Saturn… Credit: NASA/Cassini mission.

We celebrate NASA’s first 60 years of achievement.

News Brief: The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency today launched a robotic cargo ship to the International Space Station, filled with more than five tons of supplies, equipment and experiments. Liftoff of Japan’s H-IIB rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center came at 2:52 a.m. JST Sept. 23 (10:52 a.m. PT Sept. 22). Minutes later, the HTV-7 cargo carrier (also known as Kounotori-7) separated from the rocket, heading for a Thursday rendezvous with the space station. Among the cylindrical craft’s payloads are new hardware to upgrade the station’s electrical power system, an experiment to study protein crystal growth at low temperatures, a life-sciences glovebox and an experimental sample return capsule.