Noble Audio FoKus Artemis: two-minute review

In Ancient Greece, Artemis was a goddess of many things: vegetation, hunting, wild creatures, childbirth… the list goes on. It’s fair to say that she was considered abundant in talent. And her moniker is not wasted on the Noble Audio FoKus Artemis: a set of wireless headphones that have far-reaching, broad talents of their own.

The FoKus Artemis are, put simply, an exceptionally strong performing set of cans. In fact, they might be the best-sounding pair of wireless headphones I’ve used. They have a triple-driver configuration, with dynamic, balanced armature, and planar drivers, affording them all of the dynamism, precision, and speed required to showcase your favorite tracks in their best light.

Like the best headphones around, the Artemis supply palpable yet regimented bass, beautifully detailed and textured mids, and expressive, articulate treble. But the real shining star is their excellent soundstaging. The Artemis bring forth an immense sense of space and scale, making for a highly immersive listen time after time. With aptX Lossless, LDAC, and USB-C audio, you also get high-resolution, nuanced sound that competes with the greatest headphones on the market.

But something else that sets these headphones apart from the crowd is their granular sound control. With help from Audiodo, Noble has included personalized EQ on the Artemis, which can account for hearing loss and provide optimized audio for all users. There’s also parametric EQ and a number of presets that will suit any listener.

The FoKus Artemis boast quite the suite of features, actually, with an effective companion app, wear detection and multi-point connectivity to give you the everyday convenience that you’d hope for at this money. ANC is here too, with a number of modes, including a transparency option. Noise cancellation here isn’t the best of the best, and the Artemis’ looser fit also means a fair few external sounds creep in now and then. But it’s still relatively effective, and will still help dull the world around you.

Spatial audio modes, though functional, also felt a little underwhelming to me during testing, but the Artemis’ wide soundstage means you get a nice and expansive listen from the headphones anyway. Call quality is strong, though, owing to the headphones’ seven-mic array, and you get up to 55 hours of playback (35 hours with ANC on), as well as a replaceable battery, adding longevity to the headphones.

In my view, the Artemis look great as well. Their metallic detailing, fabric headband, and textured ear cups ensure they exude all of the style and luxury you’d look for in an ultra-premium pair of headphones. There aren’t any touch controls, but the physical buttons work well, and are highly responsive. It also helps that the headphones are extremely well-fitting, and they feel comfortable to wear throughout the day.

But here it comes: the price. The Noble Audio FoKus Artemis cost a whopping $899 / £799 (about AU$1,200). Is the price-tag justified? It really depends on your outlook. They’re a seriously advanced set of headphones, with the triple-driver set-up, personalized EQ and premium build adding a lot in terms of value. But you can get phenomenal sound for less — even the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 are $100 / £170 less than these.

Still, if you want truly stellar audio and ultra-precise sound control, then it really doesn’t get much better than the Noble Audio FoKus Artemis. They’re a wonderful pair of headphones, and if you’ve got the budget, then they’re pretty easy for me to recommend. But for some slightly cheaper yet excellent alternatives, be sure to head down to the ‘also consider’ section.

Noble Audio FoKus Artemis review: price & release date

• Priced at $899 / £799 (about AU$1,200)
• Released in August 2026

The Noble Audio FoKus Artemis started shipping in August 2026, although I got to try them back in June, when the headphones were showcased at High End Vienna 2026. The Artemis are an ultra-premium pair of wireless headphones, and as a result, they carry a very hefty asking price. They’ll typically set you back $899 / £799 (about AU$1,200).

Sure, some rivals, like the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H100 and Focal Bathys MG, will set you back even further, but I won’t pretend that the Artemis aren’t a huge investment. And you can get exceptional sounding headphones for considerably less — for example, the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 are a good $100 / £170 less than the Artemis at $799 / £629 / AU$1,299.

Noble Audio FoKus Artemis review: specs

Noble Audio FoKus Artemis review: features

• Personal EQ can account for hearing loss
• Strong battery life of up to 55 hours
• ANC is acceptable, rather than great

Noble Audio has put a ton of thought and effort into the feature-set of the FoKus Artemis, and this results in a great user experience.

Where to start? Well, I think the most interesting function is the personalized EQ, which offers surprising depth. Noble Audio partnered with Swedish firm Audiodo to implement a hearing test on the Artemis, meaning you can unlock a sound that suits you — it even accounts for hearing loss. Using Noble’s app, you’ll be asked to listen to a set of prompts, which test your hearing across the frequency range in each ear, and you’ll get a custom EQ that provides bespoke, optimized audio.

This works really well, and can be toggled on or off. There are also a number of presets and a parametric equalizer if you want more granular control. Few headphones offer this attention to detail, and even though I loved the default tuning on the Artemis, they really can sound however you want them to.

There are also some spatial audio modes, with a subtle and immersive option. I didn’t love these so much — I found that tracks sounded less clear and concise, and given that the Artemis whip up an impressive sense of space anyway, I kept this off.

Let’s talk about one of the most important features next, ANC. The Artemis have a seven-microphone system with multiple noise-cancelling modes, including low, mid, and strong ANC and a transparency mode.

So, how good is noise-cancellation with the Artemis? Well, it’s decent. I used them across a huge range of environments: flights, trains, when out on walks, in the office, and at home. When using the strongest mode, I found that they eliminated sounds like typing and light chatter nicely, but more intensive stuff, like a plane’s engine running and passing-by traffic, tended to seep in quite easily. In part, this comes down to the more relaxed fit and clamping on the Artemis, but I did expect a bit more in terms of noise-crushing from these cans, given their price.

Something the mics handle very well, though, is calls. Whenever I made a video or voice call, people on the other end of the line reported that my speech was clear, and never tinny or obscured. This was also the case when I made some recordings and listened back.

The Artemis also impressed me a fair bit in terms of battery life. They offer up to 55 hours of playback with ANC off, and 35 hours. That’s slightly above the standard 30 hours that a lot of premium models offer, and means you’ll be able to listen for days on-end without having to charge the Artemis at all. The battery is also user-replaceable, which is becoming more common with EU legislation making this a requirement for portable devices.

Controlling the Artemis is also pretty straightforward. They feature traditional button controls, favored by a lot of audiophiles for their reliability. Personally, I’m a fan of touch controls (when done right), but this is omitted on the Artemis. Something that does feature, though, is wear detection and this is highly responsive and accurate — it can be toggled off if you’d prefer. Finally, the app is incredibly easy to use and well-laid out. I’ve seen some reports of iOS users having issues, but on my Android phone, the companion software worked perfectly.

• Features score: 4/5

Noble Audio FoKus Artemis review: sound quality

• Triple driver configurations delivers exceptional balance across the frequency range
• Wide soundstage creates a hypnotic listening experience
• Top-tier codec support and USB-C audio passthrough

It may not surprise you to find out that the Noble Audio FoKus Artemis are a truly spectacular-sounding pair of wireless headphones. In fact, they’re up there with some of the best performers I’ve tested here at TechRadar.

This model stands out from the crowd due to one specific design choice: its triple driver configuration. Dynamic drivers are great for handling the bass and mids, but balanced armature and planar drivers enable the Artemis to deliver enhanced precision, speed, and fidelity. But what’s the actual listening experience like?

Well, the most striking thing about the Artemis for me is their ability to conjure up a tremendously spacious, wide sound. For closed back, wireless headphones, the scale on offer is striking, and I was always treated to an almost hypnotic experience, no matter what genre I threw on.

In What We Got by Midas Field and Marjin Jensen, pumping bass hit with great impact and dynamism, without ever shrouding vocals in the mid-range or percussion up high. The speed and responsiveness of the low-end is excellent, and extends nice and low, meaning that even the darkest sounds in the frequency range sound full-bodied and controlled. Drums in the treble range were also precise and expressive without sounding overly bright, helping the Artemis to perfectly capture the energy of the track.

Switching over to Miracles by Change, and the Artemis continue to impress. Electric guitars were perfectly weighted in the mix, and sounded beautifully textured. They were also expertly separated from emotive vocals, which were in turn given plenty of room to express themselves. Subtle percussive elements were also perfectly audible, and the wide soundstage opened up a highly immersive listening experience.

As my phone supports both LDAC and aptX, I was able to get a highly detailed listen from the FoKus Artemis. USB-C audio passthrough also opens up genuine lossless playback, and with this, the Artemis offer up a phenomenally revealing, layered, and nuanced sound that helps to justify their high asking price.

• Sound quality score: 5/5

Noble Audio FoKus Artemis review: design

• Stunning design with fabric headband and metallic detailing
• Very comfortable in use, though looser fit has its downsides
• IP52 dust and waterproof rating

If I could use one word to describe the look of the Noble Audio FoKus Artemis, it would be ‘striking’. The silver metallic detailing on the earcups is bold and eye-catching, and truly exudes a sense of luxury. The fabric headband is also built to a great standard, and the plush earcups appear textured and stylish.

There are a few plastic elements on the Artemis, and you could argue that some parts — like the buttons and carry case — don’t exactly look the most premium. But overall I think that the Artemis are a great-looking pair of headphones. They’re also relatively flat and low-profile, which I really like — I’ve never been a fan of the bulkier look of headphones like the Sony WH-1000XM6.

On top of this, the Artemis are amazingly comfortable in-use. I happily kept them on for hours upon hours when making a long train journey, and never found them to be uncomfortable or overbearing. On my (relatively large) head, I’d say that the Artemis fall on the looser side, fit-wise. While this ensures great comfort, it could sometimes mean that external noises crept in a bit too easily — combined with the fairly middling ANC, this means that the Artemis fail to challenge the gods of the ANC domain, such as Bose and Sony.

Something that’s good to see, though, is that the Artemis have an IP rating. Sure, it’s nothing ground-breaking at IP52 — meaning they’re protected against dust ingress and water sprays — but very few over-ears actually display a rating, so kudos to Noble Audio for this.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Noble Audio FoKus Artemis review: value

• Undoubtedly expensive
• But the exemplary sound quality helps to justify this
• Still, exceptional performers are available for less

Look, the Noble Audio FoKus Artemis are a very expensive pair of wireless headphones. At $899 / £799 (about AU$1,200), they sit right up there with models like the Focal Bathys MG, and even exceed the excellent Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 in cost.

But are they really worth it? It honestly depends. If you want some of the best-sounding wireless cans on the market, then you’ll get just that with the Artemis. I’m not sure I’ve experienced any wireless headphones that outperform these. Their spacious, nuanced sound is a delight, and has made me never want to take them off. They also look great and offer a real sense of luxury, while features like the personalized EQ are rarely seen elsewhere.

Still, I can’t help but feel that their ANC could be better for the price, and you can still get incredible sound for a fair bit less with a luxury design from the Px8 S2. As a result, I’d consider the Artemis to be good value if you’re all in on sound, but perhaps consider the options in the ‘also consider’ section if you want to spend a little less.

• Value score: 3.5/5

Should I buy the Noble Audio FoKus Artemis?

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Noble Audio FoKus Artemis review: also consider

How I tested the Noble Audio FoKus Artemis

• Tested for one month
• Used on flights, trains, on walks, and in the office
• Mainly streamed tunes over Tidal

I spent one month testing the Noble Audio FoKus Artemis, using them as my primary set of headphones. I used them on flights, trains, and buses, but also when out on walks, working at the office, or relaxing at home. Using them in such a range of environments helped me to fully understand the effectiveness of their ANC capabilities.

When listening to music, I typically streamed tunes over Tidal on my Xiaomi 17 phone, which supports aptX and LDAC codecs, but I also dipped into Spotify from time to time. As always, I sifted through the TechRadar reference playlist when testing, but I also listened to countless hours of music from my personal library.

More generally, I’ve spent years testing audio gear here at TechRadar, including everything from wired IEMs like the Beyerdynamic DT 30 IE to party speakers such as the Marshall Bromley 750. I’ve also tested a whole host of premium headphones, including the Sony 1000X The Collexion and Bang & Olufsen H100, so I know exactly what a pair of headphones needs to stand out in a highly competitive market.

• Read TechRadar’s reviews guarantee
• First reviewed: October 2026

• Russia has launched 32 Rassvet satellites, though coverage remains limited
• Rassvet remains vastly smaller than Starlink’s expanding satellite constellation today
• Russia plans 156 satellite launches in 2026, 292 in 2027, 318 in 2028, and about 900 in 2035

Russia has launched 32 Rassvet communications satellites as Moscow works toward building a domestic network capable of competing with Starlink.

The current fleet, however, remains too small to provide continuous service, while reported orbital problems have raised further doubts about progress.

Russia still plans commercial operations from 2027, although reaching that stage depends on expanding the constellation and overcoming serious technical limitations.

Thirty-two satellites leave Russia far from continuous coverage

Ukraine's Defense Intelligence chief, Oleh Ivashchenko, said the existing constellation cannot yet deliver reliable communications across the areas Russia intends to serve.

“We know that today the Russians are trying to put satellites into orbit. But so far, there are not enough of them, and their effectiveness is low,” said Oleh Ivashchenko, chief of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence.

Ivashchenko did not disclose the spacecraft’s orbital paths, operating frequency, or the Ukrainian regions where the system currently provides coverage.

However, he maintains that Rassvet remains far smaller than Starlink, which has more than 12,000 satellites in orbit and continues adding around 200 spacecraft each month.

The much smaller constellation means Rassvet cannot yet provide the same level of continuous coverage as Starlink.

Moscow has committed 102.8 billion rubles, or about $1.3 billion, to Rassvet as part of efforts to establish domestic broadband connectivity.

Russia plans to launch 156 satellites in 2026, followed by another 292 spacecraft by 2027, when authorities expect commercial operations to begin.

The programme ultimately aims for 318 satellites by 2028, while later plans envisage expanding the network from 250 spacecraft toward 900 by 2035.

Those figures reveal the scale of work remaining, since the existing fleet represents only a fraction of Russia's planned communications infrastructure.

Technical problems could make expansion considerably harder

Reports indicate that some Rassvet spacecraft faced difficulty gaining altitude, with certain satellites drifting downward after reaching orbit.

Defense Express reported on August 25 2026 that one Rassvet-3 communications satellite was lost, while two others faced possible atmospheric reentry.

Such incidents could complicate Russia's schedule because each failed spacecraft reduces the already limited constellation and creates additional pressure on future launches.

Building the planned network would require at least 18 Soyuz-2.1b missions, despite Russia currently carrying out only six to eight launches annually.

The launch requirement therefore creates another obstacle, especially if replacement spacecraft become necessary after further technical failures during orbital operations.

Rassvet could eventually provide communications links for unmanned aircraft and military units operating beyond the practical limits of conventional radio systems.

That possibility gained greater attention after Ukraine and SpaceX restricted unauthorized Starlink terminals reportedly used by Russian forces during February 2026.

“We are working on this. Russia’s ‘Rassvet svg’ must turn into a ‘zakat svg,’” said Oleh Ivashchenko, chief of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence.

Russia continues developing Rassvet despite these setbacks, but the current constellation remains unable to provide continuous connectivity expected from a fully operating network.

Via United24media

• Some Rassvet satellites remain dangerously low after failing to raise their orbits
• One Rassvet spacecraft has already fallen from orbit and reentered Earth's atmosphere
• Two newer satellites have shown no observed orbital-raising maneuvers since July 2026

Moscow's push to field its own broadband satellite network is running into some technical and industrial issues, new reports have revealed.

Bureau 1440, the company developing the Rassvet-3 system, has sent up two batches of spacecraft in 2026, one in March and another in July.

According to reports, some of these systems did not climb smoothly toward their intended altitude; instead, they stalled, drifted, or fell back toward Earth.

A satellite already lost, others trending downward

One craft from the first group, known as Rassvet-3 No. 4, never managed to raise its orbit after separating from its rocket.

That satellite, catalogued as NORAD 68363, eventually reentered the atmosphere on June 6, marking an outright loss for the young constellation.

Two more spacecraft from the second launch group, numbers 17 and 23, appear to be following a similar pattern of inactivity.

Tracking data shows neither satellite has performed any observed maneuver to climb higher since it separated from its carrier rocket on July 19.

Both currently sit at an average altitude near 290 kilometers, with their lowest points measured at roughly 277 kilometers above the surface.

Without engine activity to counter this decline, the pair could eventually drop low enough that reentry becomes essentially unavoidable.

However, there are some positives, as some of the satellites have successfully begun climbing, though none has reached the network's target altitude of about 800 kilometers.

Spacecraft from the earliest operational batch launched just over five months ago, and at the moment, they hover between 500 and 550 kilometers.

A few more units from the group are not yet at that intermediate range, which means that the company is yet to hit its long-term altitude plan.

The Bureau 1440 has now paused raising some Rassvet satellites higher toward their planned 800-kilometer orbit, and the company hasn't revealed the reason for the pause.

Ground infrastructure adds to the program's troubles

Russia intends for the Rassvet network to rival SpaceX's Starlink by offering fast internet through hundreds of orbiting satellites.

Officials have said commercial service should begin in 2027, with plans calling for 292 satellites to be functioning in orbit by year's end.

Meeting that timeline would require Bureau 1440 to conduct a rapid sequence of additional launches over the coming months.

A separate complication has now emerged on the ground, far from the satellites already circling the planet.

Ukrainian forces allegedly used FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles to strike Samara's Progress Rocket and Space Center.

That facility builds the Soyuz-2.1b rockets responsible for carrying every Rassvet-3 satellite launched so far this year.

The plant also supports numerous other Russian launches, including several military, reconnaissance, and communications missions unrelated to broadband service.

The rocket production capacity is one of the central bottlenecks limiting the constellation's overall deployment pace.

Should the damage at Progress persist, sustaining the launch tempo needed to reach nearly 300 satellites may prove genuinely difficult.

Via United24media

Elon Musk's long-term ambition of colonizing Mars is an idea you'd normally find in science fiction novels rather than something actually on the cards for humanity today. Yet that's what the tech entrepreneur is hoping we can achieve within his lifetime. As for the first humans on Mars? It's likely to be much sooner – and even as soon as 2030.

Life on Mars

Musk bluntly outlined the possible risks that any manned mission to Mars will involve when speaking at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) a decade ago.

His comments underlined the fact that the engineers and astronauts involved in the first flights will have to accept extreme risk – and serve as a means of psychological filtering for anybody considering a role in such a mission as and when it may happen in the future.

During his talk, Musk also launched a concept design for an Interplanetary Transport System spaceship, which is designed to carry between 100 and 200 settlers to Mars, with roughly 1,000 of these vessels leaving Earth in unison.

Ashes to Ashes

Despite Musk's longstanding ambition for SpaceX to get people onto Mars, developments in recent months and years have stalled progress – especially a pivot from the company to focus on the Moon.

Musk formally delayed the Mars infrastructure timeline by up to seven years in February, citing the need to protect humanity's future by building a "self-growing city" on the lunar surface. This is despite saying in January last year that "we're going straight to Mars" while describing the Moon as "a distraction".

Musk's comments over the last few years about getting to Mars have come across as overly ambitious, putting it mildly. Critics suggest that SpaceX may never actually achieve this – including Britain's chief astrophysicist Lord Martin Rees, who described the plans as "dangerous delusion".

• Large-scale cardboard ENIAC replica recreates historic computer layout using thousands of handmade parts
• Teacher credits dyscalculia-driven spatial reasoning as key factor in engineering massive classroom builds
• Students construct nearly 300 square meters of cardboard structure matching original computer dimensions

A full-scale replica of one of the earliest programmable digital computers now fills a classroom space in Arizona, built almost entirely from cardboard and wood by students working under a teacher who credits his own dyscalculia (the math equivalent of dyslexia) for shaping how he engineers.

The life-size recreation of ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), widely regarded as the world’s first general-purpose programmable electronic computer, stretches across hundreds of square feet and mirrors the layout of the original machine that once weighed about 30 short tons.

Students at PS Academy in Arizona spent nearly six months assembling the structure, producing around 22,000 custom parts and joining them using roughly 1,600 hot glue sticks, according to I Programmer.

Experience, scale, and structure of ENIAC

Instead of steel cabinets packed with wiring and electronics, the replica uses layered cardboard panels with LED lighting to simulate the appearance of the original units.

Technology instructor Tom Burick said the project focused on recreating the physical experience of the machine rather than making it run.

"This project was never intended to recreate a working ENIAC. It was designed to recreate the experience, scale, and structure of ENIAC — so students and the public can understand what early computing really looked like and what it demanded of the people who built and operated it," he said.

Every major unit found in the original system, including accumulators, function tables, and the master programmer, appears in the correct physical position, matching historical layouts as closely as possible.

Students worked from original patent drawings, military documentation, and detailed photographs while also communicating with historians and museum staff to verify accuracy.

Burick’s path into teaching followed years spent building robots and running his own robotics company before turning toward education after the business closed during the financial crisis of the late 2000s, according to IEEE Spectrum.

He said his own dyscalculia shaped the way he approaches engineering challenges, forcing him to develop alternative ways of solving technical problems.

“People tell you what it takes, but they never tell you what it gives,” Burick said. “To me, [it] has always been a superpower.”

The completed replica includes 18,000 simulated vacuum tubes and multiple function tables arranged in the same U-shaped configuration used by the original machine.

By the time construction finished, the scale of the project left the classroom filled wall-to-wall with towering panels that recreate how early computing environments once appeared.

The ENIAC system itself was dismantled decades ago, leaving only scattered sections preserved in museums, which meant most people would never see the machine assembled in full form again.

Rebuilding it at full scale offered students a way to engage with computing history physically rather than through textbooks or diagrams alone.

IEEE Spectrum notes that previous projects led by Burick include an 8-foot-long drivable Cybertruck replica, and future plans could involve recreating hardware connected to NASA’s Artemis missions, something I'd love to see.

Fusion propulsion has been proposed for decades as a highly efficient way to move spacecraft faster across the solar system without the need for massive amounts of fuel. Making that concept a reality has, however, proved difficult, especially when it comes to controlling plasma and directing it into usable thrust.

Now a UK-based propulsion developer believes it has taken an early step toward achieving that goal.

At Amazon’s MARS Conference in California, Pulsar Fusion demonstrated “first plasma” in its Sunbird exhaust test system, with the experiment conducted in Bletchley, UK, and streamed live to the stage.

The test showed plasma being confined and guided through the exhaust architecture, offering a first look at how a fusion-powered propulsion system might work outside of theory and simulation.

A reusable space tug in orbit

Chemical rockets provide strong bursts of thrust but burn through large amounts of propellant, while electric systems stretch fuel efficiency but accelerate slowly over long periods.

Fusion propulsion is attractive because it offers the possibility of combining high thrust with extremely high exhaust velocity, something current propulsion systems cannot deliver at the same time.

Pulsar’s Sunbird concept takes aim at that trade-off by acting as a reusable space tug operating in orbit.

Instead of launching spacecraft with large amounts of chemical propellant, a lighter vehicle could dock with the tug and receive the push needed to reach destinations such as the Moon.

Internal modelling suggests that approach could reduce in-space propellant requirements by more than 90% for missions similar to Artemis II.

The recent plasma milestone is still an early-stage result, but it provides a clearer view of how fusion propulsion hardware could evolve from laboratory experiments into practical spacecraft systems.

I wanted to find out more, so spoke with Pulsar Fusion CEO Richard Dinan about the technical hurdles ahead, the economics of fusion propulsion, and how systems like Sunbird could reshape future missions.

• What breakthroughs has Pulsar Fusion achieved in order to deliver this first successful demonstration of plasma control?

The breakthrough here was not a single moment, but the successful integration of several difficult elements into one working system.

We were able to generate plasma within the exhaust structure and demonstrate that it could be guided and shaped using electromagnetic fields in a propulsion-relevant architecture.

That matters because controlling plasma is fundamental. Before you can talk seriously about higher-energy systems, you first have to show that you can create the flow, contain it, and direct it in a stable and measurable way.

This demonstration was an early but important step in proving that the architecture behaves as intended.

That matters enormously in space, because every kilogram of propellant launched from Earth is expensive. A high-Specific Impulse propulsion system can dramatically reduce the amount of fuel that must be carried for deep-space maneuvers.

• Specific Impulse will be a new concept for our audience. Can you describe why this metric is so important and how an Artemis mission based on plasma technology would differ in terms of fuel carried, risks, and CAPEX/OPEX?

In an Artemis-type architecture, that could mean a very different mission design. Instead of relying entirely on chemical propulsion launched from Earth in one go, you could imagine lighter spacecraft being delivered to orbit and then transferred onward by highly efficient in-space propulsion systems.

That changes the fuel equation, reduces dependence on brute force launch mass, and opens the door to reusable orbital infrastructure.

This ultimately means lighter launch craft, and therefore less fuel and less weight, resulting in faster, cheaper, more efficient missions.

• You argue that a shift away from single-launch delivery mechanisms to a reusable (and therefore cheaper) model lies in our common future. Can you tell us more about your vision and what sort of price point you predict, given that Orbital predicts $10/kg?

Our view is that the future of space will look less like single-use expeditionary missions and more like a transport network.

Today, most missions still depend on launching everything needed for the mission in one stack, from one gravity well, at one moment in time. That is expensive and inherently inefficient.

We think the long-term future is an orbital economy built around reusable infrastructure: vehicles that move cargo, fuel, and eventually strategic assets between orbits and beyond, without being discarded after one mission.

That does not just reduce cost, it changes what becomes commercially possible. Once mobility in space becomes reusable, you can start treating propulsion as an operational service rather than a disposable hardware event.

• One of the facts you mentioned surprised me. Sunbird delivers megawatt-scale onboard power. How does that happen? What sort of energy ranges (in MWh) are we looking at, and what use cases does it unlock?

It's an important point that a fusion-based propulsion architecture is not only interesting because of thrust. It is also interesting because, in principle, it is tied to very large energy flows. That means a mature system could potentially support both propulsion and substantial onboard power availability.

At this stage, however, we would be careful to distinguish between long-term system potential and what is being demonstrated today.

The present work is about validating elements of plasma control and exhaust architecture, not delivering a flight-ready power platform.

In the long run, if such systems mature as hoped, megawatt-class onboard power could unlock a very different category of spacecraft capability, including deep-space operations, power-hungry payloads, and entirely new classes of orbital and interplanetary missions.

• How did Pulsar Fusion achieve what looks like a major breakthrough in propulsion while titans (SpaceX, NASA) haven't yet cracked it? What is the secret sauce, and how do you plan to keep abreast of the competition?

I would be careful with the framing. We are not claiming to have solved fusion propulsion in its entirety, and there is still a great deal of work ahead.

What we have done is move quickly and show early progress in a specific architecture that we believe has long-term promise.

Large organizations often have different incentives. They may be focused on near-term operational systems, legacy architectures, or broader institutional priorities. Smaller companies can sometimes move faster in frontier areas because they are willing to concentrate their effort on a narrower technical pathway.

• You mentioned nuclear fusion space propulsion in your March 2026 press release. How is that different from the "holy grail" represented by the tokamak?

A tokamak is designed first and foremost as a terrestrial fusion power machine. Its job is to confine plasma for long enough, at sufficient temperature and pressure, to produce useful net energy in a stationary power-generation context.

A space propulsion system has a very different objective. It is not simply trying to replicate a grid-scale fusion plant in orbit. It is trying to create a system in which high-energy plasma can ultimately be used for propulsion in a mass-constrained, mission-driven environment.

So while both involve plasma physics and fusion-related principles, the design logic is very different.

One is optimized for stable power production on Earth; the other is being pursued as a propulsion architecture for space, where efficiency, mass, controllability, and exhaust behavior are central.

Only a very lucky few people ever get to travel into space, but more than 5.6 million names just completed a journey around the Moon, stored on a microSD card carried aboard NASA’s Artemis II mission.

That flight sent four astronauts farther from Earth than humans have ever traveled, completing a roughly 10-day mission that orbited the Moon before safely returning to Earth.

The trip tested critical systems for future deep-space exploration and marked a major milestone for the Artemis program which will ultimately return humans to the surface of the Moon in 2028.

Today's top memory card deal

The microSD card, carrying 5,647,889 submitted names, was zipped into Rise, the mission’s mascot, a cartoonish Moon wearing a cap covered in stars. The mascot itself was designed by a year three student from California, called Lucas Ye, whose artwork was selected from more than 2,600 entries from over 50 countries.

While the specific card zipped inside Rise was certified for spaceflight conditions, it traces its lineage to the SanDisk Ultra series used by people here on Earth inside cameras, handheld devices, and portable recording gear.

The consumer version of the SanDisk Ultra microSD series comes in 16 and 32GB capacities and supports both microSD and microSDHC formats, making it compatible with a wide range of devices used for everyday recording and storage tasks.

Rated at Class 10 speeds, the card supports read speeds of up to 80MB/s, which suits Full HD video capture, burst photography, and quick file transfers.

It's durable, with protection against water, temperature extremes, and X-ray exposure, and maybe (but we wouldn't bet on it), trips around the Moon.

After splashdown, the mission mascot didn’t stay tucked away inside the spacecraft as it should have done according to NASA's mission rules, Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman later revealed on X.

“I was supposed to leave Rise in Integrity….but that was not something I was going to do. I stuffed that little guy in a dry bag we had in our survival kit and hooked the bag onto my pressure suit,” he wrote.

• Shop all SD cards at Amazon

• Artemis II generates data volumes that old systems cannot handle efficiently
• Laser communications transmit far more data than traditional radio systems
• Infrared light enables high-speed space communication across vast distances

The sheer volume of data generated during modern lunar missions has rendered old radio systems nearly obsolete.

Artemis II was expected to produce somewhere between 300GB and over 400GB of high-resolution imagery and telemetry by the mission’s end.

By comparison, the Apollo 13 mission operated with a fraction of that capacity, and the difference is not just incremental — it’s a fundamental overhaul in how spacecraft talk to Earth.

The engineering shift that made the leap possible

Traditional radio frequencies could not move that much data quickly enough, so engineers turned to an entirely different method: laser communications.

Laser communications rely on invisible infrared light, which travels at the same speed as radio waves but carries far more information.

Because infrared light has a higher frequency, it can pack more data into each transmission - and the Orion Artemis II Optical Communications System (O2O) demonstrated the ability to downlink over 100GB of data.

This system could move roughly 36GB in a single hour, outpacing traditional radio systems on the S-band, which could manage only about 7GB per day.

NASA noted, “More data means more discoveries,” although the practical benefits for crew safety and real-time decision-making remain to be fully proven.

However, this system came with its earthly limitations, and any weather disruption could interrupt the flow of information.

Ground station telescopes at NASA’s White Sands Complex in New Mexico and the Table Mountain Facility in California had to operate in high, dry environments with minimal cloud cover to maintain a strong laser link.

Still, the O2O terminal — comprising a 4-inch telescope, two gimbals, a modem, and a controller — passed multi-day readiness reviews.

A NASA official described the achievement as “an impressive leap” forward, yet the system was not used on Artemis III, raising questions about the pace of adoption.

While a 100,000-fold improvement over Apollo 13 sounds extraordinary, the comparison deserves scrutiny.

Apollo 13’s radio systems were designed in the 1960s, and modern radio technology has also improved considerably.

The real test will be whether laser communications prove reliable over deep-space distances without frequent ground-station interventions.

The Australian National University attempted to receive O2O’s laser links using affordable commercial components — a demonstration that could validate or undermine claims of scalability.

For now, the numbers are impressive, but space history is littered with promising technologies that struggled outside controlled conditions.

• The Orion spacecraft uses eight processors running identical instructions simultaneously
• A fail-safe design prevents faulty computers from sending incorrect commands
• Triple redundant memory corrects single-bit errors automatically on access

The NASA Artemis II mission relies on a computing system built to remain operational under extreme conditions and hardware faults.

Unlike the Apollo program, where onboard computers handled limited functions, the Orion spacecraft manages life support, navigation, and communication through integrated flight software.

The Orion capsule carries one of the most fault-tolerant computer systems ever built for spaceflight, operating 250,000 miles from Earth, where no repairs are possible.

From Apollo's limits to Orion's full system control

Apollo astronauts relied on a 1MHz computer with just 4 kilobytes of memory, but today's spacecrafts need much more, considering the distance.

The Orion spacecraft uses two vehicle management computers, each containing two flight control modules.

Each module consists of a pair of processors that continuously check each other's outputs, resulting in 8 processors executing the same instructions simultaneously.

If a processor produces an incorrect result, the paired design detects the mismatch immediately and prevents the output from being used.

"We still architect to cover for hardware failures," said Nate Uitenbroek, Software Integration and Verification Lead in NASA's Orion Program.

"Along with physically redundant wires, we have logically redundant network planes. We have redundant flight computers."

Instead of relying on majority voting, the system selects outputs from available modules based on a defined priority order.

The system is designed to tolerate rapid failures during flight. Uitenbroek stated, "We can lose three FCMs in 22 seconds and still ride through safely on the last FCM… A faulty computer will fail silently, rather than transmit the wrong answer."

Failed modules are reset and re-synchronized, allowing them to rejoin the system during the mission.

Orion uses a time-triggered Ethernet network that distributes a shared time reference throughout the system - so if a module fails to meet its execution deadline, it is automatically isolated, reset, and re-synchronized before returning to operation.

The computing system includes triple-redundant memory capable of correcting single-bit errors during every read operation.

Network interfaces use dual communication lanes that are continuously compared to detect inconsistencies, while the overall network is replicated across three independent planes.

Orion carries a separate Backup Flight Software system that operates on different hardware and software, running continuously in the background.

"It is intentionally different to ensure that a common mode software failure in the primary flight software isn't also implemented incorrectly on the backup," Uitenbroek said.

The spacecraft also includes procedures for full power loss scenarios, allowing systems to restart, stabilize, and re-establish communication once power is restored.

The system is overengineered by any commercial standard, but deep space offers no second chances.

Whether all 8 processors will perform as designed under real radiation conditions remains untested, and the backup software has never faced an actual emergency.

Still, for a mission where the nearest hardware store is 250,000 miles away, this architecture makes a brutal kind of sense.

Via Communications of the ACM

Having successfully looped around the Moon and returned safely to Earth, taking its four man crew farther from home than any humans before, Artemis II's mission is now complete.

During that historic journey, iconic Earth images were stored on ProGrade Digital CFexpress Type B Iridium memory cards — including the same 400GB version that's currently available to buy on Amazon for $459.99.

That connection between a real lunar mission and a product anyone can buy makes this one of the cooler, more unusual pieces of camera gear I’ve come across. It isn’t tied to simulations or lab claims, but to hardware trusted during an actual crewed flight beyond the Moon.

Today's top memory card deal

ProGrade Digital entered into a Space Act agreement with NASA to support Artemis missions using its CFexpress Type B Iridium cards.

The hardware was chosen from several commercial options after testing showed it capable of handling harsh conditions similar to those found in space.

“The lunar surface presents very challenging environments for cameras and related storage media,” said Jeremy Myers, HULC Handheld Universal Lunar Camera COTS hardware lead. “The partnership developed between NASA and ProGrade will help ensure images and video are captured reliably when humanity returns to the Moon”.

“Through diligent teamwork between the ProGrade San Jose engineering team, NASA’s Space Systems Department at the Marshall Space Flight Center, and key memory technology supplier – Phison Electronics – we were able to go from sample submission to hardware delivery in just under 18 months," said Wes Brewer, founder, and CEO of ProGrade Digital.

"During qualification, our cards were placed into the extreme environmental conditions uniquely encountered in outer space, over many hours of testing to maximize the reliable capture and playback of still images and video in the specially designed Nikon Z9 camera was possible."

"Perhaps the best part of this accomplishment is for our everyday customers, who can now buy memory cards that will be used in the Handheld Universal Lunar Camera during future Artemis missions.”

The same card family is part of the Space Act agreement supporting the Handheld Universal Lunar Camera, or HULC, system planned to land on the lunar surface as part of NASA’s Artemis III mission.

This 400GB card supports read speeds up to 3550MB/s and sustained write speeds up to 850MB/s, giving it the bandwidth needed for large RAW files and high-resolution video. That speed will perfectly suits photographers (on or off Earth) working with 4K or 8K footage.

Compatibility with CFexpress Type B cameras and backward support for XQD devices makes it useful across a wide range of professional camera bodies.

Owning the same storage hardware used to capture real images during humanity’s latest journey around the Moon is a rare crossover between space exploration and everyday photography equipment. It's a cool thing to own, even if the photographs and videos you store on it are likely to be of a more down to Earth nature.

• Shop all SD cards at Amazon

Another week, another seven days of some seriously big tech news, and we're here to help you catch up on what you might have missed.

From Mac shortages to Artemis II iPhone photos, we have recaps of the seven biggest news stories of the week below for you.

When you're finished, make sure to also check out the eight new movies and TV shows you should watch this weekend.

7. Pebblebee built an excellent AirTag rival

This week, personal safety device company Pebblebee launched its new Halo tracker, a new AirTag rival but with added functionalities.

Built on that ‘what if something goes wrong’ feeling, the Halo tracker can be registered on Apple’s Find My app or Google’s Find Hub, so no additional app is required. When activated, the tracker signals a 130dB siren when activated to attract attention from passersby in the area, and will also emit a flashing strobe of light (which doubles as a 150-lumen flashlight), all while sharing your real-time location with up to five trusted contacts called your Safety Circle

It’s retailing now for $59.99/ £55.28/ AU$87.88, and each device comes with a free 12-month subscription to Pebblebee’s Alert Live plan, which is required for live location sharing.

• Read the full story: Pebblebee’s new personal tracker is an AirTag crossed with a safety siren

6. We tried DJI's robovac

The people at DJI know a lot about drones, but it turns out they’re no slouches when it comes to robot vacuums, either. We tested the new DJI Romo P, with its funky transparent case that lets you see its cleaning components while it works, and its obstacle detection and navigation blew us away.

The Romo P surpassed expectations in our vacuuming tests, too, getting right into the corners of the room, and did an admirable job mopping up messy spills on hard floors. It’s expensive, yes, but it’s one of the best robot vacuums that has ever roamed our floors, and we highly recommend it.

• Read the full story: DJI’s first foray into the pantheon of home cleaning

5. We experienced Sony RGB TV

We've been waiting for Sony's formal entry into RGB TV, and this week we got a first look at what the TV giant has dubbed True RGB. It's an eye-catching name amongst the crowded RGB TV space, with Samsung, TCL, and Hisense all already taking up space.

Our early first impressions of Sony's True RGB TV tech proved good, though, with punchy colors, high brightness, and overall impressive visuals. Sony says its first consumer TV model with True RGB will launch in Spring 2026, and Sony's RGB TV tech is a three-diode system with one red, one green, and one blue, plus a new backlight driver controlled by Sony's unique mix.

As always, Sony will strive not to skew reality and, ideally, deliver visuals that match the creator's intent.

• Read the full story: I saw Sony’s True RGB TV tech in action

4. We poured one out for Samsung Messages

We said goodbye to Samsung Messages this week, as the South Korean tech brand announced the service is shutting down in July.

The announcement came with a suggestion to switch to Google Messages, but many folks are frustrated by the change.

There's no workaround to keep access to Samsung Messages, but if you don’t like Google Messages, there are at least alternative apps you could use, including Textra SMS and Handcent Next SMS messenger.

• Read the full story: Samsung Galaxy owners rebel against being forced to switch to Google Messages

3. Amazon stopped support for some Kindles

As of May 20, Amazon will be pulling the plug on support for Kindles and Fire tablet models released before 2012. However, most of the affected devices are still widely used today (mainly the Kindle 3, Kindle 4, and the first generation Kindle Paperwhite), and it’s rubbed keen e-readers the wrong way.

When the day comes, you’ll still be able to read content that’s already downloaded on your device, but you won’t be able to purchase or download new books after the date has passed. For most users, the simplicity of a Kindle is what has kept them glued to older models instead of upgrading to Amazon’s more advanced, and therefore pricier, models. Besides, this isn’t stopping users from sideloading new books as a workaround — but how long will it be until Amazon clamps down on this, too?

• Read the full story: Amazon is pulling the plug on old Kindle devices

2. NASA shared its otherworldly iPhone snaps

The Artemis II mission has been wowing us, mere earthlings, this week with its deep-space adventures — and that included shooting what are probably the best iPhone and GoPro photos ever taken.

Two of these, showing astronauts Christina Koch and Reid Wiseman looking back towards their home planet, were shot using the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s selfie camera, no less. And outside the ship, a 12-year-old GoPro captured a mind-blowing photo of a lunar eclipse from the far side of the moon.

Our camera roll looks decidedly underwhelming by comparison. Still, it was fascinating to see NASA using some of the same dusty old camera tech – including the decade-old Nikon D5 DSLR – that we’ve been eyeing up in secondhand stores.

• Read the full story: The first iPhone 17 Pro Max photos sent back from the Artemis II mission really are out of this world

1. Mac stock ran low

Mac Mini, Mac Studio, and MacBook Neo stock has been running low across various Apple stores, and problems may persist.

You could be waiting several weeks, or even months in some cases, to receive your Mac Mini or Studio order, depending on your configuration. While Apple hasn't confirmed the rumors, many suspect the ongoing RAM crisis is to blame.

As for the MacBook Neo, the delays are instead being blamed on a weirder source: a lack of iPhone 16 Pro chips. The theory is that these chips were chosen because Apple had a stockpile of A18 Pros with a faulty CPU core; the five-core chips wouldn't work for phones but could be repurposed into Neo chips. However, the incredible popularity of the Neo may have taken Apple by surprise, leading to shortages.

• Read the full story: Mac shortages hit, and the RAM crisis is probably to blame

• Solar eclipse image from Artemis II shot with 12-year-old action cam
• The 'greatest gift' moment recorded with a GoPro Hero4 Black
• The mission's gear choices continue to surprise camera fans

The Artemis II crew continue to send stunning images back to earth of key moments during its moon fly-by — not least of which include a solar eclipse from the far side of the moon.

Like other iconic images from the mission, the sight, never before seen by humans and described by crew member Victor Glover as 'the greatest gift' of the mission, was captured with the most surprising camera gear of all, at least to camera fans and so far as image quality goes.

Following the Lumix GH5 for take-off shots, the decade-old Nikon D5 DSLR for the incredible Earthset image and earth selfies with iPhone 17s, the solar eclipse was captured with an even older action camera, the GoPro Hero4 Black.

A full 12-years-old, the Hero4 Black was launched in 2014 and has long been discontinued, being replaced several times over, with the latest model being the Hero 13 Black.

It's one of a string of surprising gear choices, at least to camera fans who might have expected the multi-billion dollar mission to be equipped with the latest and greatest camera gear. So what do we know about the solar eclipse images and the gear used to record the epic sight?

I need a Hero

NASA describes the image named 'Eclipsed: A View from Orion', dated April 6, 2026, as the moon, backlit by the Sun during a solar eclipse, with the Orion visible in the foreground on the left. It also reveals the bright spot visible just below the moon’s bottom right edge to be Saturn, and the bright spot at the right edge of the image as Mars.

EXIF data on the NASA site reveals the camera gear and settings used to record the solar eclipse image. The Hero4 Black was set to manual white balance, auto exposure, ISO 800, and a 5-second exposure time.

The Hero4 Black was the first in the series of action cams with ProTune manual control, which has enabled a slow shutter speed, along with Bluetooth and WiFi support, though, of course, later models pack these features and more.

And it's not the only stunning image from the mission captured with the Hero4 Black. Unsurprisingly, GoPro has shared other key images on its Instagram (see above), pinpointing four moments.

We reached out to GoPro for comment about why the Artemis II mission opted for the 12-year-old action camera, and it said;

"Unfortunately, we are not in the position to go any deeper on these questions than what is publicly available — NASA has very strict guidelines on their brand, and we can’t speak on their behalf."

I'm sure the camera gear choices will be one of many questions posed to the crew upon its safe return to earth, and I, for one, will be keen to hear what they have to say.

For now, I'm marvelling at the incredible images shared so far, in the knowledge that there are plenty more images and moments yet to come.

• NASA has revealed its playlist of wake-up call songs for the Artemis II crew
• It includes Chappell Roan's Pink Pony Club and a cover of Passion Pit's Sleepyhead
• This tradition dates back to the days of the Apollo missions

Aside from being a roaring success mid-mission, NASA’s Artemis II venture is one of the most important historical events of our time, but despite travelling through deep space its astronauts haven’t missed out on the simple things we love about life on Earth.

From its food menu of much-loved delicacies, to using the iPhone 17 Pro Max to snap pictures of our planet from afar, these things make life on the Orion spacecraft much more manageable — and the same goes for its choice of music. You heard that right. In space, pop music still exists.

Manned by the Artemis II control team based in Houston, Texas, NASA is playing a series of songs to the Orion spacecraft as wake-up calls for astronauts Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Jeremy Hansen. It’s a handy way to ensure the crew is kept on a schedule that aligns with the rest of the team down on Earth.

In between all the seriousness of the Artemis II venture, this is one of the light-hearted elements of the space mission that people have been following online. NASA unveils each song with every wake-up call, so the next one can remain a surprise, but there’s already been a slew of bangers NASA has emitted to the crew since they launched into space on April 1.

Kicking off the series of wake-up calls was Sleepyhead by Young and Sick (a cover of Passion Pit’s original version) — whose title is fitting to how the crew must’ve been feeling at the time.

The second wake-up call was soundtracked by John Legend and Andre 3000’s Greenlight, followed by In a Daydream by Freddy Jones Band and viral pop banger Pink Pony Club by Chappell Roan, which was cut only a minute into the song, garnering a humorous response from Wiseman: “We were eagerly awaiting the chorus,” he said to the control team.

CeeLo Green’s Working Class Heroes (Work), Mandisa and ToyMac’s Good Morning, and Glass Animals’ Tokyo Drifting finish the playlist. NASA has more tunes on the way as the Artemis II crew makes its way back to Earth, but we won’t know what they’ll be until NASA updates its official Spotify playlist, which you can stream right now.

It may be a surprise to you, but this isn't unique to the Artemis II mission. NASA's tradition of sending wake-up calls dates back all the way to the Apollo days, most notably when NASA used Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett to wake up the crew, and not forgetting when the theme for 2001: A Space Odyssey was used during the Apollo 15 mission in 1971.

Which tracks would you want to hear if you were confined in the Orion spacecraft?

Everyone is buzzing about Apple's rumored iPhone Fold: it might arrive in September with the iPhone 18! It might not arrive then because of production delays! It might not have a crease! So what. Who cares? Did you see the iPhone on the Orion spaceship? The one that Artemis II mission crew members used to photograph the moon? That's what matters. That's what I want to talk about.

The iPhone Fold is important not because anyone needs it. It's about competition and slot-filling. Samsung has ably carved out a folding phone market (at 2.5% ov the overall market, it's still tiny) and everyone is looking at Apple, wondering what's up.

In typical fashion, the Cupertino tech giant has taken its dear sweet time to develop its own foldable, all while watching everyone else work out the myriad flexy phone kinks. You know the ones I'm talking about: water tightness, ability to withstand a grit of sand, screen durability, and that cursed screen crease.

Whatever Apple finally delivers in June or September or next year, it will probably be the best single-dolidding phone we've ever seen, and it still won't be as remarkable as what just happened in space.

Think about this: An iPhone 17 Pro Max traveled, along with the Artemis II crew, further away from where it was designed and built than any consumer technology has traveled before. Commander Reid Wiseman slipped it into his space suit (actually, the Artemis II ground crew slipped it in), and then probably patted the spot once before the Artemis II spacecraft rocketed up and off Earth to a rendezvous with the moon.

I knew astronauts were allowed to take smartphones with them, but it never occurred to me that they might be using them in space. After all, the Orion spaceship is already equipped with cameras on the solar arrays and a bunch of handheld DSLRs like the Nikon D5, along with some formidable 400mm lenses.

On the other hand, these four astronauts are products of a modern digital age. Of course, they took out their phones and snapped selfies with our home in the background. Naturally, Commander Wiseman used his iPhone 17 Pro Max's 8x optical zoom, which uses a sensor crop, to pull the moon's jagged surface close enough to almost touch.

It's clear that smartphone use, whether it's iPhones, Samsung Galaxy handsets, or Google Pixels, in space will now be a part of space travel. Every subsequent flight in our return to the moon and eventual colonization will feature imagery captured on mobile devices.

I won't argue that the images captured by Apple's 48MP main camera are better or of a higher quality than those captured with the Nikon D5 and its huge lens, but they tell a different, more personal story. When the camera can be held up with one hand to capture the astronaut and her environment, the entire mission becomes more relatable and human.

Remember this moment: the week the iPhone went to space, it matters, a whole lot more than whether or not you get to see an iPhone Fold in 2026.

• Artemis II astronauts have snapped the Moon with their iPhones
• The photos were shown off during a NASA livestream
• More images continue to be shared as the Orion spacecraft heads home

Having circled around the Moon, the crew of the Artemis II are now heading back home – and spectacular photos taken by the astronauts on board the Orion spacecraft, with their iPhone 17 Pro Max handsets, keep on coming.

This time, it's a picture of the lunar surface snapped by mission commander Reid Wiseman that we're marveling over. The image was shown off during a NASA livestream and posted to social media (via 9to5Google).

While the post below mentions the iPhone 17 Pro, we know that the astronauts were in fact given iPhone 17 Pro Max models, and those are the phones that are mentioned in the metadata linked to the images that NASA has shared so far.

Other details that have emerged over the snap are that it was taken using the iPhone's 8x zoom mode, and that it shows the Chebyshev crater on the far side of the Moon. The Orion has made use of the Moon's gravity to turn around and head back to Earth.

GoPros and Nikons

Wiseman and his colleagues will now have some pretty stunning phone wallpapers to show off when they get back home — as yet we don't have the original shot of the lunar surface, just the screengrab taken from NASA's livestream.

The iPhones given to the astronauts on Orion were being put to use shortly after launch, and no doubt Apple will be pleased by the publicity. We know the crew also has a GoPro and a couple of Nikon cameras on board.

Reactions on Reddit have ranged from a simple "wild" to the observation that "that would be my phone wallpaper for the rest of my life" — plus a note that "Apple are sorted for adverts for the next decade after this".

Having set a new record for going the furthest distance away from our planet than anyone has ever traveled before, the astronauts are expected to get back this coming Friday, April 10, via a splash down off the coast of San Diego.

Since April 1, 2026, it’s safe to say space has been top of mind — and following along with the crew of Artemis II has been nothing short of incredible. From the first-ever iPhone selfies taken in orbit to the anticipation building around today’s lunar flyby, it’s felt like a front-row seat to history in the making.

And it had me thinking — didn’t Lego make an Artemis set? They did. And not only is it surprisingly affordable and in stock, but it’s also impressively interactive, featuring a Technic crank that lets you recreate the three stages of launch.

So I went down the rabbit hole of Lego sets within the Space theme, and was reminded of how many the brick brand has made. Many stay with realism, including the Artemis, the Milky Way Galaxy, and even the Mars Rover Perseverance. There are, of course, some fun ones as well.

So I’ve put together a quick list of space-themed Lego sets — including Artemis II — that should spark a little inspiration, whether you’re building with kids or just channeling a bit of that launch-day excitement yourself.

9 Lego Space sets, including the Artemis II

• We're getting photos from the Artemis II mission
• Some of these were snapped with the iPhone 17 Pro Max
• The mission is getting close to the halfway point

We know the crew of the Artemis II mission have taken iPhones up into space with them, and now we're getting some stunning snaps back from the astronauts as they make their way towards the moon.

As shared by NASA, we have spectacular shots of Christina Koch and Reid Wiseman looking back towards their home planet, as the Orion spacecraft pulls away from it — at speeds of thousands of miles per hour.

A quick check on the photos in NASA's archive (here and here) shows that both these images were taken using the selfie camera on an iPhone 17 Pro Max. That's the same model that got a 4.5/5 star rating in its TechRadar review.

The astronauts themselves are sharing pictures on social media: here's another shot from Reid Wiseman, the 50-year-old designated as the overall commander of the mission. The caption simply reads "There are no words."

NASA has also more recently shared some stunning photos taken on the Artemis II mission's Moon fly-by, which were this time shot on the Nikon D5 — a trusty, decade-old DSLR.

There and back again

There's likely to be plenty more to come too, as Orion reaches the moon, circles around it, and heads back home. We know the spacecraft is fitted with laser communications tech that can maintain a high-speed connection with Earth.

NASA has also shared an image of the moon taken by the Artemis II crew, with the Orientale basin visible on the lunar surface. This is apparently the first time the basin has been seen in its entirety with human eyes.

Once the team of astronauts has gone around the moon and started coming back, they will have gone further away from Earth than any other human beings before them — some 252,757 miles or 406,773 kilometers.

The mission is now in its fourth day, with the entire trip expected to take 10 days. When the Orion spacecraft comes back into Earth orbit, it'll mark another first: the fastest crewed reentry ever attempted, at around 25,000 miles per hour (40,234 kilometers per hour).

• The Artemis II crew are on the way to the moon
• Their Orion spacecraft is fitted with 4K laser communications
• High-definition video feeds should be possible

We've already seen the crew of the Artemis II chuck around iPhones in space and have trouble accessing their Outlook accounts, and when they finally make it to the moon's orbit we should be treated to some high-resolution 4K footage of the lunar surface.

The astronauts are flying by the moon rather than landing on it, but thanks to laser technology developed in part by the MIT Lincoln Laboratory (via the BBC Sky at Night Magazine), they have best-in-class tech for reporting back.

Space missions have traditionally used radio frequency (RF) communications, but the spectrums it uses are now highly congested, and it's no longer the best technology we have for beaming data across large distances (to the moon and back, for instance).

"Laser communication is a solution that could solve this problem, and the laboratory is an expert in the field, which was really pioneered here," says Farzana Khatri, a lead systems engineer at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

The moon in the UK

If everything goes according to plan, we should be able to enjoy "high-definition video from the moon" over the next few days. Think something of a similar quality to a premium Netflix feed, only of the actual moon rather than a middling sci-fi movie.

The system in use is the Orion Artemis II Optical Communications System (O2O), and it comprises several complex instruments, including a gimbal-mounted telescope that can direct laser beams back to base at NASA.

"You can imagine the Artemis astronauts using videoconferencing to connect with physicians, coordinate mission activities, and livestream their lunar trips," says Jane Wang, also on the team that developed the system.

The actual capturing will be done by Nikon cameras that are included in the astronauts' kit. Besides sending back photos, audio, and video from the mission, the laser links will be able to transmit real time diagnostics reports to and from Orion.

• Artemis II crew reports a Microsoft software glitch
• One astronaut to Mission Control that neither of their Outlooks was working
• There's no evidence the issue impacted the mission in any meaningful way

Artemis II Mission Control, we have a problem — and it's one most every Microsoft customer can relate to. Just hours after Artemis II's spectacular launch, kicking off NASA's first moon mission in more than 50 years, the astronauts reported a Microsoft 365 tech glitch.

As the four crew members flew at 4,275mph and more than 30,000 miles from Earth, they remained in almost constant contact with NASA Mission Control. During one conversation, a mission astronaut offered this report: "I have two Microsoft Outlooks and neither one is working."

First, you can be forgiven if you're surprised that the Orion spacecraft (which was carried to space by the Artemis II mission) uses Microsoft 365 software. However, NASA has been standardized on Microsoft's suite of software and services for years, using the platform across productivity, collaboration, and, yes, communication. The agency even uses Copilot, though it's not clear if the AI has had any part in this mission.

Things are happening in a most peculiar way

Back to the non-life-threatening situation on the spacecraft…

The astronaut asks if NASA wants to "remote in and check Optimus and those two Outlooks, that would be awesome."

Mission Control clocks the issue and responds, "We will join in on your PCD and let you know when we're done."

The "Optimus" reference, by the way, was referring to a separate issue. The astronaut brought up the two Outlooks as another tech glitch to check while they're in there.

A PCD is a "Personal Computing Device," which we're guessing to be a Windows laptop or Surface computer (we guess they're using those alongside their iPhones), and, yes, just like tech support at home, the tech uses remote access to address the problem.

As for why there might be "two Microsoft Outlooks" on one device, you can blame Microsoft. A couple of years ago, Microsoft unveiled the Outlook for Windows app, essentially a renaming of the original Windows Mail app. Once installed, that app becomes just "Outlook." But Microsoft 365 customers know there's already an "Outlook" in the 365 Office suite. So, yes, a Windows system could have "two Microsoft Outlooks."

Why neither was working on one of Artemis II's mission computers is unclear, although neither Mission Control nor the astronaut sounded particularly concerned. After all, NASA uses Outlook for some communications between it and the astronauts, but not all communications, as evidenced by the audio.

The exchange was captured in the wee hours of the morning on April 2 (and witnessed by tens of thousands because NASA is livestreaming the entire mission on YouTube), still quite early in the flight, which launched roughly eight hours earlier from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

By now, we assume the systems have been rebooted, and that both Outlooks are working nominally. Of course, we're sure the Artemis II crew is just as anxious as you are to have just one Outlook — and one that's working for the duration of this historic mission.

We did reach out to Microsoft for comment and will update this post with their response.

• NASA now allows personal smartphones in space, and the first such mission has launched
• A video shows the Artemis II crew throwing an iPhone in zero gravity
• Other videos also provide a glimpse of astronauts using iPhones

It’s a big day for NASA, as the Artemis II mission has launched, sending four astronauts on a trip around the moon — a journey that will take them further from Earth than anyone has been in over 50 years. But this — along with the Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station — is also the first time NASA astronauts have been allowed to bring personal smartphones with them.

That means it’s the first time that iPhones and Android handsets will have been carried into space on NASA missions, and we’re already seeing some of the fun that’s being had with them.

In a series of posts on X, @OwenSparks shared some brief clips of the crew using iPhones. In one, an iPhone is being tossed to someone in zero gravity, while in another, one of the astronauts — Christina Koch — is filming Victor Glover piloting the spacecraft.

There’s also a third clip, showing iPhones being packed into the suits of the crew before liftoff.

What comes next is more exciting

But fun as these clips are, I’m more excited for what comes next — with this mission taking the crew around the moon, we could soon have close-up moon shots from the same phones that most of us use every day, so that will be interesting to see.

And smartphones can be used on missions going forward, too, so Artemis II won’t be the last we see of them in space.

Plus, while it seems this mission has favored iPhones, it’s likely that sooner or later an astronaut will show us what an Android phone is capable of on a trip to space as well.

• NASA formally approves personal smartphones for government missions beginning with Crew-12
• Artemis II will carry consumer phones alongside traditional spaceflight imaging equipment
• Fast-tracked hardware approval marks a procedural shift inside NASA operations

NASA has confirmed its astronauts will now be allowed to carry personal smartphones on crewed missions, starting with Crew-12 and the delayed Artemis II flight.

Crew-12 is scheduled to travel to the International Space Station in mid-February 2026, while Artemis II is now expected to launch in March.

The policy change allows astronauts to use modern iPhone and Android devices during missions, marking a shift away from NASA’s long reliance on agency-supplied cameras.

Policy change expands crew access to personal hardware

NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said the decision was driven by a desire to give crews more flexible tools for documenting their experiences and sharing images and video with the public.

“We are giving our crews the tools to capture special moments for their families and share inspiring images and video with the world,” Isaacman wrote on X.

NASA leadership framed the move as more than cultural, and the agency had to fast-track the approval of modern consumer hardware for spaceflight.

They argue the same urgency will support future scientific research in orbit and on the lunar surface.

The swift adoption of capable hardware could matter more than strict adherence to legacy procedures.

“Just as important, we challenged long-standing processes and qualified modern hardware for spaceflight on an expedited timeline,” Isaacman added.

“That operational urgency will serve NASA well as we pursue the highest-value science and research in orbit and on the lunar surface.”

Until now, astronauts relied largely on Nikon DSLR cameras and GoPros, many of which were designed years ago - and while those devices remain capable, they lack the immediacy and versatility of modern smartphones.

Smartphones combine advanced sensors, image stabilization, ultra-wide lenses, and video features into a single device that astronauts already know how to use.

NASA believes that familiarity may allow crews to capture more spontaneous moments without interrupting scheduled mission tasks or relying on specialized equipment.

With smartphones available, future missions may generate far more informal imagery and video than previous expeditions.

The change raises the likelihood of more frequent updates from orbit and deep space, potentially making upcoming missions among the most thoroughly documented in NASA history.

However, the agency has not outlined specific limits on personal content creation, though mission safety rules still apply.

Smartphones have flown to space before, including on private SpaceX missions, so the concept is not entirely new, but what is different is NASA formally approving personal devices for flagship government missions.

While the agency describes this as “a small step in the right direction”, it reflects a willingness to reconsider conservative technology rules.

The long-term impact will depend on whether expedited qualification becomes standard practice or remains limited to low-risk hardware such as personal smartphones.

Google’s Gemini AI has been accused of scanning PDF files hosted on Google Drive without active permission or initiation, sparking yet another discussion around AI safety and privacy concerns.

Senior Advisor on AI Governance Kevin Bankson took to X to share concerns over an automatically generated AI summary in a private and confidential tax return.

Bankston’s thread detailed his experience with Gemini AI reading private documents without consent and the subsequent troubles in disabling the functionality on the cloud storage platform.

Gemini might be more buried in Google Drive than you thought

Despite attempts to disable the feature, Bankston found that Gemini’s continued to operate in Google Drive, raising questions about Google’s handling of user data and privacy settings.

After failing to find the right controls to disable Gemini’s integration, the Advisor asked Google’s ChatGPT-rivalling AI chatbot on two occasions to pinpoint the settings. A second, more detailed response still brought no joy: “Gemini is *not* in Apps and services on my dashboard  (1st option), and I didn't have a profile pic in the upper right of the Gemini page (2nd).”

With help from another X user, Bankston found the control, which was already disabled, highlighting either a malfunctioning control or indicating that further settings are hidden elsewhere.

However, previous Google documentation has confirmed that the company will not use Google Workspace data to train or improve its generative AI services or to feed targeted ads.

Bankston theorizes that his previous participation in Google Workspace Labs might have influenced Gemini’s behavior. The Gemini side panel in Google Drive for PDFs can be closed if a user no longer wishes to access generative AI summaries.

While Google promises to handle user data safely and securely, the case reaffirms the importance of consent and user control as AI continues to advance and becomes more deeply ingrained in the products we use every day.

A Google spokesperson shared with TechRadar Pro in an email: "Our generative AI features are designed to give users choice and keep them in control of their data. Using Gemini in Google Workspace requires a user to proactively enable it, and when they do their content is used in a privacy-preserving manner to generate useful responses to their prompts, but is not otherwise stored without permission."

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Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, plans to deploy its own custom-designed artificial intelligence chips, codenamed Artemis, into its data centers this year, according to an internal document seen by Reuters. This move could potentially reduce Meta's dependence on Nvidia's market dominant H100 chips and control the escalating costs of running AI workloads.

Meta has been investing billions of dollars to boost its computing capacity for the power-hungry generative AI products that it is integrating into services such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.  This involves acquiring specialized chips and reconfiguring data centers to accommodate them.

According to Dylan Patel, founder of the silicon research group SemiAnalysis, the successful deployment of Meta's own chip could potentially save the company hundreds of millions of dollars in annual energy costs and billions in chip purchasing costs.

Still reliant on Nvidia, for now

Despite this move toward self-reliance, Meta will continue to use Nvidia's H100 GPUs in its data centers for the foreseeable future. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has stated that by the end of this year, the company plans to have roughly 350,000 H100 processors in service.

The deployment of its own chip marks a positive turn for Meta's in-house AI silicon project, following a decision in 2022 to discontinue the chip's first iteration in favor of Nvidia's GPUs.

The new chip, Artemis, like its predecessor, is designed for AI inference, which involves using algorithms to make ranking judgments and generate responses to user prompts.

"We see our internally developed accelerators to be highly complementary to commercially available GPUs in delivering the optimal mix of performance and efficiency on Meta-specific workloads," a Meta spokesperson said. 

While Meta's move to reduce its dependence on Nvidia's processors could perhaps signal the first crack in Nvidia's AI wall, it's clear that for now, Nvidia's GPUs will continue to play a significant role in Meta's AI infrastructure.

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The next human visitors to the Moon will be able to share selfies with each other, thanks to Nokia’s plan to equip the satellite with 4G connectivity.

As reported by CNBC, the Finnish telecommunications giant announced its intention to bring 4G to the Moon during this year’s Mobile World Congress, which took place in late February and early March this year, in Barcelona.

If all goes to plan, when US space firm Intuitive Machines sends its Nova-C lunar lander later this year onboard a SpaceX rocket, it will take with it Nokia’s antenna-equipped base station. The two will aslo be accompanied by a solar-powered rover, the publication cited Nokia principal engineer, Luis Maestro Ruiz De Temino.

Streaming video and beaming data

Once the hardware reaches its destination - the Shackleton crater- the rover and the lander will establish an LTE connection, De Temino explained.

While it might be fun to think the hardware will be used for selfies, in reality, Nokia hopes it will support the next manned research mission to the Moon, called Artemis 1. Astronauts will be able to use the network to communicate with each other, as well as with mission control. Furthermore, they’ll be able to remote-control the rover, and stream video and telemetry data back to Earth, in real-time.

There is no concrete date on when the rocket might launch, the publication further explained, saying analysts see 2023 as an “optimistic target”.

“If the hardware is ready and validated as it seems to be, there is a good chance they could launch in 2023 as long as their launch partner of choice doesn’t have any setbacks or delays,” Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, told the publication via email.

One of the things future visitors to the Moon will be looking for is water. Apparently, there is frozen water trapped on the Moon’s poles, which could be used for a number of things, from drinking, to creating breathable oxygen, to generating rocket fuel.

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Via: CNBC

Cisco claims it has come away with some new key innovations for Webex after the platform was used in NASA's Artemis 1 mission, the Orion spacecraft's 25-day unmanned trip around the moon.

The video conferencing software formed part of Callisto, a "technology-demonstration payload" consisting of an Alexa and an iPad running Webex, all housed in a radiation-hardened casing. 

Lockheed Martin, makers of the Orion capsule, partnered with Amazon and Cisco to test the unit during the mission. 

Webex modifications

The purpose of Callisto was to see how today's consumer tech could be used effectively in space. For its part, Cisco wanted Webex to facilitate face-to-face interaction as best it could between those on earth and those in space, important on long and lonely space missions that keep astronauts so far apart from their loved ones. 

Since the mission was uncrewed, cameras were placed facing the iPad to see if the video feed from mission control made its way. In order to operate the software, Cisco also developed automated macros to perform certain functions.

At an event attended by TechRadar Pro, Jono Luk, Cisco's VP of Product Management, outlined the unique challenges the company faced in making video calls work between earth and space.

One problem stemmed from lack of an internet connection. NASA uses its deep space network to communicate with spacecraft, which is composed of three satellite dishes around the world, so Webex had to leverage this instead to transmit its video signals. 

The issue was that Cisco was only allocated a bandwidth of around 128kb/s, so Webex engineers had to modify the software to shrink the video signals by a factor of ten, whilst still retaining a viable quality. 

The other problem was latency. Luk said that using Webex between any points on earth only ever results in latency figures around 40-100 milliseconds, but during Artemis 1, the latency encountered was between five and seven seconds. Even when Webex was used on the International Space Station, it didn't encounter latency issues on this scale. So engineers had to create new algorithms to account for this latency, ensuring that audio and video still synced up. 

Another lesson Cisco learned was more conceptual rather than technological. After some time testing Callisto during the mission, Luk said they discovered that slow communication problems could be offset by making use of drawings and pictures instead, using the whiteboard feature within Webex and a Cisco Webex Board in mission control. 

As well as communicating certain ideas quicker, there was also less latency in using these methods than a direct camera feed, as Luk noted that virtual scrawls contain less data than video feeds, making for quicker transmission times. 

Now that the mission is complete, Luk suggested Webex had succeeded on all fronts, and as a bonus, claimed it even set the record for the longest-distance video call during the mission, at around 260,000 miles between endpoints.

What's more, he claimed that the enhancements and insights resulting from the mission have bled into consumer versions of Webex. For instance, the open-source AV1 codec that Webex uses was modified to fix the aforementioned latency and bandwidth problems, with Luk suggesting that it has contributed back to the project for other users of the codec.

Luk also suggested that some of the automated macros that were developed will be seeing their way into the software.

Luk conceded that there were still human interaction issues when communicating at such vast distances. He expressed his wish that some kind of UI prompt could have been developed, had time allowed, to let users know when the signal had reached the person on the other end. This way, they would be able to tell the difference between latency and a user or technological error if their interlocutor remained unresponsive. 

Although subsequent Artemis missions are in the pipeline, Cisco doesn't know whether it will get the call-up again. And looking even further ahead, crewed mission to Mars are also being discussed by NASA. If such dreams do materialize, then it seems Luk is confident that Webex would be ready for the long journey ahead.

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Lockheed Martin, Amazon and Cisco have announced a new collaboration that will see Cisco Webex and Amazon's Alexa integrated into NASA's Orion spacecraft.

This innovative payload, dubbed Callisto, will fly on board the Orion spacecraft which was built by Lockheed Martin for the US space agency's Artemis 1 uncrewed mission around the Moon. Callisto will use Alexa and Webex to test and demonstrate how commercial technology can be used for deep space voice, video and whiteboarding communications.

According to Lisa Callahan, VP and general manager of Lockheed Martin's Commercial Civil Space division, Callisto will show how these technologies can enable astronauts to be more self-reliant as they explore deep space.

Named after a favorite companion of the Greek goddess Artemis, Callisto features a custom hardware and software integration developed by engineers at all three companies that will allow Alexa to work without an internet connection and Webex to run on a tablet using NASA's Deep Space Network.

Virtual crew experience

As Artemis 1 is an uncrewed mission, Lockheed Martin, Amazon and Cisco have also built a virtual crew experience at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas that will allow operators to interact with Callisto from the Mission Control Center.

Through these remote interactions, Callisto partners and NASA will be able to test and demonstrate how voice and video collaboration technologies can help astronauts improve efficiency and situational awareness during their mission by enabling them to access flight status and telemetry data with the ability to control connected devices onboard Orion.

At the same time, video and audio of these interactions will be transmitted back to Earth throughout the duration of the Artemis 1 mission so that engineers can analyze the performance of onboard systems while also sharing interactions with the public. 

In fact, students, families and space enthusiasts will be able to engage with and virtually “ride along” with the mission on Alexa-enabled devices by saying “Alexa, take me to the Moon” while Webex video collaboration capabilities will provide opportunities for STEM education and remote classroom teaching events.

Artemis 1 is scheduled to launch in the beginning of this year from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida for a multi-week journey around the Moon and back. We'll likely hear more from Cisco and Amazon regarding how their technologies are being used in space once the mission begins.

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This week was dominated by space news, starting off with Blue Origin suing NASA over its awarding the Artemis lunar lander contract to SpaceX and ending with NASA formally delaying work on the program to deal with Jeff Bezos' space company's complaint. 

In between all that, we saw some incredible work from NASA's Mars Ingenuity helicopter as its ongoing Mars mission evolves well past its original objectives. We also saw some brilliant work done by Caltech scientists who used ripples in Saturn's rings to probe the interior of the planet.

There was also the report out of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California of a nuclear fusion breakthrough that puts us on the cusp of sustained artificial nuclear fusion, the key to unlocking cheap, clean, and nearly unlimited energy.

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin sues NASA over Artemis lunar lander contract, delaying Artemis mission until 2025

The week began with a Blue Origin lawsuit against NASA in federal court charging that the US space agency's awarding its Artemis lunar lander mission to SpaceX in April was improper and the bidding process needed to be redone.

Blue Origin is arguing that since the original announcement calling for bids indicated that more than one bid would be selected, NASA shouldn't have given the contract to just one company, SpaceX. NASA and the US Government Accountability Office rejected that argument, saying multiple awards were a possibility, but were never guaranteed.

Still, the lawsuit is forcing NASA to stop all work with SpaceX on Artemis while it sorts out the lawsuit, with arguments due in court in mid-October and a potential ruling one way or the other on November 1. 

The 10-week delay all but assures that NASA will miss its 2024 target for returning astronauts to the Moon, and if Blue Origin's lawsuit is successful, then the entire bidding process will have to be run again, causing an even greater delay in getting Artemis off the ground.

Nuclear fusion breakthrough puts humanity on brink of unlimited energy ignition

Nuclear fusion is the kind of thing that straddles fantasy and physics. The idea of nearly limitless energy free of carbon emissions, nuclear waste, or other pollutants is so transformative in its nature that for decades after the first atomic tests in the 1940s it was largely considered impossible.

But we know it is possible; we see it every day, literally. The Sun is powered by a nuclear furnace where it fuses two hydrogen atoms together to form helium, and the energy released in the process is what gives it – and us – energy.

We have achieved artificial fusion before in various labs around the world, but those fusion reactions were infinitesimally short and fleeting, and they failed to come close to what's known as the nuclear fusion ignition threshold. 

That is the point where the nuclear fusion reaction produces more energy than it absorbs, which creates a self-sustaining fusion reaction that continues to fuse hydrogen even after you take away the energy source that ignited it. If we can reach nuclear fusion ignition, than the nearly limitless energy of nuclear fusion could be used to power our world in place of literally every other fuel on Earth.

This is what researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Lab in California have come close to achieving. In their latest test, they produced a nuclear fusion reaction that released 10 quadrillion watts of power, or about 10% of the energy contained in all the sunlight that hits the Earth at any given moment.

This was equal to about 70% of the energy the researchers needed to apply to trigger the fusion reaction, far greater than any previous attempt. At their current rate of progress, the researchers believe that they may reach the nuclear fusion ignition threshold within a decade. Big, if true.

'Ringquake' reveals Saturn's core isn't solid, but a massive, fuzzy soup of sloshing hydrogen and debris

Scientists at Caltech published a study this week revealing that Saturn's core isn't a solid like previously believed, but rather a soupy mix of liquid hydrogen and rocky material that wobbles around inside the planet like Jello.

They were able to discover this by examining data from NASA's Cassini space probe collected in 2013 that revealed mysterious ripples in the gas giant's innermost D-ring. The researchers thought these ripples might be interpreted as a form of seismograph where the material in the D-ring was reacting to changes in the planet's gravitational field.

With that, they were able to use those ripples as a guide to the planet's interior just like geologists here on Earth do with seismograph data from earthquakes. That data pointed them to the conclusion that only a wobbly, soup-like core about 60% of the diameter of the planet could have produced the ripples they found in the planet's ring.

NASA's Mars Ingenuity helicopter continues to impress as its mission evolves

NASA's Mars Ingenuity helicopter flew for the 12th time on the red planet, carrying out its most difficult assignment to date and one well beyond its original mission parameters.

Originally, Ingenuity was meant as a proof of concept test to see if humans could remote pilot an aerial drone on another planet. Its first four missions were important tests of the drone's flight and communications equipment and it passed those tests with flying colors earlier this year.

Since then, NASA engineers have been looking for things for Ingenuity to do since it still works just fine and it is already on Mars, so they might as well put it to use. Previous flights have been more in-depth tests of Ingenuity's capabilities, but this 12th flight was productive in a whole new way.

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover came up empty on some of its first soil tests that it was on Mars to perform and scientists believe that the area where the rover landed might not be best suited to these tests. So, they used Ingenuity to fly over a potential site for Perseverance to study and scout the area for potential hazards and to get a better look at the area to assess its value.

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Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is suing NASA over its awarding the Artemis lunar lander contract to Elon Musk's SpaceX earlier this year, a major escalation in the fight over the privilege of returning humanity to the Moon for the first time since 1972.

The lawsuit brought in federal court this week follows after Blue Origin's original protest was rejected by federal regulators, The Verge reports. 

The new lawsuit may put a hold on further funds going to SpaceX for the development of its Starship lunar lander project, potentially putting the expected mission date beyond the 2024 target set by NASA for the Artemis Moon mission.

The exact nature of Blue Origin's complaint isn't known, since the lawsuit was filed under a protective order, but appears to protest "NASA's unlawful and improper evaluation of [Artemis lunar lander] proposals submitted" for consideration.

Three companies bid for the lunar lander contract: Blue Origin, SpaceX, and Dynetics, a defense contractor. Blue Origin's bid of $5.9 billion lost out to the $2.9 billion bid from SpaceX, which led Blue Origin to offer to cover up to $2 billion in costs, effectively lowering its bid to $3.9 billion.

This still wasn't enough to move NASA to reconsider.

Blue Origin's complaint seems to focus on NASA's original intention to have two different companies develop lunar landers, presumably picking the most successful of the two for the actual Artemis missions that first land an uncrewed ship on the Moon before attempting a crewed mission if the first is successful.

NASA, in awarding the contract to SpaceX, indicated that Congress hasn't allocated enough funding for an additional lander, so it could only pick one in the end. Blue Origin has since argued that once this became known to NASA, it should have canceled the contract bidding process and started over with the new terms.

"NASA veered from its original dual-source acquisition strategy due to perceived near-term budgetary issues," Bezos said after Blue Origin offered to cover an additional $2 billion in costs, "and this offer removes that obstacle."

Whether Blue Origin makes this case in a federal court remains to be seen, but the lawsuit definitely escalates the fight between SpaceX and Blue Origin over the prestigious contract. 

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Analysis: the 'Billionaire Space Race' is getting serious – and not just for the billionaires

While it's tempting to write all this off as a bunch of billionaires fighting over bragging rights, it's much more complicated than that.

Blue Origin itself has only just brought a human crew past the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of outer space, and even then its crew capsule was only "in space" for a few minutes before returning to Earth.

SpaceX, meanwhile, has successfully launched dozens of reusable rockets into orbit and ferried astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), so it would seem like SpaceX would be a shoe-in for the lunar lander contract.

The difference here is that Blue Origin's lunar lander proposal wasn't strictly a Blue Origin project, as it was working with some aerospace industry heavyweights like Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin to make up for its own lack of expertise in this endeavor. 

Far more than anyone, it's Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin who stand to lose if SpaceX is awarded more NASA contracts, just as Boeing and United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, are losing ground to SpaceX with crewed flights to the ISS.

These aerospace contractors have had a fairly tight relationship with NASA and the US Department of Defense for everything from building rockets to launching satellites, and that largely exclusive relationship over the decades has kept the competitive bidding process much less competitive than the name implies.

That all changed with SpaceX, which has been able to come in and undercut these company's bids by a sometimes substantial margin, cost these companies a lot of money in the process. 

So while it might be Blue Origin's name on the lawsuit, there are a lot of older players in the industry hoping that Blue Origin can take SpaceX down a peg.

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The Perseverance rover has put its record-breaking number of cameras to quick use since touching down on Mars, already sending home pictures and video of the red planet, which NASA has released to the public. 

But how exactly has it managed to shoot such high-quality footage and send it back to earth so quickly?

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These aren’t the first images we have of Mars, but unlike the ones taken by Curiosity – Perseverance’s older sibling that landed in 2012 – these are in full color using 20MP cameras, rather than the measly 1MP black-and-white cameras from before.

Along with video of the landing process, NASA also put out an interactive 360-degree panoramic photo of Perseverance’s landing site, using real images taken by the rover on Mars.

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How were the video and photos taken? 

Perseverance’s mission is all about data collection, searching for absolutely any sign of life it possibly can, so it’s been outfitted with plenty of impressive tools. When it comes to the images we’ve seen, they’re thanks to the rover’s 23 cameras – seven of which were just to document the entry, descent, and landing of the craft.

Using cameras positioned on the rover, its parachute and its sky crane – a hovering device that lowers the rover more carefully onto Mars – Perseverance was able to capture the first full video of a rover landing (below), rather than the jerky stop motion Curiosity pulled-off.

Landing is one of the most stressful parts of the rover’s mission, with massive heat and a speedy descent through the atmosphere both ready to cause problems and end the mission before it can even begin. 

This new footage should help NASA scientists understand the process more fully and make improvements to their next Mars landing. 

The capture of the 360-degree panorama was slightly different, making use of the Navcam on Perseverance's 'head' below.

As Justin Maki, NASA Perseverance's imaging scientist and instrument operations team chief explained in a Tweet on the subject, the panorama was stitched together using several shots and only shows "approximate color" of the vista around the rover.

NASA says it has thousands of images already and you can download the full-size images from the Mars Perseverance raw images library. 

How were these pictures sent to Earth? 

It's one thing taking photos on Mars – the greater technical challenge is then getting them back to Earth. After all, you can’t just ping them off in an email or upload them to Google Photos as we can here.

This is where Nasa’s MAVEN satellite steps in. Not only has it been tasked with monitoring Mars’ atmosphere, but nearly six-and-a-half years after it began orbiting the planet, MAVEN has become an integral part of Perseverance’s mission as a telecommunications relay.

Using its ultra-high frequency (UNF) radio transceiver, MAVEN is able to transmit data at a max rate of about 2048 kbps (kilobits per second) between Earth and the rover. It does this from an adjusted orbit which it took on last year in preparation for Perseverance’s arrival. 

In the US the average broadband speed is about 120 Mbps (megabits per second), or around 60 times faster, so NASA also used some clever compression to get the image data back quickly.

In a Reddit AMA with scientists and engineers working on Perseverance, Adam Nelessen (EDL Cameras Engineer, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory) explained how this was done: "A key part of the EDL (Entry, Descent and Landing) Cameras instrument is a small computer on the Rover called the Data Storage Unit (DSU). The DSU stored raw images from the 6 EDL Cameras (Rover Uplook, Rover Downlook, Descent Stage Downlook, and Parachute Uplook) and audio captured by the microphone," he said.

"We were able to compress the raw images into videos right there on Mars on the DSU, which cuts down dramatically on the data volume needed to send the products back to Earth for all of us to feast our eyes on!".

The good news is that NASA hasn't received all of the images from Mars yet, "just the videos of the really top priority events", according to Adam Nelessen. But NASA thinks we'll get full-resolution imagery "over the coming months", which is good news for anyone hoping to use it as their new wallpaper. 

What will Perseverance take pictures of next? 

One piece of footage NASA hopes to capture next is a photos and video of Ingenuity in flight on Mars. Ingenuity is a drone-sized helicopter that dropped with Perseverance and is intended to be the first helicopter to fly on another planet. 

Perseverance will take pictures and recordings of Ingenuity's tests to help NASA confirm if flight is possible on Mars like it is on Earth, when it launches in the next month or two. 

And according to a Reddit AMA with scientists working on the Perseverance Rover, the "the Mastcam-Z and navigation cameras will attempt to take images and possibly video of Ingenuity's flight".

The rover is also fitted with a SkyCam. The purpose is to take science-quality images of the sky above Perseverance to show what the stars look like from another planet. In the same Reddit AMA, scientists and engineers working for NASA told fans to stay tuned for those images to be released at some point soon, too.

Most importantly, Perseverance will have a lot of rock pictures to send back to Earth. As part of Perseverance’s mission to look for signs of life it will be analyzing the composition of rocks it finds. The rover will do this using its all-in-one camera, laser, and spectrometer SuperCam, which can also make a shockwave to clear dust from surfaces it wants to investigate.

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Update: We have live video of both the SpaceX launch live stream and the a video replay of the liftoff in case you want to see the moment is took off. Today's SpaceX launch did happen at night in the US, making it a bit harder to see everything but the rocket flame.

You can watch the SpaceX launch live stream below and further down rewatch the liftoff video. It had four astronauts, including three NASA astronauts, launch into space and they're all headed to the International Space Station.

The SpaceX launch time was 7:27pm EST, according to the official NASA and SpaceX schedule. That's when the Crew-1 mission literally took off, and right now, from the live stream video, we can see they're in orbit.According to the NASA schedule, members of the Crew-1 mission will be docking with the ISS tomorrow night at 11pm EST. So it'll take them about 28 hours to get there. The four astronauts will be there for a total of six months.

You can watch the ongoing SpaceX YouTube live stream below, where SpaceX and NASA are offering live play-by-play updates.

How to watch the SpaceX live stream video

The actual SpaceX launch time happened at 7:27pm EST on November 15. That was Monday morning 12:27am GMT in the UK, and 11:27am AEDT in Australia.

The live stream video actually started hours beforehand, with the four astronauts seated in the Dragon capsule for hours and going through rigorous safety checks while on the Kennedy Space Center launchpad. 

The astronauts arrived at the historic Launch Complex 39 in car made by Tesla, which is only appropriate, as SpaceX founder Elon Musk also owns the electric car company. 

While this isn't the first manned private space launch NASA has had SpaceX organize, it's a step up from the first mission, back in late May, that had just two NASA astronauts headed to the ISS.

This is another test for SpaceX and the role of a private sector company to launch NASA missions into space more cheaply and efficiently than ever before. Or, as SpaceX founder Elon Musk just retweeted:

SpaceX launch: how to rewatch the liftoff

In case you missed the SpaceX launch by a few minutes, the official Twitter account of the SpaceX has the liftoff in a short 11-second video.

The actual liftoff is harder to make out than May's first mission. That's because it happened at night in Florida at 7:27pm EST local time.

Crew-1 astronauts on this SpaceX launch

Aboard the small SpaceX Dragon capsule and with the powerful Falcon 9 rocket at their backs are NASA's Michael Hopkins, Shannon Walker, Victor Glover. The fourth astronaut is Japan's Soichi Noguchi.

You can watch them right now, as they sail through space, suited up in the SpaceX spacesuits and are strapped in inside the Dragon capsule. It'll take them about 28 hours to get to the ISS.

The NASA Mars Perseverance Rover has successfully launched – and it's carrying a record number of cameras to help it hunt for signs of life on the red planet.

The six-wheeled robot, which is the successor to the Mars Curiosity Rover, took off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and is expected to touch down on the surface of Mars on 18 February 2021.

• Here's how NASA Perseverance shot its incredible video of the Mars landing

Its younger sibling landed on Mars in August 2012 and remains there, investigating to this day, living off its radioactive isotope power source. 

So why has NASA launched another Mars rover and what's so special about the many cameras it's taking for the ride? We've taken a closer look at its imaging tech – and some of it has a surprising amount in common with the earth-bound camera in your pocket... 

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Perseverance vs Curiosity: the camera upgrades

The Mars Perseverance Rover has the same Wall-E charm as the Curiosity, but the tech inside is very different. 

Curiosity has 17 cameras, Perseverance has 23, including four used to document the landing process, plus the parachute that will help this remarkable 'car' land safely. 

Later on we will dig into what these 23 cameras do, but the fundamental technical upgrades deserve some attention first. 

Curiosity uses 1MP black-and-white cameras to capture the amazing images you can see posted regularly on the NASA website. On the other hand, Perseverance has 20MP full color sensors, much closer to the resolution of your phone or camera.

This means it can take photos without the multi exposure stitching method Curiosity uses. Some of its cameras also have wider-angle lenses, again letting it capture more of Mars’s landscape without panning. 

"Our previous Navcams would snap multiple pictures and stitch them together," says Colin McKinney of JPL, product delivery manager for one of Perseverance camera families. "With the wider field of view, we get the same perspective in one shot.”

Portrait mode on Mars

Why does the old Mars Rover have such low-res hardware, which seems old-school even for 2012?

Curiosity was in development long before it launched, obviously, but there was also the data rate to consider. You can’t simply Bluetooth or AirDrop photos from the surface of Mars to Florida. Even with Bluetooth 5.0.

NASA has mitigated this problem by using spacecraft in orbit around Mars as data relays. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter MAVEN and the European Space Agency's Trace Gas Orbiter will support the Perseverance Rover in this way for two years, which is the initial period of its mission.

Perseverance’s cameras also make much greater use of stereoscopy. This is where two cameras are placed near to each other, but with enough distance between that they have a slightly different view of a scene. Those differences are then analyzed to produce a 3D depth map that can distinguish near objects from far ones, and create three dimensional images. 

Many smartphones use the same technique for their 'Portrait' modes, which blur the background to emulate the effect of a wide aperture DSLR-style camera lens. For those of us who prefer to read NASA’s blog than take selfies, it means we can expect amazing high-resolution color 'first person' images from the surface of Mars that we can view through a virtual reality headset or Google Cardboard.

That’s not their real role, of course. The 23 cameras and two microphones are Perseverence’s eyes and ears. 

“It will sense the air around it, see and scan the horizon, hear the planet with microphones on the surface for the first time, feel it as it picks up samples to cache,” says Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. 

These cameras can be split into a few categories. There are ones just to record the landing process which, if all goes well,  we can look forward to seeing on 18 February 2021. 

Then there are the navigation and hazard detection cameras, plus its 'science cameras'. These are the eyes for Perseverance’s investigational tools like its robotic arm. Let's take a closer look at how some of these work.

The Mars rover's head

The images that we’ll see from Perseverance are most likely to come from the equivalent of the rover's 'head', if this were a Pixar character. 

Two sets of 20MP Navcams sit at either side of the head on Perseverance’s main mast. These will be used by the team’s engineers to find safe paths for the Rover, and have the visual acuity to "spot a golf ball from 82 feet”, according to NASA.

This may be with the help of the Mastcam-Z units that sit right beside these 20MP “eyeball” cameras. 

The 'Z' part stands for zoom. Two groups of zoom lens elements sit inside the barrel, providing focal lengths of 28-100mm, comparable with a great all-rounder DSLR lens. 

They can focus on objects just two meters away and their 7.4-micron pixel pitch is not far off that of the Sony Alpha A7S III (8.4 microns). 

Resolution is far lower, at 2MP (so a max 1600x1200 image size), but the combination of wide and zoom cameras gives Perseverance’s head unit an incredibly versatile view of its Martian surroundings. 

See that part above these cameras, which looks a little like a home cinema projector? This is the Perseverance’s SuperCam. Despite the exciting name, it’s not a traditional imaging camera. The SuperCam uses a laser to analyze rocks and soil, focusing on a target smaller than the nib of a pencil. 

Perseverance also has two rows of wide-angle hazard cameras that let engineers see around the Rover’s feet. 

There are four of these cameras on front and two on the back.

You can think of these a little like the parking sensors of a car. They will see rocks and debris not visible to the cameras on the main mast, and can act as a guide to inform where to point the sensors on the robot arm. 

Elementary, my dear WATSON

NASA is not afraid of indulging in the odd geeky reference. WATSON and SHERLOC are two teams of hardware sensors on the Perseverance’s robotic arm. 

SHERLOC is a spectrometer that uses a deep ultraviolet laser to analyze objects on Mars’s surface, and is aided by the WATSON camera.

This offers a wider, more eyeball-friendly view of what the highly focused SHERLOC sensors are looking at. 

NASA says WATSON is “almost identical” to the MAHLI camera used on the older Curiosity Rover. That is a 1600 x 1200 (2MP) camera with a magnifying glass-like field of view, used to look at objects as close as 18.3mm. It can also record 720p video. 

What's next for the NASA Mars Rover?

The Perseverance Rover will land in Mars’s Jezero Crater, which has a diameter of 49km. This spot was chosen because it is believed to be the site of what was once a body of water. 

“The only way that could form geometrically was for it to be a lake,” NASA planetary scientist Dr. Caleb Fassett told the NY Times. 

Night-time temperatures in the crater drop to minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 90 Celsius), so we're hoping the aptly-named Perseverance has taken a coat.

The rover will stay for “at least one Mars year”, which is worth just under two of our Earth years, searching for signs of microbial life, and collecting soil and samples. These will be stored in sealed tubes. Another camera is used here too – the CacheCam looks down the tube as Martian material is collected, to record the process. 

One final bit of exciting tech is that Rover will also carry a helicopter drone, known as Ingenuity. It will be the “first aircraft to attempt control flight on another planet”. And thanks to transmission delays, what limited directions it is given by the engineers will have been programmed-in long before the flight actually takes place. 

Perseverance is a 1,025kg, 3-meter long, $2.4 billion space car. Let’s hope it makes its way to Mars safely. 

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Since the beginning of lockdown, movie studios have made up for the shuttering of theaters and cinemas in a number of ways. Many movies doomed to low grosses at the box office landed quickly on video on demand, or on streaming services. Some films meant for the big screen bypassed that entirely, like the Tom Hardy flick Capone.

As tentative steps are made to reopen theaters around the world, what would normally be the tail end of the summer blockbuster season is instead a waiting period before we're bombarded with one big theatrical movie after another (starting with Christopher Nolan's Tenet on July 17). 

This week, though, might be the biggest of the summer for both Netflix and Disney Plus, even if their new releases couldn't be more different. For Netflix, it will release its highest-profile original movie of the summer, Da 5 Bloods, from director Spike Lee. For Disney Plus, it releases its first movie that was planned for theaters but is now only coming to the streaming service, the kids' book adaptation Artemis Fowl. 

Both are significant releases in this unusual year of movies, and say a lot about what each streaming service's goals are right now. We'll explain what the deal is with both movies below, and when you can watch them. We'll also highlight one new movie coming to Amazon Prime Video this week that you should definitely check out. 

• The best Netflix movies
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• 2020 movies: what's coming up

Da 5 Bloods (Netflix)

Netflix has kept up a fairly good schedule of original film releases over the past few months, highlighted by the Chris Hemsworth action movie Extraction. Da 5 Bloods, though, is an even bigger deal. Coming from director Spike Lee, it represents the latest coup by Netflix in releasing a movie from a big-name director (though Lee previously worked with the streaming service on the She's Gotta Have It series). 

Da 5 Bloods is about a group of African American Vietnam War veterans who return to the country to retrieve the remains of their squad captain (played in flashback by Chadwick Boseman), not to mention some treasure they concealed years before. The cast features Delroy Lindo, Isiah Whitlock Jr, Clarke Peters and Norm Lewis. According to a Vanity Fair reveal on Da 5 Bloods, it's part war film, with a few visual references to Apocalypse Now, part horror and part comedy about these old soldiers coming together again at an advanced age. In the intervening years, each has changed in their own way.

Based on a pre-existing script, Lee and BlacKkKlansman co-writer Kevin Willmott decided to make the movie about African American Vietnam vets. The movie apparently addresses the lack of Vietnam movies about black soldiers, and the long-lasting effects of the war on its participants.

The entire lockdown period has reinforced how much of a place there is for Netflix's original movies. While arguably only a few have become true blockbusters (Bright, for example, or 6 Underground with Ryan Reynolds), the streaming service has instead focused more on the types of movies that exist between those films and independent cinema. They're more like mid-sized films, which have been harder to make in the last decade of Marvel movie dominance. 

For Da 5 Bloods specifically, Netflix's backing of another acclaimed director gives the service further credibility, following its past collaborations with Martin Scorsese, Ava DuVernay, Alfonso Cuarón and Noah Baumbach.

Da 5 Bloods is streaming on Netflix from Friday 12 June

Artemis Fowl (Disney Plus)

Artemis Fowl represents a big moment for Disney Plus. Though a result of the current circumstances more than anything else, Artemis Fowl is a reported $125 million film adaptation of the popular book series that was once intended for theaters. Directed by Kenneth Branagh, nothing about it looks low-budget, especially the ensemble cast, which features Colin Farrell and Judi Dench, among others.

To be honest, our first reaction to the trailer above is that it looks pretty bad. The YouTube comments are rife with fans of the books by Eoin Colfer pointing out the ways in which they feel the film misrepresents the source material. 

Still, just the act of putting this on Disney Plus is huge, and it's the first blockbuster of the year to only be available on a streaming service first, without a run on VOD. 

Disney is the most successful studio at the worldwide box office by miles, and it has no intention of moving the more expensive likes of Black Widow to Disney Plus, preferring instead to wait until they can find the theater audiences they'll likely attract deeper in the year. 

The closest parallel to Artemis Fowl's situation is probably Netflix's The Cloverfield Paradox, which was acquired by the streaming service, taken off the theatrical release schedule, then made available to watch immediately after its Super Bowl reveal in 2018.

Good or bad, it's something a lot of kids will end up watching this weekend.

Artemis Fowl is available to stream on Disney Plus from June 12

Knives Out (Amazon Prime)

If you're in the US, you can stream Knives Out exclusively on Amazon Prime Video this week. Okay, this murder mystery movie had a theatrical run, unlike the two movies above, but if you haven't seen Rian Johnson's Whodunnit, it's an absolute treat.  

Streaming on Amazon Prime Video from June 12

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3pm EDT SpaceX update: New SpaceX launch video and video replays have been added embedded via YouTube and Twitter below, so you can rewatch the highlights, from liftoff on the Dragon Endeavor to docking with the International Space Station. Next up is a post-arrival news conference at the Johnson Space Center at 3:15pm EDT.

1:47pm EDT update: The live stream video just showed the Dragon Endeavor crew being greeted by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, NASA Johnson Space Center Director Mark Geyer, US Senator Ted Cruz, and US Representative Brian Babin on a video call from Mission Control in Houston, Texas.

1:30pm EDT update: The two NASA astronauts who went up on the SpaceX Dragon capsule yesterday have joined three other astronauts on the ISS (International Space Station): American Chris Cassidy and Russians Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner. 

1pmEDT update: The hatch is now open (as of 1:02pm EDT on March 31), meaning the hatch between the SpaceX Dragon capsule and the ISS is open and the two NASA astronauts can float through the International Space Station.

The live stream continues below via a YouTube video, and it's happening after the two astronauts established pressure equalization in SpaceX Dragon capsule.

The SpaceX hatch is opening a little more than two hours after docking with the ISS. The SpaceX Dragon docking with the ISS was a success and happened autonomously, at first with a soft capture, then there were 12 latches around the docking ring that created a pressure-tight seal. An umbilical cord was then deployed to link the SpaceX Dragon and the ISS to share power and data – think of it has a giant USB-C cable in space.

It took a total of 19 hours for the SpaceX Dragon capsule to navigate to the ISS for docking on Sunday, following a successful SpaceX launch live stream. You can see a video replay of the liftoff below, along with four other can't-miss highlight videos.

SpaceX live stream video

Here's where you're able to watch the NASA astronauts float around in space board the SpaceX Dragon capsule. The live stream commentary has been brilliant, insightful and inspiring regarding the future of commercial space travel.

SpaceX video: see the NASA astronauts arrive at ISS

For the first time, NASA astronauts arrived at the International Space Station from a commercially-made spacecraft. Watch Doug and Bob join three other astronauts from the Dragon Endeavor (what they named their capsule after the launch).

SpaceX hatch opening video replay

The SpaceX hatch opened at 12:45pm EDT, a little more than two hours after the Dragon capsule first linked up with the ISS. NASA astronauts equalized the pressure between the two spacecrafts so that they could move to the ISS.

SpaceX docking with ISS video replay

You can see the ISS docking in this video below. It shows the SpaceX Dragon and ISS linking up in what's called a 'soft capture'. It happened autonomously, and then a set a 12 latches or hooks create a pressurized seal so that the two crafts orbit together.

This particular SpaceX video is of the more visually-pleasing soft capture (there's no good video vantage point for the more internalized hard capture with latches).

SpaceX toy dinosaur floating in zero gravity

You can't buy the "Ty Flippable Tremor The Aqua/Pink Sequin Dinosaur" on Amazon anymore. It's sold out after it was seen floating in space. The NASA astronauts took it onboard for their kids to see it experience zero gravity.

Best SpaceX video replays

All of the important SpaceX video replays are below, from launch to right now.

Both SpaceX and NASA are providing a bunch of footage – both live video and video replays – to capture this space mission. Here are the best videos to check out.

1. SpaceX launch video replay – see the liftoff again

Liftoff happened at 3:22pm EDT Saturday, and it was spectacular, especially after a nine-year hiatus for NASA launches on US soil. You can rewatch the launch again.

2. SpaceX Falcon 9 booster returns to Earth

Just beyond the T-0 countdown, we saw the SpaceX Falcon 9 booster return to Earth – and land successfully. Having a reusable rocket is a huge milestone for the future of space travel when it comes to cost.

Commentators on the SpaceX live stream compared the Space Shuttle era rockets falling into the ocean (and being scrapped) as throwing away an airplane engine every time a plane pulled into an airport gate. It's a great analogy to explain why what SpaceX pulled off on Saturday was a huge deal for space exploration.

3. Falcon 9 second stage separates from Dragon capsule

Here's some great footage of the Falcon 9 second stage rocket separating from the Dragon Capsule and falling back to Earth.

4. NASA astronauts' first video transmission

Right now, NASA astronauts are above Earth in the SpaceX-made Dragon capsule as you read this (they'll be up there for 19 hours), and they're wearing SpaceX-designed spacesuits. The US government's Space Shuttle program ended nine years ago and the private SpaceX has picked up where NASA left off. It's a giant step for space exploration.

5. Live views of the SpaceX Dragon orbiting the Earth

The SpaceX cameras were able to capture some amazing live views of Earth as the Dragon capsule orbited the planet on its way to dock with the ISS. Here's a short clip of exactly that. 

The first hours of Saturday's SpaceX livestream felt like deja vu if you watched the SpaceX live stream Wednesday. But unlike that first launch attempt, Saturday's launch countdown didn't stop at T-minus 17 minutes. Instead, history was made.

It wasn't always clear that Saturday's launch would happen, even minutes before the launch window. "We are predicting a 50/50 shot of going this time," said NASA administrator NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine at the top of the SpaceX live stream. "But given the fact that we are in late May – in Florida – we have to take every shot that we can get." They're glad that they did, despite the gloomy forecast.

Saturday's SpaceX Demo-2 mission was a delayed and a second attempt, but it was always going to be historic, as it's happening at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. It's the first such launch on US soil in nearly a decade – since NASA retired the Space Shuttle nine years ago. It's also the first time that a SpaceX reusable spacecraft has sent NASA astronauts into space. It's the birth of commercially-backed human space travel.

The destination of this SpaceX launch is the International Space Station (ISS) for a one- to four-month duration for NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, according to our friends over at Space.com.

SpaceX launch – as it happened on Saturday, May 30

The official Demo-2 SpaceX launch time, Saturday, May 30 at 3:22pm EDT, so the times across the continental US were 2:22pm CDT / 1:22pm MDT / 12:22pm PDT.

The UK SpaceX launch time was 20:22 BST. In addition to tuning into the video live stream, you were able to go outside soon afterward and maybe catch a glimpse of the SpaceX-built spacecraft in the night sky at around 20:40 BST.

In Australia, it was already Sunday morning, with the new launch time occurring at 5:22am AEST.

SpaceX launch weather concerns subsided

Up until the last few minutes of Saturday's SpaceX launch, weather was a concern. It wouldn't have been time, as we saw this play out on Wednesday: "The weather got us," admitted NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine in a somber 30-second Twitter video on Wednesday. "I know there was a lot of disappointment today."

Bridenstine went on to explain the reasoning behind what we all saw: the SpaceX launch was scrubbed just 17 minutes inside the launch window, with NASA hanging on until the last minutes in an effort to save its efforts. The weather didn't cooperate.

NASA has strict weather rules for clearing spacecraft launches and noted that three weather violations existed, including the chance of the craft triggering 'natural lightning'. If they would have been able to wait ten minutes beyond the countdown, they could have cleared those three violations, according to SpaceX and NASA officials.

Waiting even ten minutes wasn't an option, though. Both Saturday's successful launch and Wednesday's scrubbed launch had what's known as an 'instantaneous launch window', meaning due orbital mechanics a delay wasn't possible if the crew wanted to get to the International Space Station (ISS) on time and lock in accurately. Blame Newtown's law of universal gravity, if you'd like.

The good news is that everything technical with the SpaceX craft and NASA crew was 'go for liftoff' on both days when the hatch door successfully closed. Weather was the only concern, according to NASA during the live streams.

Even with all of the exceptional planning ahead of this SpaceX launch, NASA and SpaceX can't control the weather (not yet anyway). Florida, while normally sunny, does have frequent quick-moving thunderstorms (anyone who has ever visited nearby Disney World knows that), and that's what the crew faced Wednesday and most of Saturday until the final half-hour.

Another weather variable is the fact that the weather conditions need to be good everywhere this spacecraft might be. For example, if the crew had to abort anywhere along their ascent and come down, recovery crews would need to access the capsule, so it's more than just the immediate Florida launchpad that needs ideal weather.

What happened before the SpaceX launch

The live stream saw SpaceX founder Elon Musk visit suited-up astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken and exchange a few words before liftoff time. Sadly, there was no audio during this portion of the live stream on Wednesday.

Musk then greeted US Vice President Mike Pence, who is there to watch the launch, while President Donald Trump joined soon after. Hurley and Behnken traveled to the launch site in a Tesla Model X (Tesla being another company Musk founded). Both the President and Vice President returned to see the launch Saturday. 

NASA continued to monitor the weather via data sensors around the launch site in an effort to get everything into 'the green position' on their maps. At the time, NASA said, "the weather is trending in the right direction," but as the countdown got to T-minus 17 minutes, favorability went the other direction.

This meant that the crew was seated in the capsule after crossing the crew access arm, and the crew arm had already retracted. Steam started to come off of the rocket before the launch was called off. It was that close to liftoff.

SpaceX spacecraft, SpaceX suits and NASA astronauts

NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are inside the SpaceX Dragon capsule, which sat atop the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for liftoff. It was situated on a launch pad at legendary Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida’s Cape Canaveral. 

LC-39A was originally built for the Apollo missions and remodeled for the Space Shuttle program. Now it's home to the first space flight to send astronauts into space using a private aerospace company.

Hurley (the spacecraft commander) and Behnken (the joint operations commander) are NASA astronauts, engineers and both former members of US military (Hurley is a former marine, while Behnken was in the US Air Force).

The two-man NASA crew are not only be flying in a SpaceX-built spacecraft, but also outfitted in SpaceX pressurized suits, first shown off in 2017.

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Japanese firm Ispace, which specializes in robotics and intends to become one of the first lunar delivery companies, has announced its first two missions to the moon. The first trip (scheduled for 2020) will carry a payload into orbit, while the second (in 2021) will take ispace's rovers to the lunar surface.

Ispace has booked room for its hardware aboard two forthcoming launches of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.

"We share the vision with SpaceX of enabling humans to live in space, so we’re very glad they will join us in this first step of our journey," said Takeshi Hakamada, CEO and founder of Ispace.

Moonshots

SpaceX is aiming to dominate the commercial rocket launch industry, offering its services to other private companies like Ispace and enabling them to get their businesses off the ground (in every sense).

The company is currently working on improving its rocket technology, creating boosters that can be re-used up to 100 times, which would drastically reduce the cost of each launch and make space travel more affordable for budding companies like Ispace.

“We are entering a new era in space exploration, and SpaceX is proud to have been selected by ispace to launch their first lunar missions," said SpaceX president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell. "We are looking forward to delivering their innovative spacecraft to the Moon.”

• Musk vs Bezos: the battle of the rocket men

Via The Verge

Main image: Mars is getting more attention than ever. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The fourth planet from the Sun has been in the news quite a bit recently. First NASA announced that its Curiosity rover had found that methane and organic molecules both exist on Mars, and then there was the dust storm that engulfed most of the planet, causing Curiosity to take a very dirty selfie.

We humans are endlessly fascinated by Mars. It's the only other planet in the solar system that we could ever colonize, and it could once have supported ancient life… and yet getting humans to live there successfully will be hugely challenging. The need to know what astronauts can expect when they land on the Red Planet is why space agencies are currently planning no less than five new missions to Mars. Here's what they'll do… 

• Do you have a brilliant idea for the next great tech innovation? Enter our Tech Innovation for the Future competition and you could win up to £10,000!

NASA InSight

Launch: May 5, 2018  Touchdown: November 26, 2018  Official mission page

Already halfway through its 301 million mile (485 million km) journey to Mars, NASA's newest lander is due to arrive in November. However, unlike its famous rovers Curiosity and Opportunity – now six and 14 years old, respectively, and still doing science – InSight won't move at all. Since geologists know very little about Mars’ interior, InSight will take the Red Planet's temperature, measure its tectonic activity, and reveal its deeper structure.

InSight – shorthand for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport – will be looking for one thing in particular: Marsquakes. Its scientific tools will measure the intensity of waves traveling through the rock, with scientists expecting to see between 12 and 100 Marsquakes during the two-year mission. The seismic data collected will be used to figure out how Mars was formed 4.5 billion years ago, while a heat flow probe thrust into the Martian surface will take the planet's temperature.

Also blasting off with InSight in May 2018 was the MarCO or Mars Cube One mission, comprising two small 'cubesats' that will attempt to report back to NASA on InSight's landing.

Read more: The first-ever mission to study what's under the Martian surface

NASA Mars 2020 rover

Launch: July/August 2020  Touchdown: February 2021  Official mission page

You might think that with a couple of rovers, the stationary InSight, and no less than three orbiters (Odyssey, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and MAVEN, NASA would have enough Mars missions on its plate. But no. Based on the design of Curiosity – by now way over its intended operational limit – Mars 2020 is another rover, but this one will collect rocks and soil samples.

Crucially, it will do so in an area likely to have been habitable in the distant past. It will use a robotic arm and a drill to study rocks, and put the really interesting ones in a box for a possible future 'sample return' mission currently being discussed by NASA (see mission 5).

To that end the Mars 2020 rover won't just look for signs of past microbial life, but will also measure weather, wind, radiation and dust, and also demonstrate technologies that will help humans once we get there, such as those for testing oxygen-producing technology and looking for underground water.

So far, so sensible – but Mars 2020 has something special up its sleeve, in the shape of a reconnaissance drone that it will test in the thin Martian atmosphere.

Read more: A helicopter for Mars and four other audacious concepts for space exploration

ISRO Mars Orbiter Mission 2 (MOM 2)

Launch: 2021-2022  Touchdown: 2021-2022  Official mission page

India is going planet-mad. As well as planning a mission to Venus in 2020, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will send an orbiter to Mars in 2021. It won’t be India's first launch to Mars; in 2014 it sent the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) – also called Mangalyaan – whose Mars Colour Camera (MCC) continues to send stunning photographs back to ISRO's Bengaluru mission control.

The follow-up, MOM 2, doesn't have an official launch date or a payload, but since MOM's instruments largely failed to confirm the existence of methane in the Martian atmosphere, it's highly possible that MOM 2 will see a repeat of the experiment with better tech.

Since all of the other planned Martian missions are concentrating on the planet's surface and subsurface, MOM 2 could have a big role to play in uncovering secrets about the atmosphere. MOM 2 will launch from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Andhra Pradesh, India.

ESA ExoMars Rover

Launch: 2020  Touchdown: 2021  Official mission page

Think there are tensions between Europe and Moscow? Not in the world of space exploration, where scientists thankfully have a much more universalist (no pun intended) outlook. ExoMars is a joint mission comprising a European Space Agency (ESA)-built six-wheeled surface rover complete with drill and cameras, and a platform built by Russia's Roscosmos space agency.

While InSight will be the first mission to study what's under the Martian surface, ExoMars will be the first mission to actually drill down and get samples. It will use a two-metre drill to create a borehole, study the mineralogy down there, and take some samples to study in its onboard chemical lab. What's it looking for? Organic molecules, of course – evidence of buried life.

Another part of the mission, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, arrived at Mars in 2016, but its Schiaparelli lander crashed on descent.

Mars Sample Return (MSR)

Launch: Late 2020s  Touchdown: Late 2020s  Official mission page

Land a rover near cache of rocks left by the Mars 2020 rover. Use a new rover to collect the cache and bring it back to the landing platform. Strap it to a rocket, launch it, and wait for it to travel back to Earth and drop it into the ocean for NASA to collect. Although its only a proposed mission with no confirmed date, NASA is awfully keen to get its hands on some Martian rock for the first time, so that it can perform detailed chemical and physical analysis well in advance of sending astronauts to the Red Planet.

This is high-profile stuff – bringing back a sample from another planet is what planetary scientists have long dreamed of. However, it's not simple. Not only would the Mars 2020 rover need to collect many surface samples and put them in pen-sized canisters for possible retrieval, another mission would be needed to deliver both a rover and a Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) rocket to the surface. After some of the samples had been retrieved, they would have to be blasted from the surface – something never attempted before. And, lastly, a third mission would have to scoop the samples out of orbit and put them in an Earth-re-entry vehicle for splashdown, quarantine and scientific study.

Does that all sound rather tricky? It is – and it's why some think that a mission so logistically complex is exactly the kind of thing NASA and ESA should attempt well ahead of any manned mission to Mars. No wonder, then, that it's now being talked up by the two space agencies.

After all, if we're ever going to send people to Mars, we'll need as much information as we can get about what the Red Planet is really like – and, more importantly, how humans can survive it.

TechRadar's Next Up series is brought to you in association with Honor

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NASA has a bold plan to send astronauts to Mars by 2030 (or thereabouts). In preparation for this monumental Martian mission, the space agency needs to make sure everything's in order years beforehand. 

From engineering the rockets and making sure there are enough supplies for a round trip, to developing 3D printing tools and ensuring a long-distance communications system is up to the challenge, there’s a lot to think about, develop and test. 

But it’s easy to focus on the tech and logistics and overlook arguably the most important bit of the mission: the astronauts themselves.

NASA is working hard to ensure that astronauts are well fed, comfortable(ish) and physically fit in space so they’re at tip-top condition. But their mental health is just as important. 

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Why mental health matters

Although everyone should be taking care of their physical and mental health, whether they’re working on the International Space Station (ISS) or working at a desk, looking after your mental well-being is different in space. 

We asked Nicholas C. Salamon, Researcher at The Ohio State University, who's interested in tech applications that positively impact mental health on long-term space missions, what needs to be considered.

“Happiness and mental well-being are important for most people, but mental health is especially important for astronauts on long missions simply due to the nature of their environment,” he told us.

“On Earth, having a couple bad days in a row probably won't endanger anyone. In space, however, an astronaut suffering a decrement in mental health could make a mistake that ends the mission or worse, the lives of the crew.” 

Luckily, astronauts are extremely well-trained. Not only that, but they have a support network that includes communication with people on the ground, time to relax and time to socialize.

Testing on the ground

Traveling to Mars will come with its own set of challenges, all of which are impossible to recreate exactly on Earth. But that doesn’t mean that studying similar situations isn’t extremely useful in preparing for long-haul space travel. 

Environments like Arctic research stations and submarines can provide a useful context that could help us assess the psychological issues that might arise on a mission to the red planet.

The most significant experiment taking place on Earth is NASA’s Human Exploration Research Analog, also known as HERA. It’s a closed habitat at the Johnson Space Center, which looks at the effects that confinement, isolation and working in remote conditions have on humans. It’s used to look into medical and physical issues, as well as behavioral health and performance.

Ensuring astronauts are healthy and happy

NASA divides these physical and mental health factors into five categories that are related to the pressures astronauts are subject to as they travel through space. There’s gravity fields, hostile/closed environments, space radiation, distance from Earth and isolation/confinement. 

There are plenty of physical health considerations, from making sure astronauts get enough exercise so their muscle mass doesn’t decrease too much through to ensuring they’re not exposed to too much radiation. While all of the above factors could impact the mental health of the crew, the main one that’s directly tied to wellbeing is isolation and confinement. 

“The more confined and isolated humans are, the more likely they are to develop behavioral or cognitive conditions, and psychiatric disorders,” the NASA website explains. That’s why it’s been vital for NASA to study the behavior and mental health of people in confined spaces, like HERA, for a long time to address some of these issues. 

Interestingly, NASA has identified that sleep plays a big part in overall mental health, which won’t be a huge surprise for anyone who suffers from restless nights and bad moods the next day. That’s because the pressures of space, the lack of regular light and the confined surroundings make a regular sleep/wake cycle difficult to maintain. 

A number of solutions are already being tested (and used on space missions aboard the ISS) to address these issues, like actigraphy. This helps astronauts assess and improve their sleep and alertness by recording how much they move, and the amount of ambient light around them each day. 

There are also new and improved lighting solutions that use LED tech, and which will soon be used on the ISS to align astronaut's circadian rhythms in an attempt to improve performance and alertness, and aid better sleep. 

Furthermore, therapeutic activities are being introduced, such as journaling. The idea is this will give astronauts a safe space to vent their frustrations, as well as provide researchers with a tool to study behavioral issues. 

The possibilities of virtual reality

Virtual reality tech is already being used by both private space companies and space agencies to train astronauts on the ground and up in space. But the use of virtual reality as a medical tool has yet to be fully realized. 

Salamon produced a research paper that explored the ways VR could positively impact the mental health of astronauts on long missions. 

The first is that it can enable people to see virtual, natural environments. There have been countless studies about the efficacy of having people view nature scenes to decrease stress, which could be even more powerful up in space. 

Not only can nature scenes ease stress, they could also provide a calming and confidential environment that feels private in the confined and intense conditions of a spacecraft.

Ohio State University's Salamon explained: “Stress management will be crucial on long space missions, and initial research shows that exposure to simulated natural environments can have a calming effect after stressors.”

VR has been used as a form of stress management and even pain management in a number of scenarios, from diagnosing and treating anxiety to dealing with PTSD, so it makes sense that Salamon and his team would point to VR’s ability to provide the same benefits to astronauts. 

A 2006 study found that pairing indoor exercise with a VR headset produced calming effects, which were even more calming than exercising outdoors among nature. Therefore, one way to deliver VR experiences might be to combine the technology with exercise.

“Astronauts already have to exercise for two hours every day to combat the muscle deterioration experienced in microgravity,” Salamon told us. “Instead of staring at the wall of their spacecraft, they could go on a jog through a forest, a park, their hometown, or anywhere really.” 

The UK's National Health Service is investing in VR therapy as a way to treat a number of mental health problems; although, as with all aspects of VR, more research needs to be done in order to determine whether it’s as effective as it appears to be in initial trials.

It’s clear that, as tech advances, there could be huge opportunity for VR to help calm people and assist them in working through problems, whether their feet are planted  firmly on Earth or they're on their way to Mars.

The great thing about VR is it’s versatile. This means that although it can be used to calm people and give them alone time in nature, the right experience could also help them to feel more connected to others. “Basically, the flexible nature of VR means it could potentially be used for relaxation, stimulation, socialization, exercise... the list goes on,” says Salamon.

“VR could also be used to combat boredom through immersive games or movies, and it could be used in a collaborative environment with other astronauts to create a social experience.” 

It can also be used as a way for them to better communicate with friends and family on Earth. This could make astronauts feel less lonely, and they may miss their families less if they can interact with them regularly rather than just sending text-based messages or using video calling.

Thanks to platforms like Facebook Spaces and vTime, developments in social VR as a means to connect people at great distances look promising, especially given advances in haptic touch technology. This could allow astronauts to even ‘touch’ their friends, partners and families from millions of miles away, which would foster an even greater sense of connection.

The future of mental health in space

It’s still early days in assessing just how useful VR technology could be to astronauts on long-haul missions, and Salamon’s research points to the need for more experimentation in this area. But given that VR is proving to be a valuable way of positively impacting on many areas of mental wellbeing, from calming stress to pain management, it seems likely it can be equally beneficial, if not more so, for space travelers. 

“It is possible to make educated guesses about the efficacy of these methods, but it will be very important to perform in-depth studies that allow researchers to learn what works and what doesn't, and even what strategies might actually create an adverse effect on mental health in space,” Salamon told us. 

After all, there’s a big difference between testing VR applications on Earth and on a spacecraft. “The social dynamic among a crewed Mars mission will be totally unique in many ways, which makes it hard to know which methods will be most effective,” Salamon adds.

But he believes these challenges shouldn’t put us off further exploring how VR could be used in space. “It shouldn't be written off as a gimmick. It has huge potential as a tool to keep astronauts, and others, mentally and emotionally grounded by providing virtual environments and scenarios that they would not have access to otherwise.”

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Main image: Data from the Kepler space telescope has been used to find thousands of exoplanets. Credit: NASA

It would be the greatest scientific find in history.

Countless alien worlds have been discovered in recent years – in fact, from a single example in 1992 there are now 3,730 confirmed exoplanets – defined as a planet that orbits another star – on the list. NASA has even launched its Exoplanet Travel Bureau, which explores three of the most Earth-like: Kepler-16b, Kepler-186f, and TRAPPIST-1e.

However, not a single exoplanet has ever been photographed. 

Cue Project Blue, which aims to build and launch a space telescope that can image planets situated in the 'habitable zones' of stars in the Alpha Centauri system, the star system closest to us. A habitable zone around a star is the range of orbits far enough away for a planet to support liquid water, which scientists think is a must-have for life to evolve.

If any exoplanet has an atmosphere, or an ocean, this special telescope could photograph them… and could confirm the existence of another Blue Planet similar to our own, which may contain life.

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What is Project Blue?

Project Blue is about taking the search for Earth 2.0 from observational astronomy into visual astronomy. While most exoplanets have been discovered using the 'transit' method (a telescope observing a star's light dim slightly as a planet travels across its disk), the future of exoplanet exploration is going to be all about direct observation and photography.

Conceptually, Project Blue is a plan to produce an image to rival two other iconic astronomical images – Apollo 8’s 1968 photo of the Earth-rise around the Moon, and Voyager 1’s ‘Pale Blue Dot’ image from 1990, which Carl Sagan described as showing Earth as ‘a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam’.

The crowdfunded Project Blue mission (you can donate here), which aims to blast off in the 2021, is the brainchild of the BoldlyGo Institute, Mission Centaur, extraterrestrial life-hunters the SETI Institute, and the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Which star system will Project Blue look at?

Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system to Earth. “It’s a special place to do exoplanet imaging,” says Dr Jon Morse, CEO and Chair of the Board, BoldlyGo Institute, speaking at the Dawn of Private Space Symposium in June. “It’s also the closest star system to us, by a factor of 2.5 closer than the next Sun-like stars that might have a solar system similar to ours.”

Alpha Centauri is no ordinary solar system. A mere 4.37 light years from us, it consists of three stars: two Sun-sized stars called Alpha Centauri A (also called Rigil Kent) and Alpha Centauri B, and the much smaller Proxima Centauri red dwarf star. In fact, Proxima Centauri is the nearest to us at just 4.24 light years, but despite an Earth-sized exoplanet called Proxima Centauri b being discovered in 2016, Project Blue will ignore it.

While it could be the closest exoplanet to us, there’s a simple reason why Proxima Centauri b is being ignored. “We’re not looking at Proxima Centauri because its habitable zones and the planet that we suspect is there are much too close to the star for us to spatially resolve it,” says Morse. “So we’re focusing on the Sun-like stars Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B.”

How big is Project Blue's telescope?

It's actually pretty small. "It's as large as it needs to be," says Morse. "Alpha Centauri is special because it’s only 4.37 light-years away, and we only need a 50cm diameter primary mirror in our telescope to spatially resolve the habitable zones."

From low-Earth orbit, this small space telescope will point at Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, the two largest stars in the Alpha Centauri system, which are both the same size (give or take) as our Sun. Astronomers already know that Alpha Centauri B has a planet orbiting it, but it's not in the star’s habitable zone. So Project Blue will be on the lookout for new, as yet undiscovered – and, hopefully, blue – exoplanets. 

A new era of exoplanet photography

If direct imaging of exoplanets is to be the future of astronomy, some foundational technologies need to be tested first, and that's exactly what Project Blue is intended to do. It will use a disk to block each star's bright surface – thus creating an artificial total solar eclipse – so it can see nearby planets.

But it will also use a technology called active wavefront control to detect very faint reflected starlight – something that even the US$8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope won’t be able to do. "JWST will have coronagraphs that scientists will use to image Jupiter-class planets around nearby stars, but the JWST coronagraphs won’t have active wavefront control, and so won’t be able to look as close to the stars as we intend to with Project Blue’s coronagraph," says Morse.

The only other mission currently planned to have a coronagraph to image exoplanets is NASA’s WFIRST mission, scheduled to launch around 2025. Future mission concepts that could photograph exoplanets decades from now include Starshade, EXO-C, HabEx and LUVOIR. 

Where is Alpha Centauri in the night sky?

The two bright stars of Alpha Centauri appear as a single point of light in the night sky, and it’s mostly visible only from the southern hemisphere. It’s the brightest star in the southern constellation Centaurus the Centaur. In fact, Alpha Centauri and its visually close neighbor, Beta Centauri (which is a whopping 390 light-years from us), point to the Southern Cross.

However, those living below 25 degrees north of the Earth's equator (such as in Florida, North Africa, the UAE, Northern India and Southern China), do sometimes see Alpha Centauri peek above the southern horizon. That explains why this star was worshipped by the ancient Egyptians, who erected temples at Corinth and Delphi that align to the rising of Alpha Centauri.

How long would it take to travel to Alpha Centauri?

It may the closest star system to us, but using current rocket technology it would take about 30,000 years to cross the 40 trillion kilometres (or 4.37 light years, or 1.34 parsecs), between us and Alpha Centauri.

So if we could travel at a tenth of light speed, we could make the trip in about 44 years. Speculative projects include Breakthrough Starshot which would send 1,000 ultra-lightweight nanocraft traveling at a fifth of light speed, and propelling a tiny graphene-shielded spacecraft on the tip of a laser beam; it’s likely, though, that any mission we sent to Alpha Centauri would be overtaken by a mission launched much later but using newer, faster technology.

For the foreseeable future, however, interstellar travel is a slow process, and so the search for Earth 2.0 is likely to remain a purely photographic hunt for many decades to come.

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Image credit: NASA

Update: The SpaceX launch was scratched today as the team conducts additional GNC (guidance, navigation and control) analysis. SpaceX will now look to launch NASA's TESS satellite on Wednesday, April 18. 

Original story continues below...

The latest SpaceX launch is scheduled for today in Cape Canaveral, Florida, when a Falcon 9 rocket will blast off carrying a NASA satellite that will search for planets outside our solar system. 

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, will look for dips in brightness coming from distant stars, a sign that planets are crossing the stars in orbit.

These exoplanets could be potential 'Earth 2.0' candidates, meaning they could have life on them. 

"We expect TESS will discover a number of planets whose atmospheric compositions hold potential clues to the presence of life, which could be precisely measured by future observers," George Ricker, TESS principal investigator at MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research in Cambridge, which is leading the mission, previously told TechRadar.

TESS' initial two-year exoplanet-hunting mission will focus on stars less than 300 light-years away. It may be some time before TESS makes a ground-breaking discovery, but you can watch the beginning of the journey today.

Plus, SpaceX will try to land Falcon 9's first stage back on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean, which is always a dramatic event to watch.

What time is the launch?

Today's 30-second launch window opens at 6:32pm ET, or 3:32pm PT / 10:32pm GMT. That's 8:32am AEST on Tuesday, April 17 in Australia. 

The launch window is narrow, so if it closes before SpaceX can get its cargo off the ground, a 30-second backup window is set for Tuesday, April 17 at 6:13pm ET. 

If for some reason the rocket can't launch today or tomorrow, The Verge notes there are even more backup launch windows scheduled through April 26.

How to watch today's launch

So, how do you tune in to see SpaceX launch a NASA satellite that could find Earth 2.0?

The easiest way is to watch the live stream on SpaceX's YouTube channel. We've also included the video below:

The launch will send TESS into a highly elliptical orbit around Earth, according to SpaceX. This should take place around 48 minutes after launch. 

SpaceX launches are never dull – did you catch Elon Musk launch his Tesla Roadster into space? – so be sure to tune in if you're even just a tiny bit curious about the potential of finding Earth 2.0.

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About a year ago, Chinese officials confirmed that they'd lost control of their Tiangong-1 space station, and that it would re-enter the Earth's atmosphere in late 2017.

Well, the time has come. China's equivalent of NASA, the China National Space Administration (CNSA), has notified the United Nations that the 8.5-tonne craft has begun its descent, and will hit the surface some time between October 2017 and April 2018.

Tiangong-1 ,or 'Heavenly Palace', was launched in 2011 and has hosted both unmanned and manned missions. It was visited by China's first woman astronaut, Liu Yang, in 2012. 

But following what's believed to have been some kind of technical or mechanical failure in 2016, CNSA announced that the 10.4-metre-long craft had "comprehensively fulfilled its historical mission" and would be coming back to Earth.

More rapidly

So far, that's meant a slow decay in its orbit, but in the last few weeks the craft has dropped to a denser part of the Earth's atmosphere and begun to descend more rapidly. Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist from Harvard University, told The Guardian that he expected it to land in late 2017 or early 2018.

As the space station falls it will begin to break apart and burn up in the atmosphere, but it's large enough that parts weighing up to 100kg may survive the descent. The most probable outcome is that they'll hit the ocean (which covers 70% of the Earth's surface) or uninhabited areas (which cover most of the rest). 

But there's an outside chance that it'll crash-land in an area where people live, and it'll be impossible to predict, even in the hours before landing, exactly where it'll hit. Even slight changes in upper atmosphere weather could nudge it between continents.

In 1979, NASA's Skylab space station hit Australia during its own fall to Earth, and the Soviet Union's Salyut 7 space station followed suit over Argentina in 1991. Tiangong-1's successor, Tiangong-2, was launched in September 2016. 

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For a long time, microbiologists have been saying that you should stop thinking of yourself as "me" and start thinking "us". Why? Well, the various microbial flora and fauna that live on and in our bodies are essential to our continued existence.

However, though there are good microbes there are also more harmful microbes; the kind that cause infections, food poisoning and other illnesses. As the balance between good and evil in any comic book universe will tell you, it's hard to have one set of these microbes without the other, which is going to be a problem on any future missions into space.

We know this thanks to the findings of a research team led by Petra Schwendner from the University of Edinburgh. Schwendner and his team examined the Mars500 project – a simulated spaceship that was inhabited for 17 months by a six-man crew of Russians from 2010 to 2011. Specifically, they studied how the populations of microorganisms changed during the experiment, both over time and in different areas of the craft. 

Long-term influence

"Until now, little was known about the influence of long-term confinement on the microorganisms that live inside habitats that may one day be used to travel to other planets, and whether the structure of the microbiota changes with time," said Schwendner.

Their results showed that confinement dramatically shaped the bacterial community on board the spacecraft. Different areas had specific bacterial signatures, with communal areas, sleep areas, the gym and the toilet having the greatest activity. The lowest numbers of bacteria were found in the medical module.

The most common bacteria were those associated with humans, like Bacillus and Staphylococcus. These were probably dispersed by the crew themselves and while they're rarely lethal, they can be associated with skin infections – particularly in people with compromised immune systems.

The good news, though, is that the team's cleaning schedule kept the worst of the microbes at bay. 

"Although we located some microbial hotspots where the number of bacteria was much higher than in other areas," Schwender said, "we were quite relieved to find that the overall bacterial counts were within the acceptable limits."

Cleaning control

"Due to appropriate cleaning measures, the microbial community inside the habitat was under control at all times with no or little risk for the crew."

Unfortunately disease isn't the only risk posed by microbes. "In addition to potential health risks for the crew, some of these microorganisms could have a negative impact on spacecraft, as they grow on and might damage spacecraft material," explained Schwendner. 

"To ensure the systems' stability, countermeasures may be required to avoid development of highly resistant, adapted microorganisms, and a complete loss of microbial diversity."

The full details of the study were published in the journal Microbiome. 

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A trip to Mars may resemble a particularly poor and drawn out series of Celebrity Big Brother in which everyone goes mad and dies at the end of it, with researchers suggesting that one of the biggest hurdles in getting humans beyond our current low-earth orbit slump is maintaining the mental health of those who end up sitting in a small space tin with other travellers for years.

That's according to the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which has been pondering the mental health difficulties astronauts would face in making the vast trip through empty space to Mars or beyond. There's a lot of sitting down in close proximity to other people, basically -- like spending nine months on a bus and when you arrive it's a featureless desert -- and that's pretty much everyone's worst nightmare. 

The academy thinks practical things like radiation exposure and making sure there's enough toilet paper and biscuits are nothing compared with having to listen to other people talk and go to the toilet for what will seem like infinity when you're stuck up there with no escape. 

Open your mind (but not too much)

"Two of the most critical issues are the radiation exposure beyond low Earth orbit and the psychosocial effects of confinement and isolation,” said study author Carol Scott-Conner, who warns that entire missions could be jeopardized not by hardware failures but by team members losing it. 

Disrupted sleep, missing family, the lack of decent communications with home and the utter horror of not having a reliable Wi-Fi connection are all contributing factors, and when combined with doing a stressful and dangerous job with the whole world watching, for literally years on end, it could be enough to turn even the most stoic and emotionless of military careerists and scientists insane. 

So maybe we should send criminals out to do the groundwork again. That's our reading-between-the-lines conclusion, not what the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommends. 

• It could have some bearing on Elon Musk's Mars colonization plans, too

After rechristening its Mars Colonial Transporter the Interplanetary Transport System, SpaceX has revealed it's now testing the engines that will go inside this rocket at a facility in Texas.

SpaceX founder, Elon Musk, tweeted images of the test on September 25 which depicted streams of flame coming from the engine as well as Mach diamonds, which are wave patterns visible in a supersonic exhaust plume.

There hasn't been much solid information on the specifications of the Raptor released previously, other than it's several times more powerful than the Merlin engine series (one of the first attempts from SpaceX) and will use liquid methane rather than kerosene.

In his tweets, though, Musk provided a few extra details, stating that the goal is for the engine to achieve a thrust of "3 MN ( 310 metric tons) at 300 bar."

Close to liftoff?

There's been a fair amount of activity coming from SpaceX recently, as Musk gears up to make his keynote speech at the International Astronautical Congress on September 27 titled "Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species."

It's expected that in this speech Musk will give greater detail on SpaceX's plans for a manned mission to Mars. At the moment, SpaceX is aiming to have its crewed mission take place in 2024 with unmanned preparatory missions beginning in 2018.

After a few recent setbacks it makes sense that Musk would want to showcase the progress he and his team are making before he takes to the stage to detail the mission's ambitious schedule.

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SpaceX is planning to send a rocket to Mars in the next two years, making it the first private space company to reach our neighboring Red Planet.

The company will use its still-in-concept Red Dragon capsule for the Mars landing "as soon as 2018," according to a surprise tweet by the company today.

Landing a reusable spacecraft on Mars is just the first step for SpaceX CEO Elon Musk who, earlier this year, said he wanted humans to colonize Mars by 2025.

To get to Mars, however, Musk and company plan to use Falcon Heavy, the bigger brother of the Falcon 9. They both acts as a lift vehicles, but the Falcon Heavy can lift 4 times as much weight.

So close, but so far, far away

Like the Falcon 9, plans are to make the Falcon Heavy and its Mars-bound Red Dragon capsule reusable.

That "reusable rocket" portion of the equation has been a hit and a miss and a miss for SpaceX on Earth. Mars' thinner atmosphere presents an even bigger challenge to the SpaceX team.

It'll be an engineering feat if the company call pull off the Mars landing with the Falcon Heavy-propelled Red Dragon by 2018, as both still haven't been tested out on the SpaceX launchpad (and landing pad) just yet.

Dreams as big as Jupiter

Mars appears to be only one stop for this second-generation Dragon capsule, according to Musk who weighed in today shortly after the official announcement.

"Dragon 2 is designed to be able to land anywhere in the solar system," he tweeted. "Red Dragon Mars mission is the first test flight."

Digging into some older Musk tweets, he's echoing the same theory from 2015: "Dragon 2 is designed to land on any surface (liquid or solid) in the solar system," he said last September.

'Falcon Heavy can send a fully loaded Dragon to Mars or a light Dragon to Jupiter's moons.'

"In expendable mode, Falcon Heavy can send a fully loaded Dragon to Mars or a light Dragon to Jupiter's moons. Europa mission wd [sic] be cool."

Of course, today, he's ruling out use of astronauts, saying he "wouldn't recommend transporting astronauts beyond Earth-moon region. Wouldn't be fun for longer journeys. Internal volume size of SUV." Tomorrow, a single tweet could change everything.

• Even sooner: Nintendo NX to arrive March 2017

Jeff Williams, a grandfather to three kids, is set to blast off to the International Space Station later today, and during his mission he'll break the record for the most days spent in space by an astronaut.

According to Phys.org, by the end of his six-month mission he'll have smashed Scott Kelly's record of 520 days in space, which was set only a few weeks ago when he returned to Earth, reaching 534 days cumulatively.

This isn't quite the full story, however, as Williams will only be the record holder for astronauts. The real record holder is Genny Padalka, a cosmonaut, who has spent an astonishing 879 days in space.

And despite him being a grandfather, there's no need to worry about old man Williams' health – he's only 58, and we'd wager that he probably doesn't need a walking stick or have a bad back. Sadly Nasa hasn't yet revealed whether he'll be taking any Werther's Originals with him.

Go Fourth

This will be Williams' fourth trip into space. He first reached orbit in 2000 during a Shuttle mission to resupply the ISS, and returned twice via a Russian Soyuz in 2006 and 2009.

This time around he'll be heading up with Russian cosmonauts Oleg Skriprochka and Alexey Ovchinin, and will be joining Commander Tim Kopra, Yuri Malenchenko, and Britain's Tim Peake.

Lift off is scheduled for 9:26pm GMT/ 4:26pm ET / 1:26pm PT tonight, and will be streamed live on Nasa TV.

• Tim Peake still has the record for space prank calls.

NASA is inviting anyone with an interest in space exploration to submit a piece of artwork to be sent in a spacecraft on an upcoming mission to an asteroid.

Scheduled to launch in September, the space agency's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft will journey to Bennu, a near-Earth asteroid, in hopes of collecting about 60 grams (2.1 ounces) in samples.

Scientists are expecting the samples to include "clues to the origin of the solar system and the source of the water and organic molecules that may have made their way to Earth," according to a press release.

An art capsule for the galaxy

As this will be the first mission of its kind for NASA, the agency is hoping to include the public by asking those interested for a piece of art that expresses "how the mission's spirit of exploration is reflected in their own lives."

The artwork can be a "sketch, photograph, graphic, poem, song, short video or other creative or artistic expression." You can submit your creation through Twitter or Instagram by March 20, and NASA has compiled a full set of guidelines.

Submissions will be included on a drive to be placed on the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. It will also carry a chip with more than 442,000 names submitted through the 2014 Messages to Bennu campaign.

Part of the OSIRIS-REx will eventually make it back to Earth in 2021, though not all of it: Only the spacecraft's sample capsule will return to our surface. The rest, including the drive of artwork, "will stay in space for millennia," according to principal investigator for OSIRIS-REx, Dante Lauretta.

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While NASA next planned Mars mission - InSight - was suspended yesterday, the Mars Curiosity rover has sent back its latest self-portrait giving us a whole new look at the rover.

Instead of using the usual MAHLI camera at the end of its robotic arm to take the selfie, the Curiosity took a a series of images that make up the panoramic image of itself using the Mastcam for the first time, the Planetary Society explained.

It usually only uses this camera to take photos of itself to check up on the conditions of the instruments that site on the deck of the rover.

This time, however, according to the blog, Curiosity used the Mastcam to take a full self portrait in order to "look for grains of sand that have blown onto the rover" from the Namib dune - and this is the "before" look at the rover as it has just started exploring the dune.

Photographer Andrew Bodrov stitched together the series of images to create the impressive panorama image shown above, including the deck of the rover and the seldom seen robotic arm that holds the MAHLI camera.

Bodrov explains that his mosaic stretches about 30,000 pixels in width and includes 138 images taken on Sol 1197, which on Earth fell on December 19, 2015.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Andrew Bodrov

Elon Musk is almost ready to reveal his Mars colonization plans, though he worries world politics could end hopes for a Martian colony.

"There's a window that could be opened for a long time or a short time where we have an opportunity to establish a self-sustaining base on Mars before something happens to drive the technology level on Earth below where it's possible," Musk explained in an interview with GQ.

The "something" that he is referring to is a possible World War 3 that could involve nuclear bombs which, as a result, could push "a very powerful social movement that's anti-technology."

"I don't think we can discount the possibility of a third World War," he said, adding that in 1912, people had been "proclaiming a new age of peace and prosperity, saying that it was a golden age, war was over."

Of course, World War I then began. A handful of decades after, there was World War II, after which we had the Cold War, with the constant threat of nuclear bombs looming large.

A tech halt?

Musk believes that not only could a third World War happen, but that if it does, "it could be far worse than anything that's happened before."

And, quite logically, he believes this could halt technological advancements.

"Most of us instinctively assume that technology relentlessly marches forward, but there have been times before now in human history - after the Egyptians built the pyramids, for instance, or after the multiple advances of the Roman Empire - when the civilizations that followed could no longer do what had been done before, and perhaps there's a complacency and arrogance in assuming that this won't happen again," he said.

And while Musk has been hoping to colonize Mars with SpaceX for a while now, with the state of the world today, he wonders: "So does the [Mars] base become self-sustaining before spaceships from Earth stop going?"

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Image credit: OnInnovation Interview: Elon Musk by OnInnovation/CC BY-ND 2.0 (cropped from original)

2015 has been a great year for space exploration. Astronomers landed the Philae probe on a comet, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter found water, and we got our first-ever photographs of dwarf planets Pluto and Ceres. But scientific firsts like these don't just happen. They're planned many decades in advance. From studying the Northern Lights and searching for life on one of Saturn's moons, to putting a base on our Moon and Europe's first trip to Jupiter, here's what's confirmed for the next decade – and it's not just NASA.

Arguably the hottest topic in astronomy is astrobiology, despite it being purely theoretical. The hunt for life in the solar system is focusing on Jupiter's moon Europa, and Saturn's sixth-largest moon Enceladus, with the latter the target of NASA's mooted Enceladus Life Finder (ELF) mission for 2021.

The plan is to whizz through the 100 or so geysers of water shooting out of the moon's south pole that have been detected by NASA's Cassini probe; if they're linked to the theorised under-ice ocean, those jets could harbour organic material such as amino acids, fatty acids, and methane. The alternative? Land on Enceladus and drill through 20km of ice. Err…

Still crying over the Space Shuttle? You won't be when you see Sierra Nevada Corporation's US$330 million Dream Chaser, which is scheduled to make its debut flight in 2016. Designed to launch on the back of an Atlas V rocket, it looks like a smaller version of the Space Shuttle and it can even land on an airport runway, but Dream Chaser could soon pioneer quick-turnaround commercial human spaceflight.

Designed for NASA as a space vehicle for transporting astronauts to and from low Earth orbit – possibly from 2017 – the Dream Chaser can take up to seven crew, and uses an on-board hybrid rocket system. Flight testing resumes next year after a crash in 2013.

Probably the highlight of the next decade for NASA is its Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), a daring attempt to visit a near-Earth asteroid (NEO), snag a boulder, and put it into orbit around the Moon in the 2020s for astronauts to explore and take rock samples. However, this seemingly bizarre concept is largely about getting man to Mars in the 2030s.

Tech on test will include the Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) needed for deep space exploration, Mars-proof spacesuits, and practice at manoeuvring around, away from, and back to the 'cis-lunar' area around the Moon (regarded by NASA as the likely starting block for future deep space missions).

Three of Jupiter's Galilean moons – so-called because the Italian astronomer spotted them through his tiny telescope back in 1610 – will be the target for the European Space Agency's (ESA) JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) when it launches in 2022.

It won't get there until 2030, but when it does it'll spend three years using cameras, spectrometers, and an ice-penetrating radar to examine the three potentially habitable moons – Europa, Ganymede and Calisto – all of which are thought to contain oceans under ice crusts.

Although there are no firm plans for this one, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has found ice in the aptly-named Shackleton Crater on the Moon's South Pole; the perfect place for robots to terraform and mine for water, hydrogen and oxygen, with the help of solar reflectors to create a 'ring of power'. The idea is now being seriously researched at NASA.

SMILE (Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) is jointly led by University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory and the Chinese National Space Science Center.
Designated for the end of 2021, SMILE will spend three years monitoring charged particles in the solar wind and how they affect Earth's magnetosphere. It's this so-called 'space weather' that causes the aurora borealis (Northern Lights) and aurora australis (Southern Lights) around the Arctic and Antarctic Circles, respectively.

Two generations have now watched black and white footage of the Moon landings in awe, and yet still no 21st Century manned lunar missions are planned. But there's still hope. China's Chang-e 5 – Apollo-like in style – is an unmanned Chinese lunar exploration mission set to visit the Moon's near side in 2017, and return a sample to Earth. Just to keep the momentum towards a full manned mission, China is also sending a probe in 2020, this time to the Moon's far side. Might the third attempt be manned?

What will we all be talking about next summer? Probably Juno, a probe launched four years ago by NASA that is bound for the Jovian system. When it gets there on July 4 next year, it will orbit the planet 32 times to study its atmosphere, magnetosphere, and mostly its interior (the first probe to do the latter).
Two years after its launch, Juno flew by Earth to get a gravity assist, resulting in a huge 8,800 mph boost in velocity. While it passed its home, it shot some stunning video of the Earth and the Moon from 600,000 miles out.

Single-nation space projects are becoming rarer, as shown by the possibility of this joint US-Russian mission to Venus after 2025. Although US sanctions on Russia because of the Ukrainian political situation have interrupted it, NASA and Roscosmos are now in talks to launch a probe called Venera-D, which is designed to investigate the surface and atmosphere of Venus. Why? It's similar to the Earth, so its evolution, and how its 'greenhouse effect' works, could be highly relevant to what happens in our future. Russia has history with Venus: back in 1982 one of the Soviet Union's many Venus-bound probes, Venera 13, transmitted the only colour photos that exist of the planet's surface.

Japanese space agency JAXA has already launched Hayabusa 2, which will dispatch a lander onto asteroid 1999 JU3 midway through 2018. The MASCOT lander will then smash a hole in the surface and scoop up rock samples, which it will return to Earth by December 2020.

NASA's similar attempt, OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer), will launch next September to visit the Bennu asteroid, and send back a capsule of rock samples that's due to touch down in Utah in 2023.

• Now read: the space telescope that will show us even more than Hubble

Back in March, Nasa's Curiosity rover trundled through a region of the surface of Mars named 'Garden City'. This area is criss-crossed with mineral veins, which stick up above the surface of the surrounding dirt, making it an ideal place to study the composition of those minerals.

To do so, researchers used Curiosity's 'ChemCam' instrument, which fires lasers at objects and analyses the sparks they give off to find out what they're made of. It turns out that they're pretty diverse, with lots of different chemical ingredients.

It's thought that the veins were formed long ago during several wetter periods in the history of the Red Planet. As water flowed through fractures in the bedrock, it carried dissolved minerals which were deposited when the water dried up again.

In different wet periods, different minerals were deposited - explaining the diversity that Curiosity found.

Very Enigmatic

The analysis was made possible by an upgrade that Nasa's engineers have recently completed. It more than tripled the number of geochemical samples that the system can recognise, allowing a far wider range of substances to be spotted and categorised.

"The chemistry at Garden City would have been very enigmatic if we didn't have this recalibration," said Diana Blaney, a Curiosity science team member.

Next up, the plucky rover is heading to higher, younger parts of the mountain that it's currently exploring - Mount Sharp. By comparing the make-up of the rocks in different regions, researchers should be able to gain a better understanding of Mars' complex history.

• This gardening robot punches weeds until they die

Another week, and yet more incredible science. This week we've seen the rockets that sent men to the Moon dredged up from the ocean floor, instantaneous gold creation, and HIV-killing bee venom.

Meanwhile, you might want to cut back on the sugary drinks, and don't forget to say a cheery farewell to Voyager 1, which has just left our little corner of the galaxy, or at least so some think. All that and more in this Week in Science.

To infinity and beyond -- Voyager 1, the man made object furthest from Earth, has finally left our Solar System, or so some astronomers claim, and is heading into the unknown, even if NASA's not quite so sure. Launched way back in 1977, Voyager 1 was designed to survey the outer planets, but upon completion of its mission just kept on sailing through space. It's now around 18 billion km from Earth and has apparently exited the heliopause, the border of our Solar System, entering the interstellar space. What's on the other side is a bit unknown, but both Voyager 1 and her sister Voyager 2, which is not far behind, have another 10 to 15 years left in their plutonium batteries so we'll find out soon enough. [AGU]

Apollo 11 rockets dragged from the depths -- Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos has found, and brought back to the surface of the Atlantic ocean, the rockets that sent Apollo 11 out of Earth's atmosphere and onwards to the Moon. Part of the massive Saturn V rockets, the F-1 engines, have been sitting 4.3km below the surface at the bottom of the Atlantic since July 16, 1969. Enough parts have been found to salvage two full F-1 engines. After restoration, the history-making engines will go on show in a couple of US air and space museums for all to see. [Bezos Expeditions]

Rise of the robotic salamanders -- When it comes to mimicking real-life, the robot salamander is king. The Salamandra robotica II robot was built to replicate the movements, nervous system, and behaviour of a real salamander, right down to the spinal cord. A laptop-for-a-brain sends electrical impulses down the robots spine, controlling its movement, direction, and gait using bursts of electrical pulses, just like a real nervous system would. The robo lizard is being shown off at Innorobo this week in France, and is being used to study the mechanisms that vertebrates use to move, and what can go wrong with them. [New Scientist]

There's gold in them there earthquakes -- Next time the Earth shakes beneath your feet, think of the gold. Scientists have discovered that gold veins are formed instantly during an earthquake, due to a massive drop in pressure. As the plates slip along the fault line, the 'fault jogs' -- sideways zigzag cracks connecting the main fault plains -- open up. That instantly reduces the pressure inside them from around of 290MPa to just 0.2MPa, or twice our atmospheric pressure at sea level. The rapid depressurisation instantly vaporises any liquid trapped between the pieces of rock, depositing any gold held within. Even the smallest of quakes causes gold formation in the right kind of rock too, which means prospectors could use quake activity to track gold deposits in the future. [Nature Geo]

Road-kill selection in action -- Evolution is generally thought to be produced though a process of natural selection combined with other, smaller factors. For roadside-nesting cliff swallows, getting hit by cars was one massive positive pressure to evolve, and it seems that's exactly what they've done. A recent study seems to have shown that they've managed to evolve shorter, more manoeuvrable wings, which helps them shift direction more easily to avoid oncoming cars. This is the strongest evidence yet that animals are able to evolve adaptations to human activities. [Current Biology]

Bee venom could be an important weapon in the fight against HIV -- Bees are fantastic little creatures. They pollinate our plants, make honey, and could even hold a cure for HIV. Researchers have found that by creating nanopackages of melittin, the venom component of a bee sting, they can target the virus and smash holes in its protective protein coat. In turn, that leads to dramatically reduce levels of HIV, while the coating on the nanoparticles keeps the venom away from healthy human cell membranes. Lots of work still needs to be done to turn the lab samples into an effective drug, but the results certainly look promising in combatting the deadly sexually transmitted disease. [Science News]

Are sugary drinks as big a killer as asthma? -- A new study out of Harvard seems to suggest sugary drinks like coke, lemonade, and Iron Bru could cause around 184,000 deaths a year, the same amount as asthma. The sugary drinks contributed to deaths by diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers. The link has been made statistically, but according to experts in the field, there could be plausible biological links to back it up. Either way, it could be wise to cut down on drinks with added sugar; if they don't rot your teeth they could cause premature death. [New Scientist]

Take two of these a day and you'll be fine, probably -- When you go to the doctor you're expecting an immediate answer to all your health problems. But sometimes modern medicine just doesn't have the answer. When that happens your doctor has two choices, try a placebo -- a pill that does nothing other than make you think it works -- or admit defeat. Apparently some 97 per cent of UK GPs admitted in a recent survey to giving at least one of their patients a placebo of either a sugar pill, or one that has no proven efficacy against the patient's symptoms. The thing is, your doctor isn't doing that to deceive you, but to help you, as the placebo effect a real, documented phenomenon, and has been shown to be effective in certain situations. Placebo or not, when you get a cure from your doctor you don't question it, and isn't that what everyone is after at the end of the day, a cure to our ills? [PLoS One]