Some would call it a slow news day. We call it an epic day for space, for Canada, and for science. Canadian Space Agency’s Chris Hadfield has made a name for himself as being a combination of Bill Nye the Science Guy and Buck Rogers with his series of videos demonstrating things that so few people will ever be able to experience themselves. Living on the International Space Station can be lonely, but for Commander Hadfield, it’s just a way to make his dreams come true in spectacular fashion. In his most recent video, he’s demonstrates something so mundane on earth but so spectacular in space that it might…

Earlier this week, NASA launched three smartphone satellites, called “PhoneSats”, into orbit. They rode into space aboard the maiden flight of Orbital Science Corp.’s Antares rocket from NASA’s Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia. They were sent into orbit as a part of test to determine whether a consumer-grade smartphone can be used as the main flight avionics of a working, low-cost satellite, and it certainly can. The three PhoneStats, which may end up being the lowest-cost satellites ever flown into space, have been transmitting signals and sending photos down to earth. Several…

They can survive temperatures near absolute zero or as high as 300 degrees. The crushing pressure at the bottom of the ocean doesn’t faze them, nor does the vacuum of space. Radiation 1000x the level strong enough to kill an elephant doesn’t slow the tardigrade down. They are so durable that scientists are either not able to make conclusions about them or they’re coming up with the wrong ideas. The tardigrade, known also as a water bear (because they look and move like an 8-legged bear) or a moss piglet (because they love moss and look sort of like piglets), is a polyextremophile. Its ability to survive…

One doesn’t have to work at NASA or SpaceX to explore the heavens. Telescopes have been publicly available for decades and many kids and adults have explored space at night. Exploring during the day brings a distinct challenge; the Sun makes it hard to see anything other than blue skies and trying to look at the Sun itself through a telescope is optical suicide. Self-proclaimed “space cowboy” Alan Friedman uses very basic technology to check out the sun during the day from his backyard in Buffalo, NY, in a way that highlights the beauty of the solar system’s star. He then converts into art, adding…

The childhood bed has been the place where many dreams of traveling through space have manifested. Since before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, children have wondered what it would be like to blast off beyond the clouds to play in the stars, laying awake at night picturing themselves in a space suit with nothing but the stars in their background. There have been many attempts to integrate space into bedding, but none have been more realistic or accurate as the ones produced by Snurk. They Dutch company used the specs from the European Space Agency to make a duvet and pillow cover that will have any…

The term “solar sailing” was first coined by Arthur C. Clarke in the 1964 book “Sunjammer” but the roots of the concept can be traced back centuries. “Let us create vessels and sails adjusted to the heavenly ether, and there will be plenty of people unafraid of the empty wastes.” ~ Johannes Kepler, 17th century astronomer It’s the type of vision that spawns realities unimaginable to most, but it’s a vision that has come true in recent years and that will receive its biggest test as early as 2014, according to NASA. The sail utilizes the “currents” of the Sun’s energy to propel it through space much the…

When you’re talking about why the world didn’t end yesterday, the normal way to do so is to make sure that “yesterday” actually already happened. NASA sets aside conventional thought with their latest video that tells why the world didn’t end yesterday. It’s available on YouTube now, but don’t watch it until December 22nd or it won’t really make any sense. There’s another, more sinister theory. By declaring so boldly that the world isn’t going to end yesterday, are they simply trying to confuse us into believing that when yesterday actually comes, that tomorrow is really right around the corner?…

Greetings humans, curiosity the rover had you watch live from the web its landing on Mars to try and decipher if it will be habitable for our species. If in any instance we needed another planet to live on due to either global warming, the zombie apocalypse or if something from space were to threaten this world, we would have to go in space to invade another planet. We humans are clever. …

The world watched as NASA put another rover on Mars. It wasn’t as much about the expedition – we’ve been to Mars before. This time, it was about the new method by which they put the rover on the planet. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Labortory put together this video made of 297 images taken from Curiosity as it landed on Mars. In the beginning, we see the heat shield being released (pictured above). …

It is said that most acts of kindness are done with ulterior motives in mind. The offer that Google’s top executives – CEO Larry Page, co-founder Sergey Brin, and Chairman Eric Schmidt – made to NASA to save the iconic landmark may qualify. NASA needs $33 million to revamp the hangar. The Google execs, through a separate company they own called H211 which operates the 8 private jets owned by the Google trio, would like a new place to park their jets. H211 would like around 2/3rds of the floor space at Hangar One for their jets. Their proposal would keep NASA as the owner and would allow them to lease the…