So you want NASA to fly you to the moon and let you play among the stars. Maybe let you see what spring is like on a-Jupiter and Mars? Well, you’re going to need more than a solid Sinatra impression to get NASA to accept you into its spacefaring ranks—a whole lot more.
Those looking to command a spacecraft must meet the following requirements:
Last year, Coachella’s main event art installation was a giant snail. But this year, the mobile art installation at the popular music festival is a three-story-tall astronaut, formally known as "Escape Velocity." And it’s totally awesome.
In the otherwise barren space 220 miles above Earth’s surface, a capsule of life-sustaining oxygen and water orbits at 17,000 miles per hour. You might know this capsule as the International Space Station (ISS), currently home to six humans—and untold billions of bacteria. Microbes have always followed us to the frontiers, but it’s only now that scientists at NASA and elsewhere are seriously investigating what happens when we bring Earth’s microbes into space.
Setting foot on the moon for the first time was perhaps one of the biggest technological, scientific and political achievements of our age. So what better way to celebrate, after exploring that new lunar landscape, than with bacon?
If you’re an astronaut on your way to Mars, there aren’t too many options if your appendix bursts. That’s why a Nebraska-based technology company has developed mini robot space surgeons that can actually climb inside of astronauts’ bodies. The first zero-gravity tests on the machine are about to begin.
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Anyone dreaming of casting off the shackles of Earth
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On April 8th, the New York City branch of Bonhams will be hosting a "Space History" auction, and Gizmodo has been given a preview of the some of the historically unique, space age artifacts that will be for sale. From full-body Soviet space suits to a control panel once used on the space station Mir, the range of objects is pretty extraordinary; earlier space history-themed auctions at Bonhams have even included Neil Armstrong’s own flight notes taken to the surface of the moon.
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This past December, a free shipment of four heavily armored vehicles arrived at NASA courtesy of the U.S. military. The Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected Vehicles (MRAPs) are all veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they’re about to embark on an unexpected second life as getaway vehicles in case something goes horribly wrong at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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Astronauts have hard jobs. And like anyone with hard jobs, they deserve some french fries and a nice, deep-fried turkey after work. Don’t we all? But there’s bad news. According to a new study, it’s impossible to fry food in zero g. Nooooooooooo!
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For only the second time in NASA history, two astronauts made a spacewalk on Christmas Eve. Astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Michael Hopkins installed a new ammonia pump to fix the cooling loop on the ISS. You can’t beat that Christmas Eve, even if you’re Santa Claus.
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