Humanity Just Landed on Its First Comet

 

The European Space Agency's Rosetta mission has made successful contact with the 67P Comet. The lander itself is named after an Egyptian island, Philae, where a rare obelisk containing Greek was found that was used - in conjunction with the Rosetta Stone - to decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.

It now appears this scientific venture is living up to its namesake by helping humanity learn about a much older mystery: the composition of comets and the conditions of the early solar system.

Touchdown! My new address: 67P! #CometLanding

— Philae Lander (@Philae2014) November 12, 2014

While today's victory clearly belongs to the scientific community and to all of humanity, it is also big news for Planetary Resources, the asteroid mining company. Imagine the new economic and exploratory possibilities:

1.) Rocket fuel up could be extracted from asteroids, rather than shipped up from the surface of Earth.

2.) Mining asteroids could open access to vast quantities of precious metals such as platinum.

3.) Combining the first two concepts could open up manufacturing in space using both energy and raw materials sourced outside of Earth's gravitational field.

2 Years Later: A Look at Curiosity

"The first footfalls on Mars will mark a historic milestone, an enterprise that requires human tenacity matched with technology to anchor ourselves on another world"  - Buzz Aldren

August 6th, 2012 - One of the most ambitious space missions to date went into action.  The unmanned space rover, aptly named Curiosity, was set to land on Mars, all that was left was the trip.  After the "Seven Minutes of Terror," Curiosity was to begin its mission into the Martian wilderness.  Over the course of the two years, Curiosity has been active studying the Mars for signs of life and water, reporting diligently back to NASA.  Armed with cameras and a rock-vaporizing laser, Curiosity has been shooting and rocks and taking pictures for two years now, and we've learned some pretty astounding things.

Thanks to the intrepid rover, we have evidence that there was most likely once water on Mars.  We now know that life on Mars was possible given the history of the red planet, and we have an idea of where to search for it.  Among the many things that Curiosity has discovered on its extra-terrestrial mission, the biggest benefit from the rover may be a renewed interest in the space program.  From lego sets to t-shirts to its own Twitter handle, people are interested in what's going on on Mars.

Now, 2 years later, we get a look at what the time and elements have done to our beloved space-faring friend.  And maybe, just maybe, we can one day send someone up there to go meet our rover buddy and thank it for all it has done for us.

Astronaut reader returns from Space Station

NASA Astronaut Mike Hopkins and the Expedition 38 crew returned to Earth in a Soyuz capsule on Monday. During the Expedition 38 mission onboard the International Space Station, Hopkins was  a reader for Story Time From Space. His video readings of children's books written by Boulder, Colorado's Dr. Jeffrey Bennett will be used to share the excitement of reading with the children of Earth. ICOSA Media is proud to be media sponsor of the Story Time From Space project!

@AstroIllini points to a picture of the ISS in Max Goes to the Space Station while floating on the real ISS! pic.twitter.com/8xIp7VN1GF

— StoryTimeFromSpace (@StoryTimeSpace) March 14, 2014

Photos downlinked from the International Space Station:

Expedition 38 Crew preparing to return to Earth:

NASA to host Google+ Hangout from Space

NASA is hosting the first Google+ Hangout with the International Space Station. As bandwidth capabilities increase, online video has been rapidly increasing its share of total internet traffic. Google+ Hangouts (my personal favorite video chat service) is leading the way by extending the medium's reach 240 miles into space. Totally far out.

The live video chat will take place on February 22 at 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon Eastern on NASA’s Google+ page and YouTube channel. Submit a video question to the astronauts via YouTube, or you can ask questions during the event via Google+, Facebook, or Twitter with the the hashtag #askAstro.

NASA Press release

Mining Asteroids for Fun and Profit

An intriguing new industry is taking shape - Asteroid Mining.   If you've seen the movie Avatar, you have already been introduced to the concept of mining in space.  Such an idea would seem to be a mere figment of science fiction.  Today, however, the concept is being treated with more respect by scientists and investors.

"It is a strategic interest of humanity to be able to go to space,"  says Eric Anderson, co-founder of Planetary Resources.  Last April, the company announced their plans to mine near-earth asteroids (NEAs) for materials ranging from water to precious metals. A single, small asteroid could contain more platinum than has ever been mined in the history on Earth.  As Dr. Peter Diamandis would say, scarcity is contextual.

In a sort of validation of Planetary Resources' venture, a new company is announcing today plans to create “the world’s first fleet of commercial asteroid-prospecting spacecraft”.  Deep Space Industries, Inc live streamed their press release, where they showed this video:

[youtube width="560" height="315" video_id="pIY_fmvFDhM"] 

Earlier this week, Planetary Resources released this tech update:

[youtube width="560" height="315" video_id="2xkM80kdXkg"]

Elon Musk - SpaceX to bring People to Mars by 2026

SpaceX founder Elon Musk says he's hopeful "the first people could be taken to Mars in 10 to 12 years. I think it's certainly possible for that to occur," according to a recent interview with CNBC. "But the thing that matters long term is to have a self-sustaining city on Mars, to make life multi-planetary." Musk's timeframe puts SpaceX well ahead of NASA, which is talking about getting people to Mars by the 2030s. And that's only if it can get billions in public funding and build a rocket suitable for the job, notes The Register - a science and tech news site from the UK. The Register continues by saying, "Musk's Falcon Heavy booster is scheduled to fly within the next year, and will carry enough payload to make assembling a Mars spaceship possible."

There's still a strong role for NASA, however. Neil deGrasse Tyson makes one such case this piece.  Elon gives credit to NASA and admits SpaceX couldn't have gotten as far as it has without them.  Generally, we're seeing a growing interest in advancing the space frontier on both the private enterprise level as well as on a national level. After all, NASA was recently awarded $17.9 billion. Private enterprises like SpaceX can jumpstart innovation and reduce costs. A major example for SpaceX is their development of reusable rockets.  NASA, on the other hand, can invest in basic scientific research and can have a longer term view.

In the meantime, Elon's electric car company - Tesla Motors - is paving the way for sustainable transport here on earth.  He's "quite optimistic about improvements in the battery price" which he hopes would enable Tesla to have a mass-market car ready within the next three years. With the strategic opening of Tesla's patents, it appears their technology is rapidly becoming the industry standard for electric vehicles.