UPDATES:

On Tuesday, Johnston and a handful of other entrepreneurs announced the “Fermi Explorer” mission. In concept, it is simple. They seek to raise $15 million to build a small spacecraft, carrying a 1 kg payload, and launch it to Alpha Centauri such that it reaches that system in fewer than 80,000 years. Why? In conversations about the Fermi paradox, Johnston realized such a mission would knock two “filters” off the list: Species won’t want to send spacecraft beyond their home star, or species will find that interstellar transit is too difficult.

Essentially, after launching into low-Earth orbit on a rideshare mission, the spacecraft would fly retrograde arcs to decrease its distance from the Sun at perihelion from 1 astronomical unit (Earth-Sun distance) to 0.42 astronomical units. At these close approaches to the Sun, taking advantage of the higher solar flux as well as the Oberth effect, the spacecraft would operate its propulsion system to increase its velocity with “perihelion pump” maneuvers.

It would achieve an escape trajectory after about 12 years, at a velocity of about 25 km/s, or about 55,000 miles per hour. At this speed, the Fermi Explorer could reach Alpha Centauri within about 77,000 years, flying on a ballistic coast.

Milky Way rising over the sparse lights of Mongolia, seen through the window of SpaceX Dragon. The oval shape and position on ISS gives excellent views of both deep space and the Earth! Taken on Expedition 72 to ISS with Nikon Z9, Arri Zeiss 15mm lens, T1.8 with custom orbital sidereal tracker. For those interested, more astrophotography from space can be found on my twitter and Instagram, astro_pettit

MSL Curiosity has recently sent back its data for Sol 5000.

A huge milestone for Mars science.

Hello r/space, we're the German Aerospace Center (DLR)!

Six people walked out of a sealed habitat in Cologne a few weeks ago after spending 100 days in near-total isolation. No sunlight, limited contact with the outside world, a strict daily routine and a restricted diet. This was SOLIS100, a study we ran on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA) at our aerospace medical research facility :envihab.

Six participants aged 26–32, from six different European countries, lived and worked together in a simulated ‘space station’ for 100 days. Why, you may ask? To understand how isolation, confinement and limited resources affect human health, performance and wellbeing, and to generate standardised data to support future missions to the Moon and Mars.

Here to answer your questions is Dr. Amelie Therre, psychologist and project lead for SOLIS100 at the DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine. She's ready to answer whatever you want to know. How do you even design a study like this? What surprised her most? What does the environment inside actually look like? Or something else entirely? Ask away!

A couple of things she won't be able to get into:

·        Personal questions about individual crew members (please respect their privacy)

·        Preliminary results, since analysis is still ongoing

Amelie will be answering questions here on Thursday at 1:00 PM CEST (11:00 UTC / 7:00 AM EDT).

Some more info

Room tour of Module M5: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Mc4ilKZ-G3A

The crew’s first moments back outside: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/uMnGqzNaQX0

SOLIS100 study overview: https://www.dlr.de/en/me/research-and-transfer/projects-and-studies/solis100-studying-the-effects-of-isolation-on-humans

Interview with Amelie: https://www.dlr.de/en/blog/archive/2025/using-psychology-in-the-simulation-of-missions-to-the-moon-and-mars

If a satellite is targeted by a missile, that's a clear escalation that evokes a tit for tat response. But synthetic dark micro meteors, such as tungsten beads coated with vantablack, deployed from a normal satellite could create plausible deniability, allowing the enemy to avoid the response.

It's a poison the well type of attack, but countries like NK who don't have their own GPS or satellite constellation might not gaf.

The best move, like always, is to encourage development of the whole world, even your enemies, so that they have something to lose.

Previously, it was unknown whether Golden Dome will involve individual orbital interceptors or more elaborate architecture. Gravitics new contract suggests a more complex tiered architecture for the interceptors is at least under early development.

I'm always amazed at these spacewalks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HQOp1-LpU0

The telescope will travel to the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point, which is ~one million miles away and about four times farther from Earth than the Moon. At L2, the combined gravity of the Sun and Earth will give Roman a stable vantage point with a clear, unobstructed view to survey deep space

Roman will unlock the mysteries of dark energy and investigate the physics of distant stars. It will repeatedly monitor hundreds of millions of stars, and the same observations are expected to reveal around 100,000 additional planets through transits. As a reminder, we currently have 6000 confirmed exoplanet discoveries...

There is still a Chance for that Spaceport!

On Earth, deposits of pure sulfur can be produced by volcanic or hydrothermal systems. On Mars, most sulfur atoms are in the form of sulfate minerals. VanBommel et al. report a field of light-colored stones encountered by the Curiosity rover on Mars. X-ray spectroscopy showed that the stones are composed of pure sulfur overlain with surface sand and dust. Some stones were serendipitously crushed by the rover’s wheels, and the broken pieces revealed sulfur crystals within. Because volcanic or hydrothermal processes are unlikely at this location, the authors propose that the stones formed billions of years ago during decompression of buried clathrates.