This year, if all goes well, astronauts will launch to space on a private craft for the first time in history. It’s SpaceX’s big chance to show NASA that it can be trusted with the work of ferrying astronauts to and from the international space station. We met the two astronauts selected for this historic…
NASA’s InSight Mars landing: what it really took
After a six-month long journey, NASA’s InSight spacecraft successfully landed on Mars. The probe will now begin to collect data on Mars’ crust, mantle, and core, providing a never-before-seen look at the red planet’s inner workings. Getting a new spacecraft on the surface of the red planet is no easy feat – The Verge’s Loren…
We decoded NASA’s messages to aliens by hand
In 1977, twin golden records were sent into space on the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft. Still sailing through space at nearly 60,000 km per hour, the records contain sound, songs, and images from earth. But how did NASA include images on an analog record? Here, we decoded the audio, and see the images the…
How four rogue satellites could change the spaceflight industry
Earlier this year, a company launched four tiny satellites into orbit without permission. These “rogue satellites” caused an uproar in the space community, and in the future, others like them could increase the risk of catastrophic collisions in orbit. We talked to some space experts about what’s at stake when no one knows exactly what’s…
How astronauts can get a taste of steak in space
To send people to deep space and on extended trips to other planets, we first need to figure out how to feed astronauts. Shipments from Earth won’t arrive for two years at a time — so that means learning to grow food instead of just freeze-dried meals. The Verge’s Loren Grush heads to NASA’s Kennedy…
Building a lunar base out of Moon dust
Welcome to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Here, engineers are dreaming up new technologies that will help build settlements on the Moon or Mars via NASA’s experimental “Swamp Works” lab. With everyone from NASA to Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos looking to send people to the Moon and beyond, the Swamp Works engineers are hard at…
Designing a tiny home to orbit the Moon
NASA wants to build another space station — except this one won’t live in a close orbit around Earth. Instead, it will be sent into deep space to orbit around the moon and then someday…Mars. Within the last year, NASA has begun planning for a much smaller astronaut outpost, a new destination dubbed the Gateway.…
A microscopic look at why the world is running out of sand
Humans are using more sand than the Earth is naturally producing, and that’s a problem for the global construction industry. But it turns out that the usefulness of sand depends on the science of each tiny little grain. We went on a sand scavenger hunt to collect some samples, look at them under a microscope,…
How astronauts handle medical meltdowns in space
When astronauts go into space they need to be in peak physical fitness, but that doesn’t mean they can’t get sick. And when they do, there is no clinic or hospital nearby. In this episode, Loren visits the STRATUS Center in Boston, where simulations are being developed to train astronauts on how to handle medical…
I tried living on Mars — in Hawaii
In this season two premiere of Space Craft, Loren Grush takes us to a remote habitat on the island of Hawaii to simulate what life is like on the Red Planet. Subscribe: http://goo.gl/G5RXGs Like The Verge on Facebook: https://goo.gl/2P1aGc Follow on Twitter: https://goo.gl/XTWX61 Follow on Instagram: https://goo.gl/7ZeLvX Read More: http://www.theverge.com Community guidelines: http://bit.ly/2D0hlAv Subscribe to…