NASA is learning how to farm on Mars and the moon

Good News Notes: “Whether from continent to continent or coast to coast, people have always made their big moves together with plants. Traveling away from Earth would be no different. Our success on other worlds will rest, in part, on the supple stems of plants. “Plants are things that we take with us as explorers,”…

China lands on Mars in major advance for its space ambitions

Good News Notes: “China landed a spacecraft on Mars for the first time on Saturday, a technically challenging feat more difficult than a moon landing, in the latest step forward for its ambitious goals in space. Plans call for a rover to stay in the lander for a few days of diagnostic tests before rolling…

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launches New Shepard rocket NS-15 test flight

Good News Notes: “Jeff Bezos’ private space company Blue Origin launched and landed the fifteenth test flight of its New Shepard rocket booster and capsule on Wednesday. The mission did not have passengers on board, although the capsule on top of the rocket is designed to carry as many as six people for future flights. Known…

China Mars mission: Tianwen-1 spacecraft enters into orbit

Good News Notes: “China says it has successfully put its Tianwen-1 mission in orbit around Mars. It’s the first time the country has managed to get a spacecraft to the Red Planet and comes a day after the United Arab Emirates accomplished the same feat. Tianwen-1, or “Questions to Heaven”, comprises an orbiter and a…

NASA-backed project could automatically fix 3D printing for Moon bases

Good News Notes: “If humanity is going to 3D-print Moon bases, it can’t afford for things to go wrong — and NASA is backing technology to make sure those parts get built. According to Parabolic Arc, the agency recently selected a project from Relativity Space (which is working on 3D-printed rockets) that could detect and fix 3D printing…

SpaceX will take 3 space tourists in a historic mission to the ISS

Good News Notes: “SpaceX is set to send three private citizens on a flight to the International Space Station. The mission,  announced last week, will be hosted by Axiom Space, which has an ultimate end goal of building the world’s first commercial space station. The first mission will send three people to the station in the…

New Light Sail Design Would Use Laser Beam to Ride Into Space

Good News Notes: “In long distance space travel, traditional rockets would eventually run out of fuel. There is an alternative: Since as early as the 19th century, scientists have dreamed of building spacecraft with light sails that can accelerate slowly, but for a much longer time, by catching the light from Earth’s sun or, in more…