The search for extra-solar oceans

There may be oceans inside dwarf planets beyond the orbit of Pluto, just as there are inside several Jovian and Saturnian moons.

Voyage to Europa

If life has developed independently in the vast oceans of Jupiter’s moon Europa, it’s likely the whole universe is teeming with life, so the scientific search is intensifying and a space probe sent to collect dust around Jupiter might even find it.

Back to the Moon

Late last week, the American company Intuitive Machines, in collaboration with NASA, celebrated “America’s return to the Moon” with a successful landing of its Odysseus spacecraft.

Destination Mars

Scientists have been working on ways to colonise Mars for almost a century, and the prospect of human exploration has been increased by the growth of ambitious private space companies like SpaceX.

Moondance

Private, profit seeking companies are now offering consumers the chance to send human ashes and personal mementoes to the Moon, despite a maze of legal, practical and ethical conundrums.

Watch the skies in 2024

A range of exciting space missions are planned for 2024, exploring the sun, the moon and the wider solar system.

A wonderful year for a moon dance

More than half a century after man last walked on the moon, a record 12 missions from several countries aim to explore it in 2024.

A new kind of spirit

The University of Melbourne and the Italian Space Agency have announced the successful launch of SpIRIT, a landmark nanosatellite mission supported by the Australian Space Agency.

From Earth to the Moon

In the distant wake of America’s moon landings over 50 years ago, India, Japan and other nations are now investing in missions to the Moon, but imagining travel to the Moon has been part of many cultures.

Space junk

The tragedy of the commons observes that common access to a resource can quickly degrade it, and we are now littering low earth orbit in space just as we have polluted the Earth and its oceans.

Heaven on Earth

Meteorites could show us the perfect chemical models we need to end the natural resource crisis — but we don’t have to leave Earth to mine them.

There’s gold in them thar asteroids

Private companies and governments are reaching for the stars in an effort to ease Earth-bound shortages and begin mining resources in space.