With the successful launch of Artemis I behind it, NASA has been doubling down on efforts to make deep space travel – and it’s reported future trips to the Moon and Mars – easier to achieve. We’ve already reported on why the Space Launch System used for the Artemis mission isn’t sustainable, but now NASA has tested a new propulsion tech that could cut down on the fuel needed for those missions.

A cash flow cascading from the heavens is a provisionary but promising harvest from asteroid mining. It's already a "claim jumping" enterprise with assertions that billions, trillions, even quadrillions of dollars are looming in deep space, ripe for the picking and up for grabs. Several space mining groups, eager to dig into extraterrestrial excavation of asteroids, have already come and gone. Left behind are torn, tattered and beleaguered business plans.

Io Volcano Observer mission said that the moon is "a true volcanic wonderland with hundreds of erupting volcanoes gushing tons of molten lava."

NASA's twin Voyager probes have become, in some ways, time capsules of their era: They each carry an eight-track tape player for recording data, they have about 3 million times less memory than modern cellphones, and they transmit data about 38,000 times slower than a 5G internet connection. Yet the Voyagers remain on the cutting edge of space exploration.

Never let it be said that Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck lacks a flamboyant streak. Although his Electron launch vehicle is one of the smallest orbital rockets in the world, Beck gleans every bit of performance from the booster he can. On just the rocket's second launch, in January 2018, he added a disco-ball like geodesic sphere called "Humanity Star" to give humans a small and bright shining object to, however briefly, gaze upon in the night sky.

Two startups recently raised a combined $25 million in seed rounds to advance plans for lunar and asteroid missions, showing continued interest in space startups despite broader market uncertainty. Lunar Outpost announced May 24 it raised a $12 million seed round from several investors. Explorer 1 Fund led the round with participation from Promus Ventures, Space Capital, Type 1 Ventures and Cathexis Ventures.

Funding of $2 million has gone to researchers developing a new type of solar sail as part of NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) programme, which backs projects that have the potential to transform future missions.

Sending humans virtually anywhere in space beyond the Moon pushes logistics of health, food, and psychology to limits we're only just beginning to grasp. A staple solution to these problems in science fiction is to simply put the void-travelers to bed for a while. In a sleep-like state akin to hibernation or torpor, metabolism drops, and the mind is spared the boredom of waiting out endless empty hours.

The ice giant could represent the galaxy’s most common type of planet, but we know very little about it. Now scientists have declared that seeing the world up-close is a top priority.

Are there rogue stars masquerading as planets in NASA’s Exoplanet Archive?

Hibernating astronauts could be the best way to save mission costs, reduce the size of spacecraft by a third and keep crew healthy on their way to Mars. An ESA-led investigation suggests that human hibernation goes beyond the realm of science-fiction and may become a game-changing technique for space travel.

Shares of Virgin Galactic fell in trading on Thursday after the company announced plans to raise up to $500 million in debt. “The company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to fund working capital, general and administrative matters and capital expenditures to accelerate the development of its spacecraft fleet,” Virgin Galactic said in a statment.

There's been a lot of hubbub surrounding Don't Look Up, a recent Netflix movie about a planet-killing comet heading towards Earth, but 2022 is actually a great year to turn your eyes to the sky. There will be missions to Mars and the moon, a dance of planets and eclipses to enjoy. And better yet, no giant comet that threatens to destroy life as we know it on Earth.

A new analysis of the fabled Bussard Ramjet shows that the spacecraft would need an impossibly big magnetic field to achieve interstellar travel.

NASA's next-generation space observatory has sailed beyond the orbit of the moon after nailing the second of three required course-correction burns, agency officials said Monday. The long-awaited James Webb Space Telescope launched on Saturday (Dec. 25), beginning a one-month deployment process. Over the course of that deployment, the observatory must execute three burns to adjust its trajectory, the first of which began 12.5 hours after launch and lasted 65 minutes; the second, much shorter burn, is now also complete.

An audio track collected during Jupiter mission’s Ganymede flyby offers a dramatic ride-along. It is one highlights mission scientists shared in a briefing at American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. Sounds from a Ganymede flyby, magnetic fields, and remarkable comparisons between Jupiter and Earth’s oceans and atmospheres were discussed during a briefing today on NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in New Orleans.

The icy process may be present on other worlds.

A Nasa spacecraft has officially “touched” the sun, plunging through the unexplored solar atmosphere known as the corona. Scientists announced the news Tuesday during a meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

1971 was a crummy year for the Soviet Mars program. Of the four robotic spacecraft the USSR sent toward the Red Planet that year, one never made it out of Earth orbit, two were stymied by Martian dust storms, and another crashed into Mars like a speeding bullet. But the Mars 3 lander had better luck. Somewhat.

NASA's mission DART will test our ability to redirect an asteroid by quite literally crashing into it — but the spacecraft will also test a new type of propulsion system for the agency.