Ever wondered how satellites work? Neither have we, but the short animated films made by This is Real Art for European satellite company Astra manage to make the subject thoroughly fascinating. If high school physics was this awesome, we'd all be scientists. (Via Creative Review)...read more
Now, this is getting space-agey. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency says it has put solar panels on a spacecraft, which not only create power but they actively propel and maneuver it through space. The "Ikaros" solar sail absorbs photons from the sun that put pressure onto the solar sails reflective panels and propel the 700 pound craft. Ikaros is bound for an orbit around......read more
“NASA is the most fascinating, adventurous, epic institution ever devised by human beings, and their media sucks. Seriously.” So says Damewse, a YouTuber and NASA fan who decided to take matters into his own hands by making this beautifully-edited spec promo vid. Using an old recording for Carl Sagan to narrate the film, with a soundtrack by Michael Marantz,......read more
The space nerds at NASA Goddard Center are all up on the social media. These mind-expanding satellite photos were pulled (and cropped, sorry!) from NASA Goddard's Flickr stream, from a set called Earth as Art 3. Amazing images! Imagine having a backlit C-print of one of these, blown out huge on your wall. Whoa. More NASA Goddard social media action can be had on Twitter and......read more
These incredible time lapse images of Earth were shot by astronauts onboard the International Space Station, using special low-light, high-definition (4K resolution!) cameras. The images were kindly made available by NASA for free. Berlin's Michael König took Jan Jelinek's minimal ambient techno and combined it with the time lapses to......read more
In a press release that reads like sci-fi writing, a startup called Planetary Resources announced plans to identify, explore, tag, and finally mine asteroids for materials ranging from precious metals to water. The audacious venture is an attempt to locate and exploit a sustainable resource supply for Earth's ever-growing population. "Many of the scarce metals and minerals on Earth are in......read more
This jaw-dropping new time-lapse video was cobbled together using images from Elektro-L, a Russian weather satellite that's currently orbiting about 22,000 miles above Earth. It's a stunner.The video, created by the person behind the Planet Earth website, shows off Earth’s northern hemisphere in crystal clear and vibrantly-colored images. The satellite reportedly creates a 121......read more
Wanna-be astronauts rejoice! The new capsule collection from Nike and artist Tom Sachs has launched from the atmosphere, with a range of high-performance sportswear inspired by space exploration. The joint venture, dubbed NikeCraft, features a series of sneakers, bags, and jackets made using space-age materials like Vectran fabric from Mars Excursion Rover airbags and NASA spacesuits. The golden......read more
These stunning space photos started circulating around the web back in the summer, but I guess we were too busy having a great time to notice. The images were shot in spring 2012 by NASA astronaut Don Pettit, who was on a mission aboard the International Space Center. Shot at long exposures from 240 miles up in space, the photos show the paths made by stars and earth lights......read more
A recent study out of the University of Waterloo, in Canada, confirms our suspicions that our emotional states are strongly influenced by our surroundings. Sure as awe-inducing vistas can inspire creative thought, so too can environments that are less peachy provoke similar feelings. In this particular experiment, individuals who sat at a wobbly chair and table predicted that celebrity......read more