China to Send a Man to the Moon

The United States may soon be surpassed as the world's leader in space. China announced last week that it intends to place a manned spacecraft on the Moon as just part of its efforts to explore deep space.

According to the whitepaper, the lunar mission would be step one in the country's three-step deep space development plan. Eventually, China hopes to place satellites in orbit around the Moon and return lunar samples to Earth. Their main goal, however, is to build a "foundation for human spaceflight" moving forward.

Chinese officials haven't released a timetable for these goals, but The Guardian reports that the Moon mission could happen as early as 2025 -- more than 50 years after the United States first achieved the feat. Meanwhile, NASA's own plans for the coming decades leave some worried that China will soon leave the agency behind in space. 

As NASA faces weakened public support and slashed budgets, maintaining the space crown seems a daunting task. What do you think the agency should focus on in 2012 and beyond?

DARPA's 100 Year Starship Study

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) attempts to "boldly go where no man has gone before." 

The agency has released a request for information to solicit ideas for the 100 Year Starship Study™ program, which aims to develop a viable and sustainable model for persistent, long-term, private-sector interstellar space travel.

DARPA wants to re-engage students, academia, industry, researches and the general public by sparking a sense of wonder and to encourage them to ask "why not?" when it comes to research and development of spaceflight.

For all you sci-fi fans out there, to learn more, visit https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=ad1728884c2dc05a344e330b0bb57557&tab=core&_cview=0.

Robonaut 2 Answers Your Tweets ... From Space!

When the Space Shuttle Discovery took off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., yesterday, it wasn't just carrying human astronauts. The additional passenger was Robonaut 2, or R2, the first humanoid robot in space.

For the time being R2 is a simple-looking, legless robot. Eventually, though, NASA will add some sort of lower half, perhaps in the form of a four-wheel rover. 

During the final Discovery mission, R2 will spend most of its time on the International Space Station undergoing long series of tests. NASA hopes to discover how well R2 handles the rigors of spaceflight and a zero-gravity environment for extended periods of time. In its free time, R2 will also be tweeting from space. So far, it (or its astronaut counterparts, that is) has been very good about answering its adoring public's tweets.

Perhaps, one day, space missions will be flown entirely by humanoid robots -- a move that would save NASA untold amounts of money and liability. I for one can't wait until the day an entire team of R2s land on Mars.

Father and Son Launch Balloon with HD Camera Into Space

Forget NASA; this father-and-son team is taking space exploration into their own hands.

The Brooklyn Space Program, a group of amateur scientists led by Luke Geissbuhler and his 7-year-old son, Max, recently launched a weather balloon into the stratosphere. The best part? They attached an HD camera that captured the whole thing.

The custom-build insulated capsule protected the camera from subzero temperatures (with the help of hand-warmers). The team also included an iPhone with GPS capabilities that allowed them to track the capsule after it landed.

After flying to a peak altitude of 100,000 feet -- and battle 100-mile-per-hour winds -- the capsule landed about 30 miles from the launch site. It hurtled back to the ground at 150 mph, before a specially-designed parachute slowed its decent to 15 mph. 

A Japanese Robot Moon Base by 2020?

Image Credit: NODE

You heard right: “Japanese robot” and “moon base.” Who wouldn’t be excited by the prospect of a robot-run base on Earth’s satellite?

According to the Japanese prime minister’s office, a government panel is planning to robotically survey the moon by 2015, with full lunar colonization set for 2020. The $2.2 billion project will serve as Japan’s base of operations for exploring the solar system.

The plan? Special 660-pound droids will build the unmanned base, which will be powered by solar panels. The robots will roll on treads and feature their own solar panels, seismographs to investigate the moon's inner structure, high-definition cameras and heavy-duty arms to gather rock samples, which will be returned to Earth via rocket.