technical updates

While Hardspace: Shipbreaker does an excellent job of capturing the dystopian perils of unchecked hypercapitalism, the real fun in this space game comes from carving up massive capital ships with space lasers and explosives. Floating in zero gravity, players slice derelict spacecraft into salvageable chunks, while also contending with unruly physics, pressure, and profit margins. It's a compelling fantasy: orbital blue-collar labor, where yesterday's spacecraft become tomorrow's raw materials. As satisfying as the simulation is, the real-world challenge of space debris removal is both more constrained and more urgent. (Image credit: Blackbird Interactive) Christian Steimle is the Project Manager of the European Space Agency 's (ESA) ClearSpace-1 mission, the first ever aimed at removing a piece of debris (in this case, a satellite called PROBA-1) from low-Earth orbit. We spoke ...

German startup Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) just put the brakes on its first launch. While testing its RFA One rocket on the launch pad at the U.K.'s SaxaVord Spaceport on the Shetland Islands in Scotland, the company found "an issue with the vehicle that requires further investigation," RFA wrote on X on Wednesday (July 28). Previously, the launch had been expected to happen in August or September , but RFA did not disclose a new launch date. RFA did not disclose the nature of the issue, but said it would de-stack the staged rocket and that it would provide more details as the investigation continues. The situation means that the U.K. will need to wait at least a few more weeks to attempt its first-ever vertical launch from the region, amid global constraints in launch capacity and calls for increased European spaceflight autonomy . RFA One , a smaller rocket designed to launch ...

The excitement of the new moon mission has potentially helped create a new generation of stargazers, just like the Apollo program did 60 years ago. These new observers will be looking for a beginner’s telescope that is easy to use and which can show them the craters on the moon in particular. The Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian could be the perfect entry point for them. It has a superb price-point for its aperture, and is capable of bringing not only the moon, but double stars, the brighter galaxies and nebulas and the moons of Jupiter to your backyard. The Celestron Moon Mission 100mm Tabletop Dobsonian comes equipped with 8mm and 20mm eyepieces, one of which is intended specifically for the moon, as well as a red-dot finderscope, a moon filter, a moon-map poster and free access to download the Starry Night planetarium software and Celestron’s SkyPortal app, which is powered by S...

Some of the brightest objects in the universe may also hold the key to understanding how galaxies evolve — especially when gravity transforms them into giant cosmic magnifying glasses. Using artificial intelligence to search through data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), astronomers have identified seven promising candidates for quasars acting as gravitational lenses — natural cosmic magnifying glasses created when a massive object's gravity bends and magnifies light from a more distant object. These unusual systems could help researchers better understand how actively growing supermassive black holes evolve, according to a statement from Ohio State University. "Quasars are like the baby pictures of a supermassive black hole ," Everett McArthur, lead author of the study and a graduate student in astronomy at The Ohio State University, said in the statement. ...

The summer is slowly waning as we soon turn the calendar page to August and back to school supplies are already cluttering store shelves, but Hollywood still has a pocketful of of possible surprises hitting the silver screen. My prediction for " Masters of the Universe " as a summertime sleeper hit did not come to pass, though it was a totally enjoyable nostalgic romp, if not about 20 minutes or so too long. Recent teasers and trailers starring Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway and their suburban family have them sprinting for their lives after a strange cosmic event whisks their placid American neighborhood seemingly back to prehistoric times when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Think "The Twilight Zone" meets "Jurassic Park" with a dash of "A Quiet Place" and you’ll be pretty close to the wild narrative that will unfold when the "running and screaming...

If you've not seen the Milky Way this year from the Northern Hemisphere, it's time to make a plan. August's dark sky window opens around Aug. 6, when the moon begins to rise late at night as a waning crescent, meaning dark moonless skies for about 10 nights. That's when to see the Milky Way (and if you can time it for Aug. 12/13's Perseid meteor shower peak, all the better). Five things are required to successfully see the Milky Way: the correct time of year (The brightest part is visible March-October) the correct moon phase (last-quarter moon through slim crescent moon) a dark sky away from light pollution dark-adapted eyes (stand in total darkness for 25 minutes) an idea of what you're going to see The best way to dark-adapt your eyes is to start stargazing. Look south and begin picking out stars you know, paying special attention to the Summer Triangle . These three ...