A Black Hole Engine That Could Power Spaceships

Artificially generated black holes could provide us with the power to make inter-solar travel a possibility. New research shows how strapping a black hole to your starship might just give you the juice to get to Alpha Centauri. More »

Virgin To Take Passenger Luggage To A New Level

For those who felt that Virgin Galactic's plan of passenger spaceflight fell down due to the lack of provision for satellites, relief is at hand: The company has announced that they will be adding private satellite launches to their offerings. More »

Future Space Explorers Could Commute On Interplanetary Gravity Highways

You've heard of space explorers exploiting gravity to save fuel, but using a new method, spacecrafts could, with a little push, roll through the solar system mostly unaided. It's like rolling downhill all the way to work to save gas. More »

NASA's Quirky and Cartoony Mission Patches

Wired Science has a wonderfully weird collection of offbeat patches to commemorate various NASA missions, featuring everything from Marvin the Martian to Stephen Colbert, and the stories behind them. [Wired Science]

Century-Old Science Fiction Film Flies Us to a Handpainted Moon

If you are looking for an antidote to the pyrotechnics and computer generated effects of summer blockbusters, look no further than Segundo de Chomón's century-old films, which depict space travel using painstakingly handcrafted optical trickery. More »

Your Lunar Oxygen Supply Will Come From Moon Rocks

One of the many obstacles to establishing a base on the moon is determining how to supply oxygen to lunar residents. But a team of scientists have found a way to extract oxygen from the moon's greatest resource — rocks. More »

Why Space Travel Is Good For The Planet

As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing, people have had a lot of discussion about the value of a revitalized space program. But, some point out, there is value in the space program beyond space itself. More »

Discover The Secrets Of Ron Moore's 10-Year Space Probe

Ronald D. Moore's long-awaited Virtuality airs June 26, and we've got exclusive concept art showing the inner workings of the deep-space probe Phaeton and its various modules — including a super-detailed diagram explaining the physics of the ship. More »

All the Lost Mars Missions

Currently there are six Earth satellites in orbit around Mars, and three Earth robots on the surface. The latest robot to land, the Phoenix Lander, touched down on Sunday afternoon. But as Oobject reminds us, there are at least 12 missions to Mars that have been lost. Pictured is Mars 1, a satellite sent to Mars in 1962 by the Soviet Union, whose communications were lost while it was en route to the red planet. Another famous lost mission was the Polar Lander, which vanished mysteriously near the Martian south pole several years ago (pictured below). More »

Suspended Animation Now Possible — Using Sewer Gas

Scientists have unlocked the secret of suspended animation, a state of "undeath" where the body's metabolism shuts down but all major organs continue to function. Hydrogen sulfide, also known as sewer gas, may be the miracle substance that finally allows humans to stay alive in a frozen, non-aging state. In science fiction, of course, suspended animation is used by astronauts to travel across great distances in space by putting their bodies into suspend mode. Suspended animation could also be induced in dramatically injured people to prevent them from dying while being rushed to the hospital. What's truly amazing is how simple it turns out to be. More »

Meet the First Realistic Martian Woman

What would we have to do to our bodies if we wanted to live on Mars? io9 consulted scientists, our imaginations, and a designer, and came up with the most realistic-possible portrait of a Martian colonist who might truly exist on the Red Planet in 100 years. She's really tall, doesn't have to wear a bra, and has some pretty awesome photosynthesis and water-reclaiming implants in her exosuit. It's time to meet the first Martian woman. Click through for full frontal. More »