Category: Space

Italian fashion house Prada and Houston-based startup Axiom Space have revealed the design of NASA’s next-generation lunar spacesuit. The announcement was made at the International Astronautical Congress in Milan, where the companies showcased the suit that will be worn by the first woman and the first person of color to land on the Moon during the Artemis III mission, planned for late 2026.

The new suit, built for both durability and mobility, has been engineered for long-duration spacewalks on the lunar surface. While designed in partnership with Prada, the suit does not feature any logos or fashion embellishments.

Instead, its white material reflects heat and shields astronauts from extreme temperatures and sharp lunar dust. The design includes a cropped torso for mobility and specially made boots to support astronauts working outside for up to eight hours.

Although most of the suit is white, it features red stripes linked to Prada’s Linea Rossa technical line. The brand originally developed the line for its Luna Rossa sailing team in the America’s Cup. In Italian, “Luna Rossa” translates to “Red Moon,” a reference that carries over to the lunar project.

Axiom Space executives described the suit as a mix of engineering, functionality, and design. “We’re blending engineering, science, and art,” said Russell Ralston, the company’s executive vice president, at the press event.

The upgrade comes as human spaceflight enters a new phase. Private missions have already begun testing new capabilities, including tech billionaire Jared Isaacman’s recent spacewalk, the first carried out by a private citizen. As access to space grows, NASA and its partners have stressed the need for equipment that is lighter, more flexible, and safer than the older suits used during previous missions.

The Artemis mission, which will return astronauts to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years, is expected to rely on these new suits to allow diverse crews to live and work more effectively on the lunar surface.

NASA’s Europa Clipper

spacecraft has begun its journey to Jupiter after launching on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on October 14, 2024, at 12:06 p.m. local time (16:06 GMT). The $5 billion mission aims to investigate whether Europa, one of Jupiter’s largest moons, could host conditions suitable for life beneath its thick shell of ice.

The launch had originally been scheduled for October 10 but was postponed when Hurricane Michael swept across Florida’s coast, delaying preparations at the Cape. Once conditions improved, the heavy-lift rocket carried the spacecraft into orbit before sending it on a trajectory toward the outer solar system.

Europa Clipper is set to travel nearly 1.8 billion miles over the next six years, arriving at Jupiter in 2030. Instead of orbiting Europa directly, the spacecraft will circle Jupiter and conduct dozens of close flybys of the moon. This design reduces radiation exposure from Jupiter’s magnetic field while still allowing the probe to collect detailed data.

Scientists are particularly interested in Europa because its subsurface ocean, hidden beneath a thick icy crust, is believed to contain more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined. This has made it one of the most promising locations in the search for extraterrestrial life within our solar system.

The spacecraft carries a suite of advanced instruments designed to study Europa’s ice shell, surface features, and the composition of its saltwater ocean. Cameras and spectrometers will map the surface, while radar instruments will probe the layers of ice to determine its thickness.

One of the mission’s key goals is to fly through possible plumes of water vapor venting from Europa’s surface, similar to those observed on Saturn’s moon Enceladus by the Cassini spacecraft in 2005. Sampling these plumes could reveal whether the hidden ocean contains chemical ingredients that support life.

With Europa Clipper now on its way, NASA hopes the mission will provide the clearest evidence yet about whether one of Jupiter’s frozen moons is capable of sustaining living organisms.

NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft has begun its six-year journey to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa after lifting off aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on October 14, 2024, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission, which costs about $5 billion, will investigate whether the vast saltwater ocean beneath Europa’s frozen crust could support life.

The launch was originally scheduled for October 10 but was delayed by Hurricane Milton, which struck Florida’s Space Coast. Engineers rolled the spacecraft back into SpaceX’s hangar until conditions cleared. NASA had a launch window lasting until November 6, giving teams time to safely prepare.

Once it arrives in 2030, Europa Clipper will orbit Jupiter rather than Europa itself to avoid the intense radiation around the moon. From there, the spacecraft will perform nearly 50 close flybys of Europa, using an array of scientific instruments to map its surface, probe beneath its icy shell, and measure the composition of its thin atmosphere.

Scientists believe Europa is one of the most promising places in the solar system to search for alien life. Beneath its thick ice lies an ocean that may be twice the size of all Earth’s oceans combined. With water, chemistry, and energy sources, Europa could have the right conditions for life, making it a top target for exploration.

The spacecraft, roughly the size of a basketball court due to its massive 100-foot solar arrays, is fitted with advanced instruments. These include high-resolution cameras, infrared and ultraviolet spectrometers, a powerful radar system to measure ice thickness, and mass spectrometers designed to analyze water vapor plumes that may erupt from Europa’s surface.

Some of the key instruments are the Europa Imaging System, capable of capturing 90% of the surface; the REASON radar system, which will search for underground oceans; and MASPEX, which can sample gases from potential plumes as the spacecraft flies through them. Together, these instruments will determine whether Europa’s hidden ocean is truly habitable.

Although Europa Clipper will not directly search for life, it will provide critical data to prepare for future missions that could land, drill through the ice, and access the ocean below. NASA scientists say that while this will remain a challenge for decades ahead, Europa Clipper is a necessary step toward answering one of humanity’s biggest questions: Are we alone in the universe?

NASA has switched off one of Voyager 2’s science instruments as the spacecraft struggles with dwindling power while continuing its decades-long mission in interstellar space. The decision was made on September 26, 2024, to preserve energy for the remaining instruments as the probe travels more than 12.8 billion miles (20.5 billion kilometers) from Earth.

Voyager 2, launched on August 30, 1977, crossed into interstellar space in November 2018 after more than 41 years of exploration. It remains the only spacecraft besides Voyager 1 to pass beyond the heliosphere, the bubble of charged particles surrounding the Sun.

NASA engineers turned off the plasma science instrument (PLS), which had played a critical role in confirming Voyager 2’s exit from the heliosphere. In a statement posted on X, the Voyager account said, “In 2018, the PLS was critical in determining that I had left the heliosphere, but power management is a major challenge when you’ve been exploring for 47 years. I will, however, still be monitoring plasma in the interstellar medium with my plasma wave subsystem (PWS).”

The command to shut down the instrument was sent on September 26 and took 19 hours to reach the spacecraft, followed by another 19 hours for confirmation to return to Earth. With this change, only three of the probe’s original ten instruments remain active.

The plasma science instrument was designed to measure the density and direction of plasma in space using four cups; three facing the Sun to analyze solar wind, and one pointed in the opposite direction to detect plasma from planetary magnetic fields and interstellar space.

After Voyager 2 crossed into interstellar space, the readings from the Sun-facing cups dropped sharply, while the fourth cup provided limited data during occasional spacecraft rotations.

NASA explained that with the limited return from the instrument and rising power demands, it was no longer sustainable to keep it active. Even so, Voyager 2 continues to provide rare and vital data about conditions beyond the solar system, where sunlight is too weak to provide meaningful energy.

Mission managers say the spacecraft has enough power to operate at least one science instrument into the 2030s, continuing to extend humanity’s reach deeper into the galaxy.