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An updated list of space missions: Current and upcoming voyages

Here is a list to help you keep track of many current and scheduled space missions. We’ve gathered a selected group of high-profiles ones, listed them below, and linked to official sites where you can get the latest updates and launch dates.

We’ll update this article periodically when new missions are announced.

Here is the list of missions in alphabetical order:

2001 Mars Odyssey

Mission: This Mars orbiter was launched with the intention of detecting water and ice on the planet, as well as studying its composition.

Agency: NASA

Launch date: April 7, 2001

Updates available here.

Mission: The mission, which name means “Sun” in Sanskrit, was launched to conduct a comprehensive study of the Sun, sitting at the Lagrange point L1 between the Sun and Earth.

Agency: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

Launch date: Sept. 2, 2023

Updates available here.  

Mission: The orbiter mission was designed to study weather patterns and atmospheric conditions, as well as search for the possibility of lighting and active volcanoes.  

Agency: JAXA

Launch date: May 21, 2010

Mission: This mission will be placed at Lagrange point L2 to study thousands of exoplanets, ranging from rocky planets to gas giants in visible and infrared wavelengths.

Agency: ESA/Ariel Mission Consortium

Expected launch: 2029

Mission: The mission, featuring a crew of four astronauts, will perform a series of flights maneuvers as well as tests in space to ensure the systems are appropriate to take the Artemis III crew to the Moon.

Expected launch: September 2025

Artemis III

Mission: The mission is expected to take four astronauts to the lunar South Pole for the first time to explore, collect geologic samples, and take images of the region’s unique features.

Expected launch: September 2026

BepiColombo

Mission: BepiColombo, comprised of two orbiters, was designed to study composition, geophysics, atmosphere, magnetosphere and history of Mercury.

Agency: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)/ESA

Launch date: Oct. 18, 2018

Chandrayaan-3

Mission: With its lander, Vikram, and rover, Pragyan, this mission landed safely on the Moon’s south pole.

Agency: ISRO

Launch date: July 14, 2023

Boeing Starliner

The Starliner launch is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which seeks to launch astronauts into space in a private/public partnership using American tech. 

Updates available here .

Comet Interceptor

Mission: Made up of three spacecrafts, the mission will wait at the Lagrange point L2 before separating to gather 3D images of Comet Interceptor as well as its nucleus and composition.

Agency: ESA

Mission: Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble Gases, Chemistry, And Imaging (DAVINCI) probe would explore the atmosphere of Venus.

Expected Launch: June 2029

Mission: This dual-quadcopter would explore a variety of locations on Saturn’s moon, Titan, for possible habitability.

Expected launch: 2027

Emirates Mars Mission

Mission: The Emirates Mars Mission, named “Hope Probe” will gather a picture of the Martian atmosphere and its layers. It will also look at the planet’s loss of hydrogen and oxygen gases into space over the span of one Martian year.

Agency: UAE Space Agency

Launch Date: July 20, 2020

Mission: The mission is to investigate Venus from its inner core to its upper atmosphere, characterizing the interaction between its atmosphere, surface, and interior.

Expected launch: early 2030s

Mission: The Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (EscaPADE) are a dual-spacecraft mission to study the transfer of solar wind energy and momentum.

Expected launch: 2024

Europa Clipper

Mission: Europa is expected to explore the moon of Jupiter with the same name during a series of flybys. Its objectives include studying the moon’s ice shell and ocean, as well as its composition and geology.

Expected Launch: Oct. 10, 2024

Mission: The spacecraft will perform a survey of the target asteroid, Dimorphos and the orbiting moonlet Didymos, after the NASA Dart Mission conducted its asteroid deflection on Sept. 26, 2022. 

Expected launch: October 2024

Mission: Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus’ landing on Feb. 22, 2024 , made it the first American-made craft to land on the Moon since 1972 and the first non-governmental craft to ever do so. Odysseus carried six payloads under contract for NASA. Several were intended to collect data and test navigation and landing technology that will be used for the agency’s Artemis program, which will return astronauts to the Moon.

Mission: Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or JUICE, was dispatched to study the composition of Jupiter along with its three large, water-logged moons – Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.

Agency: European Space Agency (ESA)

Launch date: April 14, 2023

Mission: Understand origin and evolution of Jupiter and its four largest moons, look for solid planetary core, map magnetic field, measure water and ammonia in deep atmosphere, observe auroras.

Launch date: Aug. 5, 2011

Korean Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO)

Mission: Known as Danuri, this is a lunar probe expected to carry out the mission of lunar observation while flying at an altitude of 100km over the Moon.

Agency: Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI)

Launch date: Aug. 5, 2022

Mission: Lucy was launched to view trojan asteroids surrounding Jupiter.

Launch date: Oct. 16, 2021

Updates available here. 

Related: Surprise! NASA’s Lucy mission uncovered an asteroid moon that is actually two in one

L unar Reconnaissance Orbiter

Mission: The mission began as a way to target areas for future robotic and human exploration on the Moon. After two years, it focused more on studying temperature maps and other scientific data on Earth’s satellite.

Launch date: June 18, 2009

Mars Express

Mission: The orbiter’s goal was to complete a map of the Mars’ atmospheric composition and water on its surface, as well as learning more about one of its moons, Phobos.

Launch date: June 2, 2003

Mars Sample Return

Mission: The mission involves Mars Perseverance Rover working with a lander and orbiter to retrieve samples from Mars and deliver them to Earth.

Agency: NASA/ESA

Expected launch: TBD. NASA announced a call for or agencies to take over the mission to Mars on April 14.

Mission: Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution or MAVEN, studies the upper atmosphere of Mars as well as its interaction with the Sun and solar winds.

Launch date: Nov. 18, 2013

Mission: Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) will explore the two moons of Mars, Deimos and Phobos, to collect data on the satellites as well as samples of Phobos’ surface before returning to Earth.

Expected Launch: September 2024

Parker Solar Probe

Mission: The probe’s main objective was to be the first spacecraft to fly through the Sun’s upper atmosphere to study the evolution and origins of solar wind, to determine if we can forecast the space weather in the future.

Launch date: Aug. 12, 2018

Mission: Two satellites –the Coronagraph spacecraft and the Occulter spacecraft – will fly in tandem to learn about autonomous formation flying. They will also study the Sun’s corona and surrounding atmosphere.

Mission: The mission is expected to land on the asteroid with the same name between Mars and Jupiter. It will study the asteroid’s metal core and determine its age.

Launch: Oct. 13, 2023

Mission: The Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) mission was designed to study the Sun inside and out as well as observe space weather.

Agency: ESA/NASA

Launch date: Dec. 2, 1995

Mission: The Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx)

Expected launch: No earlier than June 2024

Mission: The twin Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory, or STEREO spacecrafts (STEREO-A and -B) launched as the first stereoscopic, or multiple-perspective, view of the Sun.

Launch date: Oct. 25, 2006

Mission: Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy or VERITAS (also Latin for “truth”) is expected to study the interior evolution and surface of Venus.

Agency: NASA/German Aerospace Center (DLR)/Italian Space Agency (ASI)/France’s Centre National

Expected Launch: No earlier than 2031

Mission: Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) will explore Earth’s Moon, characterizing its distribution and composition

Expected launch: Late 2024

Mission: A probe launched 46 years ago with the intention of studying the outer Solar System and interstellar space.

Launch date: Sept. 5, 1977

Mission: Although named Voyager 2 , the probe was launched before Voyager 1, with a longer expected trip to Saturn and Jupiter, but it ultimately had a better vantage point of Uranus and Neptune.

Launch date: Aug. 20, 1977

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Research Topics

Reach for the stars: research topics on space exploration.

With recent advances in commercial space exploration, we have curated a list of our best Research Topics on outer space. Explore collections edited by experts from NASA, The Goddard Space Flight Center, Space Science Institute, German Aerospace Center, Canadian Space Agency, National Space Science Center, European Space Agency, International Space University, and many more.

Research Topics:

Optimization of Exercise Countermeasures for Human Space Flight – Lessons from Terrestrial Physiology and Operational Implementation

Biology in Space: Challenges and Opportunities

Microbiology of Extreme and Human-Made Confined Environments (Spacecraft, Space Stations, Cleanrooms, and Analogous Sites)

Geospace Observation of Natural Hazards

Astrobiology of Mars, Europa, Titan and Enceladus - Most Likely Places for Alien Life

Imagining the Future of Astronomy and Space Science

Brains in Space: Effects of Spaceflight on the Human Brain and Behavior

Creative Performance in Extreme Human Environments: Astronauts and Space

Space Traffic Management: a new era in Earth orbit

Wound Management and Healing in Space

Robotic Manipulation and Capture in Space

A Multidisciplinary Approach to designing Sensorimotor Adaptation countermeasures for space exploration missions

Active Experiments in Space: Past, Present, and Future

On-orbit Manufacturing and Assembly Technologies for Future Space Activities

Current and Future Instrumentation for the Detection and Identification of Signatures of Life on Mars and Beyond

On-Orbit Servicing and Active Debris Removal: Enabling a Paradigm Shift in Spaceflight

Space Weather with Small Satellites

AI in the Space Sciences

Higher Plants, Algae and Cyanobacteria in Space Environments

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Space Exploration Initiative

Creative Commons

Attribution 4.0 International

NASA, ESA, H. Teplitz and M. Rafelski (IPAC/Caltech), A. Koekemoer (STScI), R. Windhorst (Arizona State University), and Z. Levay (STScI)

Group Contact:

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Science News

Nasa’s budget woes put ambitious space research at risk.

The Mars Sample Return mission and other planetary science efforts are most affected by cost cutting

Using its drill, NASA’s Perseverance rover (lower left) collected material from a rock nicknamed Rochette in September 2021 as part of a plan to bring back samples to Earth. The agency’s recent budget woes have placed the sample return project in turmoil.

JPL-Caltech/NASA

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By Adam Mann

May 8, 2024 at 11:15 am

Dreams of exploring the cosmos have crashed up against the harsh reality of budget cuts in the United States. Congressional approval of the 2024 federal budget earlier this year left NASA with roughly half a billion dollars less than the agency had in 2023 — and Mars science has taken the biggest hit.

Engineers are scrambling to figure out how a long-planned mission to bring samples back from the Red Planet might still be accomplished. Probes intended for other planets and moons are delayed, and the venerable Chandra X-ray Observatory, which launched in 1999 and has transformed our view of energetic phenomena in the universe, is potentially on the chopping block.

Until now, NASA had been on its longest streak of regular budget increases in history, says Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society in Pasadena, Calif. Between 2014 and 2023, funding had increased more than 3 percent on average compared with the previous year.

“That makes it easy to take on new projects,” Dreier says. “There’s room to grow. Everybody can win. And that has ended.”

NASA’s 2024 budget comes to $24.875 billion, a 2 percent cut relative to last year and 8.5 percent less than the requested funding. That’s the biggest discrepancy between requested and appropriated funding for the agency since 1992.

The budget’s approval immediately left it up to NASA administrators to figure out how to adapt and cover the $509 million gap.

“We know we are definitely in an imperfect environment, and we acknowledge this is a very challenging time,” Nicola Fox, NASA’s associate administrator for science, said in March during a public town hall . But, she vowed, NASA “will use every single penny to do great science.”

The Mars Sample Return mission faces the biggest cuts

NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission had intended to bring rock and soil samples to Earth from the Red Planet by 2033. But even before these budget cuts, questions emerged about whether the ambitious program, prioritized in 2022 as part of planetary scientists’ decadal survey , could meet its goals on deadline and at a reasonable cost ( SN: 4/20/22 ). The budget cuts now mean the mission is on hold as NASA tries to determine if it can be done at all.

The Perseverance rover, currently roaming Mars’ Jezero crater, is the first step of sample return. Since arriving on Mars in 2021 , the rover has been filling small tubes with material from specific locations, with the goal of eventually gathering 38 samples in total ( SN: 2/17/21 ). The rocks and soil could answer fundamental questions about the formation of the inner solar system and the history of water on Mars, and perhaps reveal signs of past life on the planet.

Yet bringing these samples back from such a great distance is among the most complex mission proposals ever put forward, requiring a vehicle that could launch from the Martian surface and a way to transfer the samples to a second rocket in space to prevent possible contamination of our home planet. The decadal survey estimated the mission cost at between $5 billion and $7 billion total. NASA had hoped to spend around $950 million on it this year.

But two independent review boards pegged the overall expense for sample return much higher, potentially topping $11 billion — unacceptable to NASA administrators. In response to the approved budget, 2024 funding for the program was reduced by $630 million, essentially covering the full amount of the cost cutting that NASA needed to do and allowing for some other programs to have modest budget increases.

“Mars Sample Return took it on the chin for the entire agency,” Dreier says. The amount taken from this program, part of the planetary science division, “basically saved every other science division.”

NASA proposes spending just $300 million on the sample return mission this year and $200 million next year, which is just enough to string the program along as its future is figured out. And though it’s still unclear how much money NASA will receive next year, the 2025 budget requested by the Biden administration has been pared back.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, largely responsible for designing and building the components of sample return, “lost hundreds of millions of dollars functionally overnight,” Dreier says. Uncertainty over the budget had already prompted the center to announce it would dismiss 530 employees , or 8 percent of its staff, in February. “I’m positive you will see further layoffs at JPL and probably other NASA centers that were involved in Mars Sample Return,” Dreier says.

Meanwhile, NASA has put out a solicitation asking other NASA centers and engineers in the industry to propose innovative ways to bring back at least some of the samples at a lower cost. It may mean choosing which of the originally planned cache of samples — 24 of which have been collected so far — are most valuable.

Missions to other planets are delayed

Yet that doesn’t mean other missions are in the clear. A dedicated orbiter to explore the ice giant Uranus — the 2022 decadal survey’s second priority after the Mars sample return — has seen its timeline pushed back. Because ice giants are among the most common types of exoplanets being discovered around other stars, researchers are keen to understand those in our own solar system. But the researchers tasked with planning the effort “won’t even start thinking about that mission until 2028 at the earliest,” Dreier says.

DaVinci and Veritas, two missions to explore Venus, are also being delayed, and there’s now more uncertainty about which, if any, other probes on the drawing board — those intending to bring back samples from a comet or fly through the plumes of Saturn’s moon Enceladus — will go forward.  

All this will mean less near-term research on the formation and dynamics of planets and their moons. “We forget how little we’ve explored the solar system we live in,” Dreier says. Scientists are crying out to explore it, he adds, and that’s all being pushed back.

Other missions, such as Europa Clipper, which is set to launch to the frozen moon of Jupiter in November, didn’t face cuts. Future probes including Dragonfly, heading to explore Saturn’s moon Titan, and the space-based Near-Earth Object Surveyor, which will scan for potentially hazardous asteroids, are still receiving the money they need.

While not strictly a scientific mission, NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to land humans on the moon again in the coming decade, saw a small funding increase for 2024. “Artemis was one of the few programs that more or less held its own,” says Marcia Smith, a space policy analyst and editor of the site SpacePolicyOnline.com.

The first Artemis test, an uncrewed swing around the moon, successfully completed its journey in 2022 ( SN: 12/12/22 ). Future missions would assess how astronauts adapt to space exploration and return new rock samples from the moon — including from the lunar south pole, where some of the satellite’s oldest rocks are found.

While Smith expects that future Artemis missions might see delays, she thinks there’s enough momentum to ensure they’ll take off at some point. There’s a broad coalition in Congress who believe it to be important for staying ahead of China, which also aims to land people on the moon in the coming years.

Other NASA divisions’ budgets are flat

NASA’s planetary science division is suffering more from the cuts than the Earth science, biological and physical sciences, and heliophysics divisions, which are facing flat funding for the most part. A smaller than requested bump for NASA’s astrophysics division is adding scrutiny to some of its projects.

The budget for this year and expectations for next year have prompted NASA to conduct a review of its existing flagship telescopes, the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope, to see if either can be wound down. Both were launched as part of the first generation of Great Observatories in the 1990s and early 2000s, and they’ve already seen their companions, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope, shut off.

Few expect that the famous Hubble will be shelved. Chandra’s future is less certain. Launched 25 years ago, the X-ray observatory has been delivering unparalleled imagery of the high-energy universe for decades, providing data on gorging black holes in the centers of galaxies, neutron star collisions, and gas and dust in the intergalactic medium. Its operational costs are on the order of $70 million per year. Yet NASA needs to free up funds for future observatories such as the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, an infrared telescope scheduled to launch in 2027, and the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, or LISA, a space-based gravitational wave detector that the agency is developing in partnership with the European Space Agency. The Roman telescope will hunt for exoplanets and study the nature of dark energy, while LISA will scan for merging black holes in galactic centers.

Though many scientists say Chandra is healthy enough to continue producing wonderful research, its aging infrastructure has officials eyeing its end. NASA administrator Bill Nelson stated in a congressional hearing that “Chandra has given us so many gifts,” but “it’s time for new missions.”

Answers on the telescope’s fate are expected in the near future, though it’s unclear exactly when.

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100+ Space Research Topics [Updated]

Space has always attracted humanity’s imagination. The vastness of the cosmos, with its twinkling stars, mysterious planets, and enigmatic black holes, beckons us to explore its depths. But why do we study space? What are the research topics that drive scientists to reach for the stars? In this blog, we’ll delve into the fascinating world of space research topics, exploring key topics that continue to inspire and challenge researchers around the globe.

Why Do We Study Space?

Table of Contents

Here are some key points explaining why we study space:

• Understanding our Origins: Space research helps us uncover the origins of the universe, including how galaxies, stars, and planets formed.
• Advancing Scientific Knowledge: Studying space leads to breakthroughs in physics, astronomy, and other scientific fields, expanding our understanding of the cosmos.
• Technological Innovation: Space exploration drives the development of new technologies, such as satellite communication and medical imaging, benefiting society as a whole.
• Exploration and Discovery: Humans are inherently curious, and space offers a vast frontier for exploration, fueling our desire to discover new worlds and phenomena.
• Earth Observation: Space-based observations provide valuable data on Earth’s climate, weather patterns, and environmental changes, aiding in disaster management and conservation efforts.
• Search for Life: Investigating other planets and celestial bodies helps us understand the conditions necessary for life, potentially leading to the discovery of extraterrestrial life forms.
• Inspiration and Education: Space exploration inspires future generations of scientists, engineers, and explorers, fostering innovation and curiosity about the universe.

100+ Space Research Topics: Category Wise

Astronomy and astrophysics.

• Exoplanet detection methods and recent discoveries
• The life cycle of stars: from birth to death
• Supermassive black holes and their role in galaxy formation
• Gravitational waves: detection and implications
• Dark matter and dark energy: understanding the mysteries of the universe
• Supernovae explosions: studying the aftermath of stellar deaths
• Galactic dynamics: exploring the structure and evolution of galaxies
• Cosmic microwave background radiation: insights into the early universe
• Gamma-ray bursts: uncovering the most energetic explosions in the cosmos
• The search for extrasolar planets with potential habitable conditions

Planetary Science

• Martian geology and the search for signs of past life
• Jupiter’s Great Red Spot: dynamics and longevity
• Saturn’s rings: composition, structure, and origin
• Lunar exploration: past missions and future prospects
• Venusian atmosphere: understanding the greenhouse effect and extreme conditions
• Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto: Jupiter’s diverse moons
• Titan: Saturn’s moon with an Earth-like atmosphere and hydrocarbon lakes
• The Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud: reservoirs of comets and icy bodies
• Dwarf planets: Pluto, Eris, Haumea, Makemake, and Ceres
• Planetary volcanism: processes and consequences on various celestial bodies

Space Technology and Engineering

• Satellite constellations for global internet coverage
• CubeSats: miniaturized satellites for scientific research and technology demonstration
• Space debris mitigation strategies and technologies
• Ion propulsion systems: efficient propulsion for deep space missions
• Space telescopes: next-generation observatories for astronomy and astrophysics
• Space-based solar power: harvesting solar energy in orbit
• Asteroid mining: extracting resources from near-Earth objects
• In-situ resource utilization on other planets and moons
• Additive manufacturing (3D printing) in space exploration
• Autonomous spacecraft navigation and control for long-duration missions

Astrobiology and the Search for Life

• Extremophiles: organisms thriving in extreme environments on Earth and their implications for extraterrestrial life
• Biosignatures: markers of past or present life on other planets
• Methanogenesis on Mars: potential evidence for subsurface microbial life
• Europa’s subsurface ocean: exploring the possibility of life beneath the ice
• Enceladus: hydrothermal vents and the search for life in its subsurface ocean
• The habitability of exoplanets: assessing conditions for life beyond the solar system
• Panspermia: the transfer of life between celestial bodies
• Astrobiology field research in extreme environments on Earth
• SETI: the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and communication
• The implications of discovering microbial life on Mars or other celestial bodies

Space Policy and Ethics

• International collaboration in space exploration and research
• The Outer Space Treaty: principles governing the use of outer space
• Space tourism regulations and safety considerations
• Space law and jurisdiction: legal frameworks for activities in space
• Military applications of space technology and potential arms race in space
• Space resource utilization and ownership rights
• Space environmentalism: advocating for the protection of celestial bodies and their environments
• Space colonization ethics and implications for human societies
• Space governance beyond national boundaries
• Cultural heritage preservation on the Moon and other celestial bodies

Challenges and Future Directions

• Funding challenges and opportunities in space research and exploration
• Space radiation hazards and mitigation strategies for astronauts
• Interplanetary communication and navigation for deep space missions
• Long-duration spaceflight: physiological and psychological effects on astronauts
• Terraforming Mars: engineering a habitable environment on the Red Planet
• Space elevator concept: a revolutionary approach to space access
• Next-generation space launch vehicles and propulsion technologies
• Nuclear propulsion for crewed missions to Mars and beyond
• Space settlement design and infrastructure requirements
• Advancing artificial intelligence and robotics for autonomous space exploration

Space Weather and Space Environment

• Solar flares and coronal mass ejections: impacts on Earth’s magnetosphere and technology
• Space weather forecasting and its applications in satellite operations
• Magnetospheres of Earth and other planets: comparative studies and dynamics
• Solar wind interactions with planetary atmospheres and magnetospheres
• Aurora phenomena on Earth and other planets
• Radiation belts: understanding and mitigating hazards for spacecraft and astronauts
• Cosmic rays: sources, composition, and effects on space missions
• Space climate change: long-term variations in solar activity and their consequences
• Space weather effects on satellite communications, navigation, and power systems
• Space weather monitoring and prediction networks

Space Exploration and Missions

• Mars Sample Return mission: challenges and scientific objectives
• Artemis program: NASA’s plans for returning astronauts to the Moon
• Asteroid impact mitigation strategies and planetary defense initiatives
• The James Webb Space Telescope: capabilities and scientific goals
• Europa Clipper mission: exploring Jupiter’s icy moon for signs of habitability
• China’s Chang’e lunar exploration program: past achievements and future missions
• Commercial crew and cargo transportation to the International Space Station
• Voyager and Pioneer missions: the farthest human-made objects in space
• Space missions to study near-Earth objects and potential asteroid mining targets
• International Mars exploration collaborations and missions

Space Communication and Navigation

• Deep space communication networks and relay satellites
• Laser communication technology for high-speed data transmission in space
• Satellite-based navigation systems: GPS, Galileo, and GLONASS
• Interplanetary Internet: protocols and architectures for space communications
• Radio astronomy and interferometry: probing the universe with radio waves
• Quantum communication in space: secure and ultra-fast communication channels
• Delay-tolerant networking for deep space missions
• Autonomous navigation systems for spacecraft and rovers
• Optical communications for small satellites and CubeSats
• Space-to-ground communication systems for remote sensing and Earth observation satellites

Space Medicine and Human Spaceflight

• Microgravity effects on human physiology and health
• Countermeasures for mitigating bone and muscle loss in space
• Psychological challenges of long-duration space missions
• Space food technology: nutrition and sustainability in space
• Medical emergencies in space: protocols and procedures for astronaut health care
• Radiation shielding and protection for crewed missions beyond Earth orbit
• Sleep and circadian rhythms in space: optimizing astronaut performance
• Artificial gravity concepts for maintaining crew health on long-duration missions
• Telemedicine applications for space exploration missions
• Bioastronautics research: advancing human spaceflight capabilities and safety

Space Industry and Commercialization

• NewSpace companies: the rise of private space exploration ventures
• Satellite constellation deployments for global internet coverage
• Space tourism: opportunities, challenges, and market trends
• Commercial spaceports and launch facilities around the world
• Space manufacturing and in-space assembly techniques

Tips To Write Space Research Papers

Crafting space research papers can be a thrilling and fulfilling pursuit, yet it demands meticulous planning and implementation to guarantee that your efforts effectively convey your discoveries and make meaningful contributions to the discipline. Here are some tips to help you write space research papers:

• Choose a Narrow Topic: Space is a vast field with numerous sub-disciplines. Narrow down your topic to something specific and manageable, ensuring that it aligns with your interests and expertise.
• Conduct Thorough Research: Before you start writing, immerse yourself in the existing literature on your chosen topic. Familiarize yourself with key concepts, theories, and recent discoveries to provide context for your research.
• Develop a Clear Thesis Statement: Define the central argument or hypothesis of your paper in a concise and focused thesis statement. This statement should guide your writing and serve as the foundation for your research.
• Outline Your Paper: Create a detailed outline outlining the structure of your paper, including the introduction, literature review, results, and conclusion sections. This will help you organize your thoughts and ensure that your paper flows logically.
• Write a Compelling Introduction: Begin your paper with a captivating introduction that offers context about your subject, underscores its importance, and delineates the paper’s framework . Grab the reader’s interest and inspire them to delve further into your work.
• Provide a Comprehensive Literature Review: Synthesize the existing research on your topic in a literature review section. Examine pertinent research, theories, methodologies, and results, pinpointing any disparities or deficiencies in the existing literature that your study seeks to rectify.
• Detail Your Methodology: Describe the methods you used to conduct your research, including data collection, analysis, and interpretation techniques. Provide enough detail for readers to understand how your study was conducted and to evaluate its validity and reliability.
• Present Your Results Clearly: Present your research findings in a clear, concise manner, using tables, figures, and charts to illustrate key data points. Interpret your results objectively and discuss their implications in relation to your research question or hypothesis.
• Engage in Critical Analysis: Analyze your findings in the context of existing literature, discussing their significance, strengths, limitations, and potential implications for future research. Be critical and objective in your evaluation, acknowledging any potential biases or limitations in your study.
• Craft a Strong Conclusion: Summarize the main findings of your research and reiterate their significance in the conclusion section. Discuss any implications for theory, practice, or policy and suggest avenues for future research.
• Proofread and Revise: Before submitting your paper, carefully proofread it for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. Edit your writing to ensure clarity, coherence, and consistency, guaranteeing that your points are adequately backed and logically organized.
• Follow Formatting Guidelines: Follow the formatting instructions provided by the journal or conference to which you intend to submit your paper. Pay attention to details such as font size, margins, citation style, and reference formatting to ensure that your paper meets the publication requirements.

Space research offers a window into the vastness of the cosmos, revealing the beauty and complexity of the universe we inhabit. From the depths of space to the surfaces of distant planets, scientists are uncovering new wonders and answering age-old questions about our place in the universe. As we look to the stars, let us be inspired by the spirit of exploration and discovery that drives humanity ever onward, towards new horizons and unknown worlds. I hope you find the best space research topics from the above list.

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The beauty of space research is that it can be integrated into any part of a science curriculum. From biology to physics to computer science, you can research the impacts of a space and microgravity environment on projects in any scientific field. Space research doesn’t have to be restricted to a solitary space unit in the classroom. It can be integrated into a science curriculum all year long!

Project Inspiration

Biology and biotechnology.

Did you know biological processes can be dramatically different in space compared to on Earth? Help us better understand areas such as cell and tissue growth or microorganism development in microgravity!

Earth and Space Science

Space data is one of the most valuable resources when it comes to better understanding Earth. Study anything from glaciers to coral reefs to monitoring humanitarian crises.

Human Health

How will humans survive on Mars? Your space research can contribute to NASA’s biggest mission yet: bringing humans to Mars.

Physical Sciences

Uncover hidden aspects of physics and study how to create better materials for use on Earth and in space. Revolutionize the products that you use everyday!

We need next-gen technology for next-gen exploration. Test electronics, robotics, and futuristic materials to prepare humans for deep space travels.

Plant Sciences & Biology

The ability of plants to provide a source of food and recycle carbon dioxide into breathable oxygen may prove critical for astronauts who will live in space for months at a time. In addition, plants provide a sense of well-being.

NASA and the European Space Agency, or ESA, are studying how plants adapt to micro- and low-gravity environments in a series of experiments designed to determine the ability of vegetation to provide a complete, sustainable, dependable and economical means for human life support in space. As researchers continue to gain new knowledge of how plants grow and develop at a molecular level, this insight also may lead to significant advances in agriculture production on Earth.

[Source: NASA]

Lakewood High School

How do you overcome the behavior of water in microgravity and how it creates root rot in a plant system? Water collects or clumps together in microgravity and the centrifuge concept Hydrofuge spins the plant to dissipate the collection of water around the roots that oversaturates.

Hydrofuge on ISS

Duchesne academy of the sacred heart.

Duchesne students studied how different wavelengths of light, representing different colors, affect photosynthesis in a species of algae in the space environment. If a preferred color is identified, people will be able to grow algae faster in space, which is useful considering algae can be very useful in producing fuel.

SPRK: Schools, Parents, Robots, Kids

Partnered with Edge of Space, Sphero wants to know if your favorite BB8 robot works in space. Sphero’s education team has sought to find out how their robotics systems work in microgravity to better understand future technology in space (while also getting students excited!)

Sphero in Space

Technology Drives Exploration

Space technology advances the future of exploration, science and our understanding of the universe. Our students are helping NASA and professionals seeks to improve our ability to access and travel through space; land  in more locations throughout the solar system; live and work in deep space, and answer profound questions in earth and space sciences.

Fremont Christian School

Thirteen students enrolled in a Space Engineering class at Fremont Christian studied the effects of microgravity on a remotely controlled micro-robot named PI (Programmable Intelligence).

Meet the students behind the project

St. thomas more.

All 400 students in pre-K to 8th grade participated in the design, building, and testing of STMSat-1. The satellite photographs Earth and transmits images back to Earth where St. Thomas More students share the images with more than 10,0000  grade school students around the world.

First Elementary School CubeSat

University of Central Florida

Nanorocks flew to the ISS on Space-X 4 in early 2014. The experiment chamber consists of 8 sample cells containing different populations of micro-scale particles. The samples are periodically agitated to induce low-velocity collisions. This experiment studies the collisions at the formation of the solar system that eventually created the planets and other celestial objects, like planetary rings.

Click to watch experiment in action!

Earth & Space Science

Our Earth and space environment are constantly changing. Space provides a unique vantage point to collect Earth hand space science data. Contribute to our understanding of the world we live in and the space environment around us. Students can study anything from glaciers and coral reefs to monitoring humanitarian crises or studying solar activity.

Before you get started, check out our hardware

Whether you are interested in making a Mixstix experiment, or using electronics and cameras in a Nanolab, there are a lot of important steps along the way. Check out our hardware, and then be sure to get in touch to get started!

Want Even More Ideas? We've got you covered.

Every single experiment we’ve launched to the Space Station via Nanoracks is listed with NASA. Click below to see the full scope – down to investigators, hypothesis, mission goals, and more.

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80 Space Research Paper Topics: Ideas for Astronomical Grades!

Why space research? The universe is replete with worlds apart from the planet earth. From our historical ancestors discovering fire to modern man exploring space, inquisitiveness has been vital to the innovation and exploration of our universe, and the survival and advancement of the human species. Space science has become increasingly popular over the years. With the study of outer space and space discoveries piling up by the day, it is essential to be able to write an essay on space. Writing on any topic about space will require that you are abreast of the latest space discoveries.

Writing a space essay would require that you have a working knowledge of other types of essays that we have described in our previous posts. For example, knowing how to write a descriptive essay will help in an article on the study of objects in space, while knowledge of how to write an argumentative essay will come in handy when writing an essay on controversial space topics. If you’re not sure you can do all this on your own, get college thesis writing help .

Coming Up With Great Space Topics

Space race topics, space research topics, space exploration topics, space topics for presentation, controversial space topics, earth and space science topics, astronomy research paper topics, astronomy essay topics, space arguable research topics, space science investigative essay topics.

Before writing an article on space study, you need to choose the right space topic. Choosing appropriate space topics is critical to the success of your space essay as the right topic will give you the luxury of a better flow of ideas. For this reason, we have crafted 80 topics about space that will make writing a space essay easy. You can never get bored while working on these interesting space topics because you will learn to explore and study space as you’ve never done before. These 80 cool space topics will come in handy in any space essay you plan to write.

Writing a space race essay is an excellent place to start if you want to explore the events that lead to the explosive growth of the space industry. The space race was a competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to attain the capability of space flight from the period of 1955 to 1975. If you’re interested in going back in time to tell these space stories uniquely, these space race topics will surely land you on the moon!

• The 1955 Space Race: Its Pros and Cons on the Rival Countries.
• The 1955 Space Race: Its Enduring Impact on Modern Space Technology and Travel.
• The 1955 Space Race: A Battle for Supremacy.
• How the Space Race Transformed America.
• The 1955 Space Race: The reason the Soviet Union lost to the USA.

Space research has become popular over the last decades. It is an extensive research field that seeks to study outer space scientifically. Research topics about space are relatively easy to find considering the broad research areas, which include: Earth observations, Geodesy, Atmospheric Sciences, Space physics, Planetology, Astronomy, Materials sciences, Life sciences, and Physics. Space research paper topics must stimulate and birth inquiry and answer compelling questions. Are you ready to get on the space shuttle? Here are some space research topics to help you!

• 2000 – 2010: A successful Decade in Astronomy?
• The Theory of Relativity in Space.
• UFOs and Extraterrestrials: Fact or Fiction?
• Space Colonization: Reasons, Goals, and Methods.
• Big Bang Theory: The Birth of the Universe?

Space exploration is the investigation of outer space with the use of space technology and astronomy. While the study of space is carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration is carried out by both robotic space probes and human spaceflight. Writing a space exploration essay opens your imagination to the wonders of outer space. You sure need to be ready for the unexpected! Here are some space exploration topics to whet your adventurous appetite!

• The Need for Continuous Space Exploration.
• Space Exploration: Differences between the then and now.
• Space Exploration: Its Importance to the Knowledge of the Earth and Universe.
• Space Exploration: Operations and Future Exploration Plans.
• The Importance of Unmanned Space Exploration.

Giving a presentation or seminar on space could be quite dicey. It requires that you can make complex phenomena appeal to the mind of your listeners. To be able to do this, you need to have a considerable amount of knowledge in any of the space science topics that you choose. A tip will be to choose topics that your audience will easily relate to, prepare adequately, and remember that you’re communicating with earthlings. Here are some space topics for a presentation that will earn you the respect of the extraterrestrials!

• The Earth and Universe.
• Getting the Big Picture from the Study of Dwarf Galaxies.
• History of Astronomy: A scientific Overview.
• What Exists in Space beyond our Solar Neighborhood.
• Future Space Missions: A look into what they should be.

Something as big as space study does not come without its controversies. Space exploration and travel are not without their risks and benefits. Many believe that robots, instead of humans, should man shuttles for space travel because of the risk space travel poses to humans. Many people also see space study as a sheer waste of time and resources and think it better to channel these vast amounts of money to more critical areas like health and education. All these different views and more, are what make space study a controversial topic. Here are some controversial space topics that will give you a hang of what to discuss in a space-related debate. Some of these topics could also be helpful in a space travel essay.

• Space Travel: At the Expense of our Health, Earth, and Future?
• Space Travel: A thing for Robots or Humans?
• Space Research: A Pointless Adventure and Waste of Resources?
• Earth and the Search for Other Habitable Planets.
• Science Versus Religion: The Big Bang?

Earth and Space Science or ESS, for short, connects systems by exploring the interrelationships between the land, atmosphere, ocean, and life on Earth. These include the water cycle, carbon cycle, rock cycle, and other materials that continually influence, shape, and sustain the earth. Here are some new earth and space science topics just for you!

• The Interactions between Weather and Climate.
• The Process of Rock Formation and Erosion.
• Plate Tectonics: An In-depth Exploration.
• Natural Catastrophes: Its consequence on the Ecosystem.
• The Moon and Sun: Effects on Ocean Tides.

There are two fields of study in carrying out astronomical research – the observational and theoretical fields of astronomy. Observation primarily deals with the study and monitoring of actual celestial objects in space like stars, planets, moons, and asteroids.

Theoretical dwells more on creating and studying models of astronomy that cannot be observed and haven’t been properly seen. Some astronomy research paper topics include;

• What happens during a solar eclipse?
• What are the major factors responsible for the solar eclipse?
• What should you expect during a lunar eclipse
• What lies beyond our visible universe
• Light and its dimension in space
• The lunar cycle – how does it function?
• Understanding solar system, sun, and the planets
• What is astrophysics?
• What are the different grand unification theories?
• The latitude and longitude of the earth.
• Fast mode, slow mode, and nonlinear effects

Celestial bodies like the sun, moon, other planets, and relatively closer objects in space are examined and comprehensively written upon under astronomy. Examples of astronomy essay topics include;

• How our planet came to exist
• How solar flares occur
• Our solar system, in broad view
• The effect of the moon on our oceans
• How stars are born
• What are the different types of stars in existence?
• Understanding molecular cloud
• How does the universe accelerate?
• Understanding cosmic acceleration and galaxy cluster growth
• Hubble constant and dark energy theories
• Formation, evolution, and destruction of clouds in galaxies
• What is the meridian and transit circle?

The mystery of what occurs inside a black hole is still up for debate, and so are other astronomical events. These form the bulk of space arguable research topics, which discuss things yet to be fully understood. Some space arguable research topics include;

• What is truly beyond the Milky Way?
• What is antimatter?
• Why does space keep expanding?
• How long does it take to travel the space?
• The physics behind a black hole.
• Is earth the most prominent of all the planets?
• How do people who live on other planets survive?
• Is Pluto an official planet or not?
• Should the journey to Mars be opened to everyone?
• What do astronauts eat while in space?
• Is Pluto a dwarf planet?
• A detailed analysis of the 2012 transit of Venus
• What are the best defenses against killer asteroids?
• Interplanetary matter and how to relate it to space activities.

Space is so vast and mysterious that there’s a lot to uncover with events to monitor and investigate. Creating agencies like NASA and the first mission to the moon was born out of curiosity about our place in this vast universe. Some space science investigative essay topics you could present include;

• How does the sun affect our water bodies?
• Where do asteroids come from?
• Molecular Cloud: Molecules, Properties, and Distribution
• How do solar systems with two stars operate?
• Is there an earth-like planet in the nearest solar system?
• Would we ever discover aliens?
• Conducting exoplanet research
• What is interstellar extinction?
• What are the essentials needed for space travel?
• Beyond this realm – understanding extraterrestrial life.
• What is a deep impact mission?
• Understanding the structure of the solar chromosphere.
• An analysis of the Wilson-Bappu effect
• What is a color index?

So here we are! 80 awesome space topics absolutely for free! Hopefully, you’ve got the perfect topic for your assignment or project. Keep shining like the star that you are! If you need more ideas, please check the following graduate project ideas .

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Jaw-dropping northern lights from massive solar flares amaze skywatchers around the world. 'We have a very rare event on our hands.' (photos)

A rare G5 geomagnetic storm not seen since Halloween 2003 is supercharging the northern lights around the world.

An aurora show like no other is playing out in the night sky this weekend as a historic northern lights display spawned by intense solar storms paints the sky in spectacular hues of pinks, purples and greens. 

"We have a very rare event on our hand," Shawn Dahl, Service Coordinator of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Group, told reporters on Friday (May 10) just hours before the northern lights spectacle began. In the United States, the northern lights (or aurora borealis) — typically only visible around the Arctic region and northern Canada — were expected to be visible as far south as at least Alabama or Northern California — with NOAA officials reporting sightings from locations even farther south. Space.com Editor Brett Tingley witnessed dazzling event from South Carolina, a surprise light show for a local music festival.

"Auroras surprised us in Greer, S.C. on Friday during the Albino Skunk Music Festival," Tingley told Space.com. "They were highly animated and appeared in shades of reds and greens. A true delight for skywatchers at mid latitudes who rarely get to witness the phenomenon for ourselves."

Related: 4 large solar bursts could supercharge the auroras this weekend

In Middleton, California, north of San Francisco, AFP and Getty photographer Josh Edelson captured stunning views of pink and purple auroras over campers in tents and houses, while in Vienna, Austria, photojournalist Max Slovenick captured a haunting view of a pink aurora wave over the city for AFP, APA and Getty.

NOAA officials said that even if you cannot see the northern lights with your unaided eyes, the night sky settings of many cell phones may be able to pick them up. 

"Cell phones are much better than our eyes at capturing light,"  Brent Gordon, Chief of Space Weather Services Branch for SWPC, told reporters Friday. "Just go out your back door and take a picture with the newer cellphone and you'd be amazed at what is what you see in that picture versus what you see with your eyes."

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Our guide on how to photograph the northern lights has everything you need to capture the aurora display, and our best equipment for aurora photography list can help you find the best gear. You can also check out our guides on how to see the northern lights . We even have a guide on how to edit aurora photos once you have your images.

Related: Photographing the northern lights with the Sony A7R V

Sony A7III was $1799.99 , now $1498 Sony’s third incarnation of the game-changing Sony A7 camera, the Sony A7III is lightweight yet packs a punch. With 4K HDR video, this camera is often used to capture videos of the Northern Lights. Right now, you can find it on sale for 17% off at Amazon. Check out our Sony A7III review .

Unprecedented solar storms

The intense auroras were spawned by a series of massive solar flares and coronal mass ejections that erupted from the sun earlier this week, flinging wave after wave of charged solar particles toward Earth. Those particles slammed into Earth's magnetic field Friday, triggering what space weather scientists called a level G5 geomagnetic storm — something Earth has not seen since the truly epic solar storms of Halloween 2003 .

"The reason for all this, well, there's been two sunspot clusters, one in the northern hemisphere of the sun, one in the southern hemisphere of the sun," Dahl said Friday. Those sunspot groups, one of which is now 17 times the width of Earth , have been unleashing the strongest solar flares since at least 2017 this week. In fact, the sun fired off another massive X5.8 solar flare overnight on Friday, NOAA SWPC officials said. X-class solar flares are the most powerful type of eruption from the sun.

The sun is currently in an extremely active phase of its 11-year solar cycle , and is amid a peak period known as solar maximum in which solar flares and explosive coronal mass ejections can be more frequent.

Related: The worst solar storms in history

Such massive solar flares can trigger radio blackouts and interfere with power systems on Earth, as well as pose a radiation risk to satellites and astronauts in orbit, NOAA officials said, adding that NASA was tracking the event to determine if astronauts would have to take shelter deeper inside the International Space Station . As of early Saturday (May 11), NASA officials had not reported any need for such measures. 

"Because the space station is in low Earth orbit, they do receive protection from our magnetosphere, although they're high enough up there, there are some areas that are vulnerable," SWPC space scientist  Rob Steenburgh told reporters Friday. "We communicate with NASA daily, at least once a day and during events like this multiple times a day to keep them apprised of the evolving space weather situation."

Related: Where and when to see the northern lights in 2024

Northern lights dazzle down to Florida

With such an intense geomagnetic storm, auroras were visible from areas that normally don't see the northern lights. 

" I may write about them a lot but I never once imagined I’d get a northern lights show of this magnitude above my hometown, Nottingham, U.K.," Space.com Reference Editor Daisy Dobrijevic said Friday night. "I've been fortunate to see many northern lights displays but I always say each one is like the first time because they're all different! This was certainly that!"

Related: Northern lights webcams: Watch the aurora borealis online for free

Dobrijevic has observed the northern lights from Sweden in the far north, but Friday night's aurora show in her own backyard was something else entirely. "I've never seen so many vivid colors dancing across the sky," Dobrijevic said. "What a tremendous treat indeed."

Astronomer and avid aurora chaser Tom Kerss managed to capture the northern lights as far south as Florida.

"Never in my life did I imagine I’d capture this! In all my years of aurora-chasing this seemed like the last place I’d ever witness it. The Northern Lights in Florida!" Kerss wrote in a post on X .

🤯 Never in my life did I imagine I’d capture this! In all my years of aurora-chasing this seemed like the last place I’d ever witness it. The Northern Lights in Florida! 🇺🇸 #aurora #solarstorm pic.twitter.com/hYq9NKSNRL May 11, 2024

We had these wonderful images sent in from Kaitlin Moore who saw the northern lights from Madison, Wisconsin. 

"Wisconsin has fared well during this period of solar maximum ; most of the state was able to glimpse the aurora borealis both in April of 2023 and this past evening in May 2024, following a pair of uncommonly powerful coronal mass ejections," Moore told Space.com in an email. 

"Tonight, the possibility of glimpsing the world-wide aurora was thrown into question due to a few hours of thunderstorms soon after sundown. But the weather system was fast-moving, and by midnight the skies were completely clear!" Moore continued.

Even the city's light pollution couldn't deter the incredible light show.

"Even in a light-polluted city, surrounded by interstates and a regional airport, the auroral activity was so strong that gossamer veils of atomic oxygen and nitrogen, the luminescent greens and pinks, were visible even with the naked eye," Moore continued. 

"Stargazers over Lake Mendota watched the crescent moon set over Madison and even glimpsed a small meteor blazing briefly against the glow of ionized gases," Moore said.

The southern lights get supercharged, too

The Northern Hemisphere of Earth isn't the only one getting supercharged auroras. The southern lights (or aurora australis) were also visible for closer to the equator than their usual Antarctic locales, NOAA officials said.  The result was an absolutely spectacular show for those down under! At Lake Ellesmere, outside of Christchurch, New Zealand, AFP photographer Sanka Vidanagama captured absolutely amazing views of auroras ranging from pink and purple to truly jaw-dropping reds and oranges. 

"Absolutely biblical skies in Tasmania at 4am this morning." Photographer Sean O' Riordan wrote in a post on X.  

"I'm leaving today and knew I could not pass up this opportunity for such a large solar storm. Here's the image. I actually had to de-saturate the colours."

Absolutely biblical skies in Tasmania at 4am this morning. I’m leaving today and knew I could not pass up this opportunity for such a large solar storm. Here’s the image. I actually had to de-saturate the colours. Clouds glowing red. Insane. Shot on Nikon. Rt appreciated pic.twitter.com/210hlkmoeg May 10, 2024

— Behemoth sunspot AR3664 unleashes its biggest solar flare yet

— Sun explodes in a flurry of powerful solar flares from hyperactive sunspots (video)

— Wild solar weather is causing satellites to fall. It's going to get worse.  

NOAA officials said the impact of this week's solar flares should amplify the northern lights throughout the weekend, so even if bad weather spoiled your view on Friday night (it was raining in New Jersey for Space.com Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik, for example) you do have more chances. NOAA SWPC officials said the impact of the solar storms could continue through the weekend and well into next week as more solar eruptions occur.

"Nobody should think that the storm is over just because conditions quiet down for a little bit," Dahl said. "It could turn around and be very quick to develop once again."

Editor's note: If you capture a stunning photo or video of the northern lights (or southern lights!) and want to share them with Space.com for a possible story, send images, comments on the view and your location, as well as use permissions to [email protected] .

Space.com Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik contributed to this story from West Orange, New Jersey. Reference Editor Daisy Dobrijevic contributed to this story from Manchester, U.K.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network . To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik .

How a giant sunspot unleashed solar storms that spawned global auroras that just dazzled us all

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• jomamareid I was fortunate enough to have been able to see and get a few photos of the 2003 G5 storm. from Upstate NY Vermont border close to Albany NY. From the pictures and videos I have been seeing from last night this storm has blown away the 2003 storm. of course, digital photography has jumped leaps and bounds since 2003. Unfortunately, it rained here all night but I am grateful for all the millions of people from all over the world. I can't remember a natural happy, event bringing so many people this close together. I still have my fingers crossed for tonight, the is shining today. Thank you, everyone, for the great photos, from this aging man. Now I can die happy Reply
• View All 1 Comment

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It's liftoff: Journey led from Nigeria to Mayo Clinic, then to International Space Station

Abba Zubair grew up in crowded Kano, Nigeria, and though it was the second-largest city in the country, it was still prone to frequent, extended electrical blackouts. For young Zubair, that meant no TV, no radio, but he didn't mind, for with the lights out he could gaze at the vast array of stars that shone in the skies over northern Nigeria.

What's out there, he wondered?

He decided he wanted to see for himself: He would become an astronaut. “I want to go there, and I want to find out," he said.

As a teen, a top student in physics and math, he devoured episodes of the 1970s TV show "Space: 1999." He was studious, with a craving for knowledge. He would go to the British consulate and read journals and encyclopedias, learning everything he could on a variety of topics. And he joined a group of like-minded teens named Nigerian Young Inventors, who built a rocket that could have flown if only they'd had explosives to propel it into the air.

That was all preparation for his astronaut career.

Some 40 years later, on the Jacksonville campus of Mayo Clinic, he chuckled as he looked back fondly on those ambitions, which got knocked down some toward the end of high school.

“My career adviser said, 'Abba, before Nigeria starts sending rockets and having astronauts, it won’t be in your lifetime. 'Find something more down to earth.'” 

More down to earth: He channeled his intelligence and ambition into medicine, a career path that led him to England, Switzerland and the U.S.

Since 2003 he has been at Mayo Clinic , where he is with the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology. As a regenerative medicine expert, he is doing research with a particular interest in finding ways to grow stem cells for eventual clinical use on patients. 

His dream of space is still alive, though, in a research project he led that lifted off on Jan. 30 in a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket bound for the International Space Station.

In the spacecraft's payload were donated adult stem cells, extracted from bone marrow, which astronauts on the space station will use in experiments to assess how the lack of gravity affects bone loss — a condition that would be a particular problem for astronauts on long journeys to, say, Mars.

The study could also have implications for people on Earth with osteoporosis. Zubair and his team hope that what they learn from the weightless experiments will lead to ways to prevent or treat the bone loss that comes with osteoporosis.

The research will be done over two space flights, with the second tentatively scheduled toward the end of the year.

From 2018: Mayo Clinic researchers studying space medicine device

For Zubair, who is 56, it's a way of integrating the two great interests of his life.

“I’m interested in medicine but that’s not my first love," he said. That would, of course, be space. "And then the opportunity to match these together? It’s like a dream come true."

Help for stroke victims?

This current experiment is not the first time his research has taken place in space. In 2017 a rocket carried donated stem cells to the space station to determine if they could be quickly mass-produced in microgravity, with an eye toward using them to help stroke victims by promoting the growth of brain cells.

The research showed, he said, that some types of cells grown without the presence of gravity grew faster, while some grew at the same pace as on Earth. But the cells grown in space seemed to be more "potent," he said, and could be promising for eventual human use.

Bill Nelson: Future of space is in Jacksonville, as local firm Redwire works on NASA mission

That mission had a particular personal resonance for Zubair. His mother died of stroke complications when he was in the U.S., just after getting his PhD.

“This was her proudest moment and then suddenly she passed away," he said. "I really don’t want this to happen to anybody else.”  

From Nigeria to Canaveral

On Jan. 30, Zubair was at Cape Canaveral to watch the rocket take off with his project, just as he did for the 2017 flight.

"Now, my feeling is a piece of me, going into space," he said in a video Mayo made about that earlier project.

Though he never became an astronaut, Zubair has had a couple of experiences that gave him a real feeling for what it might be like in space. He's flown on two zero-gravity flights, one from Orlando and another from Cape Canaveral, that simulated weightlessness.

He laughed as he told how he had to learn to control his limbs — and how he quickly figured out how to float, weightless, from one place another.

"It was the best thing I did in my life," he said. “You fly like a bird. I mean, it's just unbelievable. There’s nothing in life — you can’t imagine it until you experience it.” 

He recognizes what a journey his life has been, all the turns that led him to where he is now. He tells how his life was transformed after his father died of cancer when Zubair was just 5. In his culture, he said, it was tradition for children in such a situation to live with their father's side of the family so, while he stayed close to his mother, he was sent to live with an uncle.

It was a large family, and young Zubair was often left to his own devices. "Nobody was really responsible for me. I had to fend for myself," he said.

He could have easily gone astray, but he found his way in study and dreams and those old heavy encyclopedias at the British consulate — the start of a winding path that led him to Jacksonville, and eventually, to outer space.

“It’s still so unreal, from where I started, and the thought of space, and where we are now," Zubair said. "I never thought I would be where I am."

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Businesses are invited to join the space revolution

Companies are being encouraged to join a dynamic programme which unlocks the potential of space for businesses.

The University of Leicester’s £100 million science and innovation park, Space Park Leicester , offers the European Space Agency – Business Incubation Centre (ESA BIC UK) programme which helps SMEs to develop technologies for the space sector.

The programme is for firms working in the industry or those considering developing new products and services for the sector and its next deadline for submissions is in September.

Space Park Leicester Head of Commercial and Innovation Vinay Patel said: “Whether firms are developing satellite communication tools, earth observation technologies or leveraging space assets for terrestrial applications, ESA BIC at Space Park Leicester provides the perfect platform to launch their venture.

“By joining this prestigious programme, businesses gain access to world-class facilities, expert business and intellectual property support as well as financial support to turn their innovative ideas into a commercial reality.”

Organisations which have previously benefitted from the programme at Space Park Leicester include carbon insurance specialist Kita Earth.

By introducing carbon insurance, Kita aims to de-risk carbon credit transactions and thereby encourage more investment into carbon removal projects which will result in less CO2 in the atmosphere.

Kita Earth CTO and Co-Founder Paul Young said: “The carbon markets are relatively new, and there is a lack of historical data. This can make it challenging to model performance and therefore underwrite insurance. 

“In order to create accurate risk models, we were supported by ESA BIC to undertake research, testing and refinement of our risk models.

“Furthermore, the credibility that came from our association with ESA helped us to create momentum in our marketing and fundraising and secure our crucial Lloyd’s coverholder status and our nomination for the Earthshot prize as well as other successes.”

Successful ESA BIC applicants receive a range of support, including up to 80 hours of business coaching, 50 hours of technical support from University of Leicester Space and Earth Observation scientists and 10 hours of Intellectual Property Rights advice.

They also have access to the state-of-the-art co-working space at Space Park Leicester and receive three incentive grant payments totalling €60,000.

  The ESA BIC application process is open three times a year and the next deadline for submissions will be in September. Applicants are invited to submit a business proposal outlining their idea and how it connects to space technology.

To learn more about ESA BIC, visit the Space Park Leicester website or contact Vinay Patel at [email protected]  

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Treasure Hunters Found the Indian Titanic’s $43 Million Fortune. Then, They Lost It All.

What began as a triumphant salvage operation turned into a bitter dispute with a brutal end.

A sunken treasure’s destiny, long disputed in courtrooms instead of the high seas, has finally been settled.

On May 8, the U.K. Supreme Court (UKSC) awarded the Republic of South Africa the rights to a World War II-era shipwreck, colloquially known as the “Indian Titanic,” and its treasure trove of silver bullion worth an estimated $43 million.

The decision concludes a bitter legal battle between South Africa and Argentum Exploration Ltd., a marine salvage company, over the sunken vessel that has captivated maritime treasure hunters for years. Now, with ownership finally decided, it wraps up a saga marked with legal strife, historical mysteries, and a massive fortune lying silently beneath the sea.

What Was the “Indian Titanic”?

On November 23, 1942, a day marked by significant WWII events including Operation Uranus and the sinking of the SS Benlomond , the lesser-known tragedy of the SS Tilawa also unfolded as it sank to the bottom of the ocean.

The SS Tilawa wasn’t a military vessel, but rather, a passenger cargo ship, hauling 222 crew members and 732 passengers, as well as four artillerymen and 6,000 tons of cargo, including the silver bullion.

Departing from Bombay (now Mumbai), the SS Tilawa was en route to Durban, South Africa, carrying bullion meant to be made into coin by the South African mint, but it never reached its destination. Instead, near the Seychelles Islands, the Tilawa was struck by two torpedoes, an hour apart, fired by the Imperial Japanese Navy’s I-29 submarine. The ship sunk after the second torpedo hit, taking with it 280 of its occupants. The rest of those aboard were adrift for two days before the HMS Birmingham arrived and rescued 674 survivors.

The SS Tilawa took on the nickname the “Indian Titanic,” in reference to the infamous 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic , which resulted in approximately 1,500 deaths. According to tilawa1942 , the Tilawa is believed to be “the only passenger cargo liner attacked in the Indian Ocean during the Second World War.”

The Recovery of the Wreckage

In 2017, 75 years after the SS Tilawa sank, the ship’s precious silver cargo was finally retrieved. British race car driver Ross Hyett, who founded Argentum Exploration Ltd. in 2012 with the goal of uncovering wartime wrecks laden with sunken treasures, was instrumental in the recovery. That July, Hyett’s company enlisted the help of Advanced Maritime Services (AMS) to embark on the ambitious quest to find the Tilawa ’s remains.

It took AMS about two years to accurately locate the wreckage site of the Tilawa , according to a 2021 article in Baird Maritime . AMS then used a sophisticated, high-tech approach to carry out the salvage operation.

Enter the Seabed Worker . The Norwegian multipurpose sea vessel, which was previously used to locate the black boxes of Air France Flight 447 , plumbed the depths of the Indian Ocean to recover the silver bullion from the SS Tilawa . It took six months to pull 2,364 bars of silver from approximately 3,500 meters deep, according to Baird Maritime .

Retrieving the silver from the ocean’s depths was the easy part. Bringing the bounty back home was much more difficult, especially as the salvage crew navigated under the mistaken belief of rightful ownership. They thought that the silver bullion was insured by the British Government, since that’s what was advertised to investors back in 2012. So the Seabed Worker , and its companion vessel, the Pacific Askari , had to strategically navigate the route back to the U.K.

To bypass the Suez Canal and South African territory, the vessels took a detour through the Seychelles and around the Cape of Good Hope, arriving in Southampton on October 2, 2017. Baird Maritime details that the silver bars were temporarily submerged at sea near the Seychelles and just outside South Africa’s territorial waters for transshipment onto the Pacific Askari , a tactic used to avoid being seized within territorial boundaries.

Once the vessels arrived at Southampton, Argentum made its claim with the Receiver of Wreck, presumably assuming the hardest part was over. But the Republic of South Africa, which had been in negotiations with a different firm to salvage the silver from the wreckage, stepped forward to stake its own claim.

A Bitter Legal Battle

Argentum asserted its rights as the salvor of the SS Tilawa silver, arguing it was entitled to compensation for recovering the precious metal from the ocean floor. The UKSC press summary explains the claim:

“Under maritime law, it is possible to make a claim for voluntary salvage, which means a salvor can make a claim regardless of whether the owner of the property requested or consented to the salvage operation. In this case, Argentum had retrieved the Silver without any prior agreement with South Africa, so its claim was for voluntary salvage.”

South Africa maintained throughout legal proceedings in the High Court, Court of Appeals, and finally the Supreme Court, that it was exempt from being sued based on “the principle of state immunity.” Argentum, meanwhile, countered that South Africa did not qualify for immunity, arguing that an exception within the State Immunity Act 1978 should apply.

The High Court and Court of Appeals initially ruled in favor of Argentum, recognizing its claim, but the UKSC unanimously overturned these decisions, siding with South Africa by stating the silver was intended for the sovereign act of minting currency and dismissing the argument that the silver was “in use” during transit, clarifying that cargo in a ship’s hold is not actively serving any purpose.

The Forgotten Tragedy

Outside the confines of the courtroom, the case shines a light on what tilawa1942 calls “The Forgotten Tragedy,” drawing renewed interest to the tale of the “Indian Titanic.” Could it help unravel some of the ship’s enduring mysteries posed by the website, like whether or not Japan knew there was precious cargo aboard the SS Tilawa , or why the ship didn’t have an escort, and its route wasn’t patrolled for enemy attack?

As the 82nd anniversary of the Tilawa’ s sinking approaches, the remaining questions surrounding the ship’s fate may prove more profound than the legal battle over who is entitled to the silver that once lay in its wreckage.

Michael Natale is the news editor for Best Products , covering a wide range of topics like gifting, lifestyle, pop culture, and more. He has covered pop culture and commerce professionally for over a decade. His past journalistic writing can be found on sites such as Yahoo! and Comic Book Resources , his podcast appearances can be found wherever you get your podcasts, and his fiction can’t be found anywhere, because it’s not particularly good. 

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Nasa awards expand research capabilities at institutions nationwide.

Tiernan P. Doyle

Nasa headquarters.

NASA is awarding approximately $45 million to 21 higher-education institutions to help build capacity for research. The awards were made possible through the Minority University Research and Education Project Institutional Research Opportunity (MIRO) and Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) grants, which are funded by the agency’s Office of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Engagement.

“NASA’s Minority University Research and Education Project Institutional Research Opportunity and Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research awards help institutions raise their technological bar,” said Torry Johnson, deputy associate administrator of STEM Engagement Programs at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “When institutions enhance their capabilities and infrastructure, they become more competitive in their research, which opens doors to valuable experience and opportunities.”

Minority University Research and Education Project Institutional Research Opportunity (MIRO) Awards

Seven minority-serving institutions will receive approximately $5 million each over a five-year period of performance for projects that span a variety of research topics. The institutions and their proposed projects are:

• Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage – Alaska Pacific University Microplastics Research and Education Center
• California State University in Fullerton – SpaceIgnite Center for Advanced Research-Education in Combustion
• City University of New York, Hunter College in New York – NASA-Hunter College Center for Advanced Energy Storage for Space
• Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in Tallahassee – Integrative Space Additive Manufacturing: Opportunities for Workforce-Development in NASA Related Materials Research and Education
• New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark – AI Powered Solar Eruption Center of Excellence in Research and Education
• University of Houston in Houston – NASA MIRO Inflatable Deployable Environment and Adaptive Space Systems Center
• University of Illinois in Chicago – Center for In-Space Manufacturing: Recycling and Regolith Processing

NASA’s MIRO award was established to strengthen and develop research capacity and infrastructure of minority serving institutions in areas of strategic importance and value to NASA missions and national priorities.

Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) Award

NASA establishes partnerships with government, higher education, and industry to create lasting improvements in research infrastructure and capacity for specific states or regions, while enhancing its national research and development competitiveness. The program is directed at those jurisdictions that have traditionally not participated in competitive aerospace and aerospace-related research activities.

NASA will award 14 institutions up to $750,000 each over the course of a three-year period of performance. The awarded institutions and their projects are:

• University of Mississippi in University – Development of a Lagrangian Stability Analysis Framework for High-Speed Boundary Layers
• University of Alabama in Huntsville – Testing the functionality and performance of a large area detector for STROBE-X
• Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge – Colloidal Assembly: Understanding the Electric Field Driven Assembly of Colloids and its Applications (Science Mission Directorate)
• West Virginia University in Morgantown – Science Mission Directorate: Bringing Gravitational-Wave Astronomy into the Space Age: Next-Generation Waveform Modeling of Black-Hole Binary Coalescences for Laser Intererometer Space Antenna Data Analysis
• University of Puerto Rico in San Juan – NASA EPSCoR: Space Technology Mission Directorate/Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Advancing High-Energy, Cycle-Stable Sulfur-Based Batteries for NASA Space Missions: An Integrated Framework of Density Functional Theory, Machine Learning, and Materials Innovation
• Desert Research Institute, Reno, Nevada – NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California: Prospecting and Pre-Colonization of the Moon and Mars using Autonomous Robots with Human-In-The-Loop
• Oklahoma State University in Stillwater – A.7.4.2 Biosignature Detection of Solar System Ocean Worlds using Science-Guided Machine Learning
• Iowa State University in Ames – Johnson Space Center, Ames Research Center: Non-GPS Navigation System Using Dual Star/Planetary Cameras for Lunar and Deep-Space CubeSat Missions
• University of Alaska Fairbanks in Fairbanks – NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland: The Alaska – Venus analog: synthesizing seismic ground motion and wind noise in extreme environments
• University of the Virgin Islands in Charlotte Amalie – University of the Virgin Islands Etelman Observatory in the Era of Time Domain and MultiMessenger Astronomy: Preparing for a New Era of Science Productivity
• University of Hawaii at Manoa in Honolulu – Cubesats for Climate Change Detection of Transient Greenhouse Gas Emissions
• University of Idaho in Moscow – Science Mission Directorate and Goddard Space Flight Center: Improving Global Dryland Streamflow Modeling by Better Characterizing Vegetation Use of Deep-Water Resources Using NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment/Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On, SWOT, and Land Information System
• University of Arkansas in Little Rock – AR- III-Nitride Ultraviolet Laser Diodes for Harsh Environments, Space Based Communications, and Remote Sensing (Space Technology Mission Directorate)
• South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City – Science Mission Directorate: High Spatial-Temporal Resolution Soil Moisture Retrieval using Deep Learning Fusion of Multimodal Satellite Datastreams

Both awards were made through NASA’s Office of STEM engagement solicitations. They promote STEM literacy to enhance and sustain the capability of institutions to perform NASA-related research and education, which directly supports the agency’s mission directorates.

For more information about NASA STEM, visit:

https://stem.nasa.gov

Gerelle Dodson Headquarters, Washington 202-358-4637 [email protected]

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