Safety Net Creator Playbook Trending Now Mashable Selects Look Up Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Getting Technical with Mashable Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Say More Versus In My Bag Mashable @Home All Series Turns out there are more places to explore on the moon than just the south pole. Elisha Sauers writes about space for Mashable, taking deep dives into NASA's moon and Mars missions, chatting up astronauts and history-making discoverers, and jetting above the clouds . Through 17 years of reporting, she's covered a variety of topics, including health, business, and government, with a penchant for public records requests. She previously worked for in Norfolk, Virginia, and in Annapolis, Maryland. Her work has earned numerous state awards, including the Virginia Press Association's top honor, Best in Show, and national recognition for narrative storytelling.

Artemis III Scientist Shares What to Expect From NASA's Next Lunar Mission Though scaled back from initial plans of landing, the voyage will serve as a dress rehearsal for when humans return to the moon's surface. "If you just want to take pictures, you do that with robots. With the Artemis missions, we're trying to use the humans to their best capability," says Artemis III scientist Barbara Cohen. For years, NASA hoped to bring humans back to the moon's surface, and Artemis III was going to be the mission to accomplish this feat. That will no longer be the case.

There are just a few obstacles in the way. Welcome to the second space race. You can be forgiven for experiencing déjà vu. Last time, it was the Soviet Union and the United States vying to be the first to plant some flags. And this time it looks like they're getting ready to set up camp. There will be, the contenders say, bases on the moon, permanently inhabited castles under the stars. The notion of a moon base, fanciful as it might sound, isn't new. But this year, under the leadership of Administrator Jared Isaacman, NASA has been flooding the zone with bold announcements . If all goes according to plan--a plan that will likely cost tens of billions of dollars to start--there will be drones, robotic landers, communication satellites, and a nuclear power plant; there will be plant terrariums and moonquake sensors; there will be mechanized scouts exploring craters for water. NASA is building the first nuclear reactor-powered interplanetary spacecraft. Initial astronaut missions to the lunar surface, which the US is currently planning to start in 2028, will be focused on exploration and technological experimentation. But the idea is that we will--some time in the 2030s--get to a point where there will be habitation quarters for long-term stays, surrounded by a network of scientific research stations, resource mining and processing plants, and landing pads for spaceships.

Look Up Say More Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Mashable @Home Trending Now Mashable Selects Top creators, ranked Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Creator Playbook In My Bag AI at School Safety Net All Series Elisha Sauers writes about space for Mashable, taking deep dives into NASA's moon and Mars missions, chatting up astronauts and history-making discoverers, and jetting above the clouds . Through 17 years of reporting, she's covered a variety of topics, including health, business, and government, with a penchant for public records requests. She previously worked for in Norfolk, Virginia, and in Annapolis, Maryland. Her work has earned numerous state awards, including the Virginia Press Association's top honor, Best in Show, and national recognition for narrative storytelling. For each year she has covered space, Sauers has won National Headliner Awards, including first place for her Sex in Space series.

Science Space Solar System Moons NASA shares Artemis II astronauts' handwritten mission notes Even astronauts need to jot down their thoughts. More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results. In this handout image provided by NASA, Artemis II commander and NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman looks out one of the Orion spacecraft's main cabin windows at the Moon ahead of the crew's lunar flyby on April 6, 2026. Successfully sending Artemis II astronauts on their historic lunar flyby earlier this year required some of the latest and most precise technologies, but not everything in this mission needed the same intense equipment. As crewmates gazed through Orion's capsule window at the moon's eclipse of the sun on April 6, 2026, three of the travelers needed a way to easily sketch some of their preliminary observations.

More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results. NASA has been working on bipedal robots for over a decade. Valkrie, its early prototype, was completed in 2013. Humans won't be the only ones aboard future NASA missions . At Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, researchers on the agency's Dexterous Robotics Team are working on the next generation of advanced robots to aid crews during their increasingly uncharted journeys to the moon and possibly even Mars .

Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Mashable Selects Look Up Say More Safety Net Versus Creator Playbook In My Bag Trending Now Back to School Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age Switch Off All Series This mission apparently has some catching up to do. Elisha Sauers writes about space for Mashable, taking deep dives into NASA's moon and Mars missions, chatting up astronauts and history-making discoverers, and jetting above the clouds . Through 17 years of reporting, she's covered a variety of topics, including health, business, and government, with a penchant for public records requests. She previously worked for in Norfolk, Virginia, and in Annapolis, Maryland. Her work has earned numerous state awards, including the Virginia Press Association's top honor, Best in Show, and national recognition for narrative storytelling.

In the early 20th century, public outcry following Upton Sinclair's led to stricter food safety protocols. NASA took them a step further. In 1906, in response to public outcry that came after Upton Sinclair's detailed the revolting conditions in Chicago's meatpacking plants, the US government passed the Federal Meat Inspection Act. The legislation created what would become known as the Food Safety and Inspection Service, a force of federal employees who would spend their days in stockyards and packing plants, checking livestock for disease both before and after their slaughter. They did their work organoleptically--with their eyes, noses, and hands--an approach soon dubbed "poke and sniff."

To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. For the sixth time in history, a team of two women completed a spacewalk outside the International Space Station. Nasa astronaut Jessica Meir and French astronaut Sophie Adenot suited up for a 6.5-hour spacewalk. Meir rode the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm to the worksites, while Adenot remained tethered to the station. Meir previously made history in 2019 when she and Nasa astronaut Christina Koch completed the first ever all-female spacewalk.

Gateway spaceport will make Earth's air traffic control look easy. More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results. The Gateway space station will be humanity's first space station around the Moon as a vital component of the Artemis missions to return humans to the lunar surface for scientific discovery and chart the path for the first human missions to Mars. Astronauts on Gateway will be the first humans to call deep space home during missions where they will use Gateway to conduct science and prepare for lunar surface missions. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week.