Space News

Scientists are developing an advanced quantum sensor for low Earth orbit that can detect the tiniest tremors in Earth's gravity.

What can Helium-3 (3He) being discharged from the Sun teach us about 3He creation and the Sun's activity? This is what a recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal hopes to address as an international team of re...

Landing off the coast of the Bahamas offers SpaceX new rocket flight trajectories.

NASA's PUNCH sun-studying mission has seen first light -- and the team says all four instruments are indeed working as expected.

The Mandalorian's next chapter will blast into theaters in 2026, and we're learning more about its characters and story.

This newly reprocessed image released on April 18, 2025, provides a new view of an enormous, 9.5-light-year-tall pillar of cold gas and dust. Despite its size, it's just one small piece of the greater Eagle Nebula, also ...

According to a recent study by the non-profit Explore Titan, a nuclear-fission propulsion spacecraft could enable the first crewed mission to Titan, Saturn's largest moon.

Learn more about who Suni Williams is and what her contributions have looked like throughout her career in space.

In our neighborhood of the Milky Way, we see a region surrounding the solar system that is far less dense than average. But that space, that cavity, is a very irregular, elongated shape. What little material is left insi...

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will have to recover from their time in space. Learn more about what happens to the human body when they live in microgravity for months.

Astronomers have stumbled upon yet another ghostly galaxy that appears to be devoid of dark matter, the elusive stuff that makes up most of the material universe.

A new portrait of a pillar of gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula is a reason to celebrate.

Two NASA astronauts will venture outside the International Space Station, conducting U.S. spacewalk 93 on Thursday, May 1, to complete station upgrades. NASA will preview the upcoming spacewalk during a news conference a...

We've seen Darth Maul, the horned Sith lord, die, resurrect, and die again, but how did his criminal empire rise and fall? Star Wars' next animated show aims to answer that.

Back to ECF Home Transformational Advanced Energetic Propulsion Power Systems to Enable Small System Operations in Permanently Shadowed Lunar Regions

ECF 2024 Quadchart Yang.pdf Shuolong Yang University of Chicago This effort will leverage the latest developments in superconductors to build a power transmission cable that can operate in the extreme cold temperatures f...

ECF 2024 Quadchart McGuirk.pdf Christopher McGuirk Colorado School of Mines This project will investigate and develop improved storage methods for the fuels needed to generate electrical power in places where sunlight is...

ECF 2024 Quadchart Boles.pdf Jessica Boles University of California, Berkeley This project will develop piezoelectric-based power conversion for small power systems on the lunar surface. These piezoelectric systems can p...

ECF 2024 Quadchart Arya.pdf Manan Arya Stanford University This grant will design and develop lightweight, low-cost modular solar reflectors that can be stowed for transport in a compact volume. These reflectors can pote...

For scientists who want to learn about the geological history of a planet, river deltas are a great place to start. Deltas gather sediment from a large area into one place, which can be studied to reveal climate and tect...

ECF 2024 Quadchart Underwood.pdf Thomas Underwood University of Texas, Austin This project will demonstrate a fusion propulsion system based on z-pinch which is a method of compressing plasma by running electrical curren...

ECF 2024 Quadchart Oguri.pdf Kenshiro Oguri Purdue University This project will investigate one of the key fundamental challenges associated with directed-energy light-sailing technology, similar to solar sails but power...