If you’ve been listening to Daft Punk’s new album Random Access Memories lately, you may have noticed that at the start of the song Contact there’s an astronaut talking about some sort of UFO in space. Who’s talking, and is it a genuine transcript?

Well, apparently Daft Punk actually asked for a transcript to use at the start of the song, so NASA gave them this excerpt from the Apollo 17 mission. The person talking in the song is Gene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17, as he along with fellow astronauts Jack Schmitt and Ronald made their way to the Moon in December 1972. Here’s the quote in full:

Cernan: “Hey Bob I’m looking at what Jack was talking about and it’s definitely not a particle that’s nearby. It is a bright object and it’s obviously rotating because it’s flashing, it’s way out in the distance, certainly rotating in a very rhythmic fashion because the flashes come around almost on time. As we look back at the earth it’s up at about 11 o’clock, about maybe ten or twelve diame…Earth diameters. I don’t know whether that does you any good, but there’s something out there.”

(Note: “Particle” was a term used by Apollo astronauts to denote something in space other than their own spacecraft)

Of course, the transcript taken out of context seems to indicate something mysterious going on. Has Gene spotted some sort of UFO? Have Daft Punk uncovered a secretive NASA transcript that indicates the presence of alien life?

Sadly, no, and the answer is slightly more mundane than you might have hoped (although still pretty cool if you think about it).

As the Apollo 17 spacecraft made its way to the Moon, it had discarded an upper stage of the Saturn V rocket that lifted it into space. Known as the S-IVB, this piece of the rocket remained on a similar trajectory to Apollo 17 until the lunar astronauts began their manoeuvres to get into lunar orbit.

So, what Gene was seeing was likely this discarded S-IVB stage of the rocket rotating in space, reflecting sunlight and appearing to flash. It may also have been a panel from the rocket itself, but whatever it was, it was definitely manmade.

The ‘Bob’ Gene refers to is Robert Parker, who was serving as the CAPCOM (Capsule Communicator) for the Apollo 17 mission.

Here’s some more of the transcript that’s not included in the song:

Cernan: “One unique thing about it, Bob, is that it’s got two flashes. As it comes around in rhythmic fashion, you get a very bright flash, and then you get a dull flash. And then it’ll come around with a bright flash, and then a dull flash.”

Schmitt: “That’s the side of the S-IVB and then the engine bell, Gene.”

Cernan wasn’t entirely convinced of Schmitt’s convictions however, and later he said:

“Hey, Bob, we got two of those flashers out there. They could be SLA [Spacecraft Lunar Module Adapter] panels. I don’t know. They’re alike in intensity and pretty regular in the bright and dim flashes they come out with, and they’re widely separated.”

So, ultimately, it was likely just a piece of the Saturn V rocket or Apollo spacecraft drifting alongside the crew. Buzz Aldrin actually noticed something similar on the Apollo 11 mission, which he was later wildly misquoted on.

Images courtesy of Fabio Venni (top) and NASA (bottom)

It’s the fastest spacecraft ever launched

New Horizons entered directly into an Earth and Sun escape trajectory after launching on 19 January 2006 at a velocity of 58,536 km/h (36,373 mph), making it the fastest spacecraft to ever leave Earth orbit, 100 times faster than a jetliner.

It’s now the closest manmade object to Pluto (and it’s getting closer)

Until 2 December 2011 the Voyager 1 spacecraft held the “record” for the closest approach to Pluto, a mammoth 10.58 times further than the Earth-Sun distance. New Horizons is now within this record.

Its journey is almost equal to 32 trips between the Earth and the Sun

On 14 July 2015 – 3,462 days after launching and having travelled 4.76 billion kilometres (2.96 billion miles) – New Horizons will become the first probe ever to flyby Pluto. It will observe the once ninth planet of the Solar System for several weeks.

It could hit a hidden Plutonian moon

Five known moons are known to currently be in orbit around Pluto, but three of these were discovered in just the last couple of years. Pluto may have more unknown hidden moons, or other objects like asteroids, that could pose a threat to New Horizons as it approaches.

Its mission will continue beyond Pluto

New Horizons will use Pluto’s gravity to give it an additional speed boost to make its way into the outer Solar System. Here it will observe Kuiper Belt Objects, if there are any around, until 2020. The mission will officially end in 2026.

Image courtesy of John Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/NASA

From the early days of NASA there are many names that elicit great admiration, from Armstrong to von Braun. But perhaps none is as underappreciated as that of Hugh L. Dryden who, unbeknownst to many, quietly and steadfastly dictated the rise of NASA up until his last days and ensured that the agency would have a sound footing to stand on.

Hugh Latimer Dryden was born on 2 July 1898 in Maryland, USA where he spent the majority of his youth, moving from Pocomoke City to Baltimore during the financial crisis of 1907 when his father lost his job. From an early age it was apparent that Dryden was gifted; he excelled at mathematics and graduated from high school at the age of just 14. By the age of 22, he held a Ph.D. in physics and mathematics and was the director of the Aerodynamics Division at the National Bureau of Standards.

His aptitude with mathematics and aerodynamics saw him become a member of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the precursor agency to NASA, in 1939, and ten years later he was NACA’s director. During his time at NACA he oversaw, amongst other things, the hugely successful X-15 rocket plane programme.

With the launch of the Soviet Sputnik 1 satellite on 4 October 1957 the American space programme, and the lack of a dedicated space agency, shot to the top of the national agenda. Dryden was vilified in the press for allowing the Soviets to beat the Americans into space, something that had been completely out of his control. Over the next 12 months, while the appropriate response to Sputnik 1 was decided upon, Dryden would ultimately be deprived of his desired role of leadership at the new American space agency despite his obvious qualifications and experience.

His disappointment was all the greater as he had been pivotal in the creation of this new agency. In 1958 many existing governmental agencies, including the Air Force and the Army, were vying for control of the nation’s space missions, but Dryden lobbied extensively for NACA to form the core of a civilian space agency rather than a militaristic one. On 1 October 1958 his efforts proved successful with NACA becoming the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA. President Eisenhower, however, nominated the then President of the Case Institute of Technology Thomas Glennan, rather than Dryden, as NASA’s first Administrator. Glennan accepted on one condition: that Hugh L. Dryden served as his deputy.

Glennan relied hugely on Dryden, as he not only knew every faucet of the former NACA but also had contacts around the world. Dryden oversaw the transformation of NACA into a national space agency, acquiring many programmes from elsewhere to ensure that NASA would become a worldwide leader in space exploration including the Air Force’s F-1 rocket engine and the Saturn rocket programme. His aim was to achieve three goals for NASA: scientific missions, satellite programmes and manned exploration. He also recognised the importance of international cooperation rather than competition and held talks with the UK, Canada and even the Soviet Union.

He worked tirelessly behind the scenes while Glennan, and later James Webb, took both the flak and the praise from the public as Administrator, ensuring that NASA was ready for its first manned space programme Project Mercury and, ultimately, the manned Apollo missions to the Moon. Having hidden an illness for many years, however, he eventually died of cancer on 2 December 1965 before he could see the fruits of his labours when the first Moon landings began. On 26 March 1976, the NASA Flight Research Center was renamed the NASA Hugh L. Dryden Flight Research Center in his honour, a lasting legacy to the man without whom NASA as we know it today would not have existed.

Images courtesy of NASA

For a number of reasons, one of which is that space still isn’t cold enough! Certain satellites often need cooling in space to work properly, the Herschel Space Telescope (pictured above) is a prime example of this. This telescope detects infrared radiation. This type of radiation is associated with heat so any sources of heat can be detected.

It is often said that space is very cold and this means that the concept of needing to cool something in space seems bizarre. The issue originates from two main reasons. The first is that space is practically empty so as heat radiation travels it doesn’t disperse much and heats the first thing it comes in contact with. This is how the Sun can warm up the Earth despite being such a long way away. Satellites that need to be cooled counteract this by using a sunshield, this can block the infrared radiation reaching the sensitive instruments.

The other problem is the electronics on board. Much of the circuitry onboard generates heat, so the satellite will slowly warm itself up during operation. If the lenses and sensors of a telescope are warm they create a lot of interference and noise when trying to detect faint signals. To prevent this many satellites are actively cooled, this keeps the equipment cool enough that it generates minimal infrared radiation. The ensures the maximum impact from any telescope.

Answered by Josh Barker from the National Space Centre

Image courtesy of ESA

Asked by Moe Webster

It’s one theory on how the universe will end: the ‘Heat Death’ – also known as the ‘Big Freeze’ or the ‘Big Chill’ – has been suggested as one of the ways in which the cosmos could come to an end, especially since it’s ever expanding.

The idea of heat death actually originates from the second law of thermodynamics – that’s that idea that entropy increases in an isolated system (this system being the universe). Entropy, which is the number of ways in which a system can be arranged should never decrease, evolving to a state of maximum disorder (or thermodynamic equilibrium). When this happens, all energy will be evenly distributed throughout the cosmos, leaving no room for any reusable energy or heat to burst into existence. Processes that consume energy, which includes our very living on Earth, would cease.

You might think that Heat Death implies some astronomically high temperature that snubs everything out. However British physicist Lord Kelvin, who proposed the idea in the 1850s, referred to the loss of mechanical energy as the theory of heat. In fact, it has been suggest that the more the Universe expands, the cooler it gets.

We’re looking at a continual expansion of the universe, according to readings of the Cosmic Microwave Background, but at a decreasing rate and it looks likely that the cosmos will end in a Heat Death. Not to worry though; our universe will continue to produce entropy for a while yet!

Image courtesy of ESA

The Kepler mission, launched 7 March 2009, has been a huge success for NASA. But yesterday one of its four reaction wheels failed and, coupled with a similar failure in another wheel last year, the chances of it continuing operations are in the balance. We spoke to Project Scientist on the Kepler mission Dr. Steve Howell about whether we can recover it, what the mission has taught us and what planet hunting will be like after Kepler.

What are the reaction wheels?

“Kepler, like almost every spacecraft, points to a position in the sky using these things called reactions wheels. They’re devices that are about the size of an American dime, very small little wheels, but they spin at a high rate and because you’re in space you can use these wheels to move the telescope in different directions and keep it pointed very precisely. And Kepler was launched with four of those like most spacecraft.”

So what’s gone wrong?

“One of those reaction wheels failed in July of last year, and a second one appears to have failed two days ago. So right now what that means is that Kepler is in this sort of holding pattern out in space, what we call a safe mode pattern, and it’s just sort of sitting there using its thrusters to keep it from going crazy or rolling or tumbling or something. But we have to asses what’s going on with these reaction wheels, see if there’s a possibility of maybe restarting the one that died last year. We just don’t know what the options are. Unfortunately, without those reaction wheels it’s unlikely that we’ll be able to point the telescope incredibly precisely, which is what we need for most of the work we do.”

How likely is it that Kepler can be saved?

“Well, we don’t really know. When the wheel failed last summer we just immediately turned it off because we had three good wheels left and at that time we didn’t need it, so we didn’t really spend a lot of time investigating what the apparent failure was. So it could be that we can run it at a higher torque, we can put more power into it, or we could run it in the other direction if it helps or something like that, we just don’t really know. The jury is still about 50-50 whether there is any shot at restarting that wheel, so we’ll just have to wait and see.”

What’s the mood like on the team at the moment?

“You know, it’s been a real mixed bag. We clearly are sad at the loss and we’ve all been bemoaning that we had great hopes for more data and all that, but at the same time we have to celebrate the success and we have to look at the fact that it’s been a great mission even if Kepler does nothing more. And yet we still have more to do, we know that there’s a goldmine of information that we’re going to get from the data we have. So it’s been a mixed couple of days.”

How big of a loss will it be if Kepler can’t be saved?

“It’s certainly a loss in that the data collection part of Kepler itself as a telescope will probably be over. Even if there’s some sort other repurposing we can do to the telescope it’s very unlikely the science data will be of the same high quality we need to find very small planets around other stars. So that part is definitely a loss. However, at the same time we have to remember that we have so much data already, and we also have about a year and a half of data that we haven’t even looked through yet. So if it turns out we can’t get any more data from Kepler we can concentrate on the data we have in hand and we have another year or two of work just to plow through all that.”

Can Kepler be replaced?

“That’s a question lots of people have asked. When a space mission eventually dies somehow, all the people that loved that mission say ‘just build another, we know it works!’ But NASA doesn’t work that way and I think there’s a good reason for that. Kepler’s been a great success, it was a mission to find whether planets, especially small ones, are common or not, and so far we know already from the data we have that small planets are everywhere. Most stars have planets and most of these planets are small planets. So the next step is to work out if we can actually learn more about these planets now, can we characterise them and find ones that are very close to our Solar System in astronomy terms. So NASA will move on to other mission and the scientists will want to move on to other science.”

What other missions will we be seeing in the next few years?

“They’re working now on a mission called TESS [Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite], and that mission will basically do transit photometry like Kepler but will look at very nearby stars, things that are a few tens of light-years from Earth. I know that still sounds far, but Kepler’s typical planet is 1,000 light-years or more. So these are relatively nearby stars and planets that the next mission will find. And then there will be planets that the JWST [James Webb Space Telescope] can possibly get an image of or information about saying oh, it has an atmosphere, it has oxygen in its atmosphere, things like that. So it’s a progression, and Kepler’s certainly been a great first step, but building another Kepler is not going to happen.”

Images courtesy of NASA and the Kepler team

In 1971 the Soviet Union launched the world’s first space station, Salyut 1, to global acclaim. Not one to be ousted by the USSR, NASA already had plans in the works to outdo the Soviets with a bigger and better station that would lay the groundwork for future space stations including Mir and the ISS. Enter Skylab, NASA’s pioneering space station of the Seventies.

During the Fifties rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, alongside other space visionaries, outlined his plan to build a giant rotating space habitat that would house many people in orbit. The proposal, although ambitious, was seriously considered by NASA and other agencies as a means to explore beyond Earth orbit, specifically the Moon. Following the creation of Project Apollo, however, which did not require in-orbit assembly, von Braun’s ambitious plans were scrapped.

NASA, however, still saw the benefits of launching a space station, especially for scientific purposes and to ascertain the ability of humans to operate for a prolonged period in space. Thus, in 1963, NASA and the Department of Defense (DoD) decided to cooperate in the building of a space station, although their objectives proved to be different and NASA went ahead with construction of Skylab alone.

Skylab was launched atop a modified Saturn V rocket on 14 May 1973, the last time this iconic rocket ever launched. The modifications were the upper stage of the rocket. Skylab was basically a refurbished third stage of a rocket gutted out and made into an orbital workshop, which was placed inside the upper stage of the Saturn V rocket. Astronauts launched to the station in an Apollo Command and Service Module atop a smaller Saturn 1B rocket. Unlike the ISS, which took over 12 years to build, Skylab was built in its entirety and required only one unmanned launch.

Less than two weeks later, on 25 May 1973, the first three-manned crew (Pete Conrad, Paul Weitz and Joseph Kerwin) launched to the station. However, their arrival was not devoid of problems. During the unmanned launch of Skylab a micro-meteoroid shield had torn off the station. Not only had this ripped off one of the solar panels and prevented the other from deploying, but it also left the station without a defense against incoming solar radiation. This raised the temperature on Skylab to a blistering 52°C (126°F). When the first crew arrived, their first task was to deploy a makeshift parasol with a spacewalk to lower the temperature and deploy the stuck solar panel, bringing the station up to near full power.

With the problems overcome, Skylab was ready to fulfil its promise. One of the most important tasks of the Skylab missions was to see how humans coped with prolonged stays in space. The three astronauts performed daily biological tests, taking turns to act as the “guinea pig” as the others monitored their bodies. These ranged from basic physical exercises to blood tests and other medical examinations. The astronauts’ days lasted from 6am to 10pm (Houston time), during which they each conducted solar observations and other experiments. The crew also had a number of experiments designed by students to carry out, which were generally a bit more light-hearted than those arranged by NASA. These included observing the motion of a blob of water in zero-gravity and playing catch to test hand-eye coordination.

Skylab was a surprisingly large station, comparable in liveable space to a three-bedroom house. It had a number of amenities that were tested for the first time and would become mainstays of future space stations Mir and the International Space Station including a toilet and shower. After overcoming the initial disorientation of living in zero-gravity all nine astronauts to stay on Skylab reported no problems operating in a weightless environment. All their experiments were highly successful and, using the solar observatory attached to the station (the Apollo Telescope Mount), the astronauts performed the most detailed observations of the Sun at the time.

In total three different three-man crews visited the station, Skylab 2, 3 and 4, with the trips lasting 28, 59 and 84 days respectively. The last mission to the station departed on 8 February 1974. In anticipation of another crew visiting the station the astronauts left behind supplies including food and water. The events that followed, however, meant that astronauts Gerald Carr, William Pogue and Edward Gibson would be the last residents on Skylab.

The original plan was for Skylab to remain in orbit for another ten or so years, with crews possibly being brought to the station by the Space Shuttle. However, in 1978 it was discovered that the Sun was entering a period of increased solar activity, which in turn would push Skylab lower in its orbit, culminating in an uncontrolled re-entry in 1979. NASA devised a plan to use a Space Shuttle to boost the station higher but, when the Space Shuttle programme was delayed until 1982, it became readily apparent that Skylab could not be saved.

The size of Skylab meant that it wouldn’t entirely burn up in the atmosphere, and it was likely that debris would make it to the surface. In addition, ground control did not have complete control over the station, so they could not direct where the debris would land. Skylab moved into a state of freefall and, on 11 July 1969, it began to re-enter the atmosphere amidst a media maelstrom.

As it descended the station burned up and broke apart, but parts of it survived the harsh temperatures of re-entry. Initial reports said that it had fallen safely into the Indian Ocean away from populated areas. One town in Western Australia, however, disagreed. Residents in the Shire of Esperance were startled when a multitude of sonic booms could suddenly be heard in the sky as pieces of debris broke the sound barrier. Chunks of Skylab rained across Esperance, including an oxygen tank, but fortunately no one was harmed.

Esperance took it all on the chin, however, and there were several endearing stories to come out of the incident such as that of Stan Thornton, a 17-year-old farmer in Esperance. His mother alerted him to a piece of Skylab debris in their garden, and Stan had already heard that the San Francisco Examiner was offering $10,000 to anyone who could deliver a piece of Skylab debris to their office. After cooling down the debris in his garden, Stan hopped on a plane to San Francisco with nothing more than a toothbrush and his wallet and was greeted by throngs of media who watched him hand in the debris to claim his prize.

Esperance also jokingly fined NASA $400 for “littering”. Despite several requests from the American public to pay it over the years, the fee remained unpaid until a persistent radio host arrived in Esperance in 2009 with a cheque for the full amount of money, donated by his listeners. Scott Barley of the Highway Radio in Barstow, California handed over the money to widespread applause as people remembered the event that put Esperance firmly on the map.

Skylab’s high-profile demise was testament to its significance in an age where space exploration was still riding the waves of the Apollo successes. It will forever be regarded as one of NASA’s pioneering achievements that paved the way to the International Space Station, providing key information and experimental evidence that will prove useful for decades to come.

Images courtesy of NASA and Boeing

In 1983, Sally Ride broke the gender barrier and captured the world’s imagination when she became the first American woman in history to venture where almost exclusively men had gone before: space. Soft-spoken and celebrity-shy, she was an unassuming hero to people around the globe.

Dr Sally Kristen Ride was born in Encino, California on 26 May 1951. She had an early interest in science and was also a nationally ranked tennis player, but after graduating from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in English and physics, and later a PhD in astrophysics, in 1975 and 1978 respectively, she decided to focus her attentions solely on science, and specifically space.

In 1978, after responding to an advert in the student newspaper, Ride was one of six women selected as astronaut candidates by NASA. Upon completion of a one-year evaluation period, she served as an on-orbit capsule communicator (CAPCOM) for the second and third Space Shuttle missions, STS-2 and STS-3.

In 1983, Ride was given the flight she dreamed of when she was selected as a mission specialist for STS-7 alongside Captain Robert Crippen, among others, becoming the first American woman to reach space and only the third worldwide after Russian cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova and Svetlana Savitskaya in 1963 and 1982 respectively. The Challenger orbiter launched with Ride on board on 18 June 1983 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During the mission the crew deployed satellites, and they were also given the chance to test the Canadian-built robotic arm Ride had been helping to develop on the ground, the Remote Manipulator System, to perform the first-ever satellite retrieval.

Ride flew with Crippen again aboard Space Shuttle Columbia’s STS-41-G mission in 1984, her second and last mission to space, with the notable mission accomplishment being the demonstration of potential satellite refuelling with a spacewalk. In 1986, following the loss of Space Shuttle Challenger, Ride served as part of the investigation committee that looked into the cause of the accident. She also went on to serve on the panel investigating the Columbia disaster in 2003, making her the only person to serve on both investigation teams.

In 1989, she took up a post as professor of physics and director of the University of California’s California Space Institute.

Despite shying away from the public eye, Ride was always keen to motivate young women to pursue careers in science, maths and technology. She went on to co-found Sally Ride Science with her partner Tam O’Shaughnessy in 2001 to do just that. The company continues to create entertaining science programmes and publications for children to this day.

Throughout her career Ride received many awards and accolades. She was inducted into both the National Women’s Hall of Fame and the Astronaut Hall of Fame as well as being awarded the NASA Space Flight Medal twice. Sadly, on 24 July 2012 she passed away at the age of 61 after losing a battle with pancreatic cancer, but her legacy will continue to inspire people around the globe.

The Celestron NexStar 130 SLT, supplied to us by Hama, is an excellent computerised telescope. It’s quick and easy to set up and has more than 4,000 built-in objects ready for you to view. And with Celestron’s SkyAlign technology, you’ll be able to start the night sky with ease.

To be in with a chance of winning it, all you need to do is answer this question:

Competition closes 30 June 2013. Good luck!

Asked by Tina Brown

The magnitude of an astronomical object, such as a planet or star, is a measure of its brightness. As you might have read in our guide to getting started in astronomy in All About Space issue 7, the brightness of objects from Earth with respect to each other are measured on a magnitude system. The lower the magnitude number, the brighter the object. Also a difference of five magnitudes implies a difference in brightness of one hundred times. The brightness of an object as seen from our planet is referred to as the apparent magnitude. Astronomers define this magnitude as the brightness of an object in the absence of the Earth’s atmosphere (which can scatter some of the light, causing it to dim).

Absolute magnitude is slightly more complicated. It is the apparent magnitude of an object if it were 32.6 light years away (that’s equivalent to 10 parsecs) from us and in the absence of any sources that could interfere with its brightness – these sources being the dust and gas in the Universe that absorbs or scatters emitted light. Fixing the distance allows astronomers to directly compare the brightness of stars.

Mars is a big celebrity in the Solar System, having been the subject of more films and books than any other planet. But we still haven’t sent humans there – yet.

In issue 12 of All About Space, on sale now at all good newsagents, the Imagine Shop and Great Digital Mags, we look into how space agencies all over the world, both private and government are embarking on a new space race: to land the first man on Mars. The incredible part is that they all plan to do it within your lifetime! We interview American aerospace engineer Dr. Robert Zubrin and MARS2013 project leader Gernot Grömer on the current projects to conquer the red planet.

We take a look inside asteroids to discover what these massive space rocks are made of, we uncover plans to land boats on Saturn’s moon Titan and we show you how to see the Universe’s biggest explosions – supernovas – with your telescope.

We’re also taking a trip into our galactic back yard as we Journey through the Milky Way and discover this fascinating place our Solar System calls home. Meanwhile, we’ve got a monster feature on the 10 most amazing space rockets that have ever flown, from the Space Shuttle to the Saturn V.

All About Space issue 12 also takes a look at the technology of teleportation, reveals what happens when galaxies collide and interviews an International Space Station astronaut, as well as our regular telescope and kit reviews.

As always, don’t forget to give us your feedback or just have a chat with us on the web. You can get in touch on Twitter, Facebook or via email

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Enjoy the issue!

Alan Shepard should have been the first man in space

Two weeks before Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, NASA flew a successful unmanned Mercury flight. But it could have been a manned flight; NASA was overly cautious, and Shepard eventually flew into space two weeks after Gagarin.

Gus Grissom almost drowned after re-entry

When Gus Grissom splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean on 21 July 1961 on the second Project Mercury flight, the explosive bolts on his hatch accidentally fired. Grissom scrambled out into the water before the spacecraft sank (it was recovered 38 years later), barely staying afloat until he was rescued.

20 Mercury spacecraft were built, but only six were used for manned flights

NASA tasked the McDonnell Aircraft company to build 20 separate Mercury spacecraft. Of these, six were used for manned flights (a seventh flight was cancelled), nine were used for unmanned flights (two of which were destroyed) and five never flew.

The first Mercury “astronaut” was a monkey

On 4 December 1959, a rhesus monkey called Sam became the first “astronaut” in the Mercury programme. He flew to a height of 85 kilometres (53 miles), 15 kilometres (9 miles) short of space, on a prototype spacecraft called Little Joe 2.

The astronauts insisted on having a window

Early prototype Mercury spacecraft had just two portholes, but the Mercury astronauts demanded that a larger window be installed, not only for the view but also for orientation. The latter proved invaluable on the last mission, when instrument failure required visual orientation.

Image courtesy of NASA

The same sort of habitable zones that apply to planetary systems might also apply to galaxies, which would mean that there is a specific region within a galaxy where planets could exist. With missions such as the Kepler Space Telescope finding thousands of planets outside our solar system, the number and location of these foreign worlds is grabbing people’s attention. One question that always follows discussions of exoplanets is whether or not life could exist on them and a way of figuring this out relates to the ‘habitable zone’. This region of space around a star represents the location that is ‘just right’, not too hot or too cold.

It has been suggested that this idea may also apply to planets in galaxies. This often contested idea was put forward by Guillermo Gonzalez. He suggested that a planet would need to be far enough away from the galactic centre to avoid harmful radiation but far enough away from the edge of the galaxy to ensure enough heavy elements to form the planet. This gives the Milky Way’s habitable zone as a 6,000 light-year band 25,000 light-years from the centre. This sits roughly halfway between the centre and the edge.

Currently not enough planets have been detected to put solid limits on where planets can form in the galaxy but more and more missions are collecting data and adding to our knowledge.

Answered by Josh Barker from the National Space Centre

Image courtesy of NASA/JPL/Caltech/ESA/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA

Perhaps the most accurate answer to this is that we simply don’t know for sure at the moment! It is suggested, however, that something does exist as a core at the centres of gaseous worlds.

These cores are often described as rocky by astronomers. However, this description of them, especially in the case of the gas giant Jupiter, is a little misleading especially as its core is made of liquid compounds, including molten heavy metals such as hydrogen surrounded by ice. Also in Jupiter’s case, the closer you move to the centre, the higher the pressure and temperature gets. What this essentially means is that rather than being thoroughly solid, this core is most likely to be quite slushy with a consistency of both solid and liquid.

A theory surrounding the formation of giant planets of gas suggests that there is almost definitely a core. This idea is called the bottom-up theory or core-accretion model. Here, a ten Earth-mass protoplanet formed, which quickly swept up gas from the primordial disk that formed our Solar System to develop a massive atmosphere around it and become the gas giant Jupiter. The general theory is that the rocky core would have had to have formed very early in the history of the Solar System in order to capture such a high percentage of gases.

Image courtesy of the Lunar and Planetary Institute

When dealing with Soviet space history of the Sixties and Seventies great caution must be taken. Unlike NASA, the Soviets were highly secretive about their space programme. Many details were not revealed for decades, with various personal accounts and seemingly official reports only starting to appear this millennium when fear of reprimand was no longer apparent.

And so, the story of Vladimir Komarov is a confusing one. A dedicated cosmonaut, there are conflicting reports about Komarov’s last moments, some painting his Soviet superiors as ruthless task masters intent on outdoing the Americans in space, others portraying them in a much kinder manner.

Vladimir Mikhaylovich Komarov was born in Moscow, USSR on 16 March 1927. He trained and qualified as an engineer before being selected in the first group of cosmonauts in 1960. Despite twice being registered unfit to fly when part of the Soviet space programme, he persevered and eventually got his first taste of space aboard Voskhod 1 on 12 October 1964. This was the seventh manned Soviet space flight and the first spacecraft in human history to take more than one crewman into orbit; Komarov travelled with two civilian cosmonauts Konstantin Feoktistov and Boris Yegorov, all three having replaced the previous crew supposedly because the former command pilot’s mother was Jewish, which was heavily frowned upon by the Soviets.

Following the successful mission, which spent about a day in orbit, Komarov was assigned to the Soviet Soyuz programme with Yuri Gagarin, the fist man in space, and Alexei Leonov, who performed humanity’s first spacewalk in 1965. Komarov was selected to fly Soyuz 1 in 1967 with Gagarin as his backup. Preparations for the launch were reportedly troubled, with Komarov arguing with engineers about the safety of the spacecraft. A cause for contention is that Komarov supposedly feared for his life ahead of the mission but, not wanting his good friend Gagarin to perish instead, he went ahead with the flight.

Immediately after launch on 23 April 1967 it was apparent there were significant problems with Soyuz 1. Its solar panels failed to fully deploy, depriving Komarov of full control of the spacecraft, while the engines also encountered problems. After 18 orbits of Earth Komarov attempted a manual re-entry of the spacecraft using the Sun as an orientation tool but, as he tore through the atmosphere, both the main and the drogue parachute failed. Komarov was left helpless inside the capsule and, in the early hours of 24 April 1967, Soyuz 1 crash-landed near the border between Russia and Kazakhstan and instantly killed its solitary crewmember.

There is much controversy surrounding Komarov’s final moments. Some reports say that he remained calm and collected as he communicated with ground control while plummeting towards Earth. Others, however, suggest a much more gruesome end, one in which Komarov is heard screaming in rage at his superiors for having put him in a spacecraft that was destined to fail from the outset. Indeed, the audio transcripts of his final moments suggest he was both distressed and panicked as it became readily apparent that his return to Earth would prove fatal.

It is likely that this story, like so many from the Soviet space programme, will forever be shrouded in mystery. What cannot be denied, however, is the incredible courage of this cosmonaut who knew that Soyuz 1 would be a perilous mission, even if he did not know it would prove fatal. Komarov’s death had a profound effect on his fellow cosmonauts, particularly Leonov and Gagarin who both regarded him as a close friend. A memorial at the crash site of Soyuz 1 provides a lasting legacy for Vladimir Komarov, the first casualty of human space exploration but a pioneer whose efforts allowed us to continue to reach for the stars.

We’re about to enter one of the most exciting eras in the history of space exploration. From private spaceflight to journeys into the outer Solar System, find out what missions will be of most interest in the next ten years in our extensive (but not exhaustive) timeline below. Bear in mind that space is an unpredictable business, so all of these dates are subject to change.

2013

- November/December – NASA’s next Mars orbiter, MAVEN, will launch towards the Red Planet.

- December – China’s Chang’e 3 probe is expected to land on the Moon, the first to do so since Russia’s Luna 24 in 1976.

- The Lynx spaceplane will complete its first flight to sub-orbit.

2014

- April – In-flight abort test of SpaceX’s crewed spacecraft DragonRider, with a manned flight to follow at an unspecified date.

- July – JAXA’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft, the successor to Hayabusa, will begin its journey to an asteroid on a mission to land and return samples.

- July – Curiosity’s primary mission on Mars is expected to come to an end, but it is almost certain that the mission will be extended.

- September – First test of NASA’s Orion spacecraft, which will launch unmanned on a Delta IV Heavy rocket.

- Planetary Resources will launch its Arkyd-3 mini satellites to test technologies for later telescopes to look for asteroids to mine.

- Virgin Galactic will begin scheduled flights of SpaceShipTwo to sub-orbit.

2015

- February – NASA’s Dawn spacecraft will enter orbit around Ceres, the first spacecraft to visit a dwarf planet.

- May – The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch an orbiter towards Venus.

- July – NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will arrive at Pluto, becoming the first spacecraft to flyby the dwarf planet and also returning the first close-up images of this distant world and its moons.

- October – The Google Lunar X Prize may be won by Astrobotic Technology, who have a contract with SpaceX to use one of their rockets to take a lunar rover to the Moon.

- The ESA’s Don Quijote spacecraft will launch, a mission to impact an asteroid and study the change in its trajectory to see if such a method could be used to deflect an asteroid away from Earth.

- China will land its unmanned Chang’e 4 spacecraft on the Moon.

- Russia is expect to land two unmanned probes on the Moon, Luna-Glob 1 and 2.

- The ISRO will land its Chandrayaan-2 rover on the Moon, in tandem with a lunar orbiter.

2016

- NASA’s next Mars lander, InSight, will launch to the Red Planet to study beneath the surface using a drill.

- The first part of the ESA’s ExoMars mission, the Trace Gas Orbiter (to study the atmosphere) and the EDM lander (to test landing technologies), will launch to Mars.

- NASA will launch its own asteroid sample return mission, called OSIRIS-REx.

- Bearing the same name as its successful probes in the 60s, 70s and 80s, Russia will launch a new orbiter called Venera-D to Venus.

- Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser spacecraft will complete its first flight, launching on an Atlas V rocket.

- NASA’s solar powered Juno spacecraft will arrive at Jupiter.

2017

- January – The ESA’s new solar orbiter, SOLO, will launch to the Sun.

- December – First flight of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, taking the Orion spacecraft on an unmanned flight around the Moon.

- China will launch another mission to the Moon, Chang’e 5, this time with the goal of returning lunar samples to Earth.

2018

- January – Inspiration Mars will launch two people to Mars on a 501-day mission to flyby the Red Planet and return to Earth.

- NASA’s Solar Probe Plus will launch and will approach the Sun to within 8.5 solar radii (0.034 AU, 5.9 million kilometres), the closest any spacecraft has been to the Sun.

- The ESA’s ExoMars rover will launch to the Red Planet, using the previously launched Trace Gas Orbiter as its means to communicate with Earth.

- NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, will launch.

2019

- A proposed NASA telescope called EXCEDE (Exoplanetary Circumstellar Environments and Disk Explorer) will launch to observe planet formation around nearby stars.

2020

- The ISS will be decommissioned and de-orbited at some point after 2020.

- Russia will launch an orbiter, lander and rover to the Moon on the Luna-Grunt 1 mission.

- ESA and NASA may attempt a Mars sample return mission.

2021

- Russia’s next lunar lander, Luna-Grunt 2, will return samples to Earth.

- NASA’s Orion spacecraft will fly with a crew for the first time, possibly taking astronauts to visit an asteroid.

2022

- ESA will launch its new deep-space probe JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer) to study the Jovian system, specifically Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.

2023

- Mars One expects to land the first human settlers on the Red Planet.

Current telescope technology allows us to ‘see’ the Big Bang, in a way. The most famous of these telescopes, COBE, was launched in 1989. This telescope studied something called the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation. This background radiation is the afterglow of the Big Bang. This signature was left as the initial energy released from the Big Bang spreads out across the universe.

Since COBE more missions have studied the CMB in more detail giving us a deeper understanding of our universe. So far the data collected from this background radiation have supported the theories for an expanding universe. One curiosity that is thrown up by studies of the CMB is that the universe is not even. In the background there are subtle variations of energy and these fluctuations don’t appear to be balanced.

This is something that has baffled scientists. It is expected that with no other influences as the universe expanded it would be roughly similar in all directions. Study of the CMB has shown that this isn’t the case, evidence of some large scale structure has been found. This structure helped develop the idea of exotic dark matter and currently remains one of science’s greatest mysteries.

Image courtesy of NASA/WMAP Science Team

Mars One is a not-for-profit organisation based in the Netherlands that intends to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars by 2023, by sending astronauts there on a one-way trip. Sound ambitious? Some experts certainly think so.

Their plan is to get funding by turning the whole adventure into a reality TV show. Adamant that the technologies to land the first humans on Mars exist, the Dutch start-up Mars One aims to spend an estimated 6 billion dollars to send four individuals to the Red Planet. They’ll be tasked with setting up a habitable outpost based on ready-made hardware that will be sent to the planet in advance. After installing their habitat, the members of the first colony outside our Earth will be expected to grow their own food, mine their own water and oxygen, perform research and of course, explore a whole new planet.

Various Mars exploration advocates, however, have expressed skepticism that such a proposal is feasible. With many of the technologies yet to be built, and with the physical effects of sending a human to Mars largely unknown, Mars One has a large number of challenges to overcome if they’re going to put their plan into action. Gernot Grömer of the University of Innsbruck, who runs the MARS2013 month-long simulation of a Mars landing taking place in the Moroccan desert, thinks they may have bitten off more than they can chew.

“The Mars One team lacks the expertise and knowledge how to approach such super-ambitious programmes,” he says. “Just simply recruiting and maintaining such a large astronaut corps is well beyond their capabilities, not to speak of launchers, habitats, spacesuits etc. Having big players like SpaceX on their back certainly helps, but there is no indication these are doing it for free. That means that even large TV companies won’t be able to afford such a multi-year programme, not to mention the challenge of keeping the public interest going for such a long time.”

Another proposal to send humans to the Red Planet is space tourist and millionaire Dennis Tito’s Inspiration Mars (pictured above), which intends to send a man and a woman on what has the makings of a historic mission lasting 501 days. They want to fly the crew of two people within 100 miles of the Red Planet, using technologies derived from NASA and the International Space Station, before returning them safely to Earth. The plan is to use the gravitational influence of Mars to slingshot their manned vehicle onto a return course to Earth. They will not land on Mars. The ship’s inflatable habitat module will be deployed after launch and detached prior to re-entry into our planet’s atmosphere.

“This is a truly ambitious plan,” Grömer says. “If you look at their papers where they describe the mission profile, it is well thought through and written by experts who are very good in their subjects. However, for trajectory reasons they have to keep the 2018 deadline.” That’s the big problem, says Grömer. Dennis Tito is only funding the first three years of that project until the really high financial demand kicks in. Will they then be able to get the big bucks that they need in the time required? “Developing a transportation system which brings people to Mars and back safely is something that will probably take more than the few years left to the 2018 deadline,” adds Grömer. “I honestly wish them all the luck, but I am pessimistic that they can really archive the super-tight schedule.”

However, it’s not all doom and gloom for manned Mars exploration. “It will be the most technically challenging journey our society has ever undertaken, but from the engineering and scientific point of view, we are almost ready [to go to Mars],” said Grömer. “In all our research we haven’t encountered a showstopper that told us ‘no – you can’t go’. This includes hazards such as radiation or human factors and, at the end of the day, I believe we have never been so close to human missions to the Red Planet.”

Grömer is convinced that landing humans on Mars is achievable, and expects it to happen within most of our lifetimes. “At the Austrian Space Forum we say that the first human to walk on Mars is already born. If you read a history book 200 years from now, the economic crisis might only be a marginal chapter, whereas in the long run, our time will be know as the time where we left the planet to discover new worlds.”

Images courtesy of Mars One (top) and Inspiration Mars (bottom)

To celebrate the 23rd anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope (yes, it really has been in space for an incredible 23 years), NASA released this new infrared picture of the Horsehead Nebula.

In the image you can see some of its fascinating features, including the amazing ‘pillars’ of dust that make up the majority of its shape and the five-star system Sigma Orionis that illuminates its upper ridge.

Found in the constellation of Orion, the Horsehead Nebula is about 1,500 light-years away and is one of the most easily observable regions of massive star formation that we can see.

Asked by Jenny Cullen

To ride out the intensity of a solar flare, NASA puts Curiosity to sleep until solar storms pass. In fact, a large cloud of hot plasma was recently thrown out from the Sun at a neck-break speed of 1,200 miles a second bathing Mars in highly charged particles. Since the Red Planet does not have a substantial atmosphere or a magnetic field, it gets the brunt of the Sun’s temper.

The rover is actually built to withstand the harsh conditions on Mars but given that Curiosity recently suffered a glitch in its memory, NASA have decided to play it safe by putting the rover on standby by turning its instruments and sensors off for the 22 hours it took for the storm to pass. These high energy storms are also known to impact electronics, causing erroneous commands. Back in 2003, the radiation detector belonging to Odyssey spacecraft which was orbiting around Mars after its launch in 2001, was knocked out by an intense solar flare.

This is not the first time that Curiosity has been faced with a solar flare and withstood being blasted on its way to Mars last year. However, with a protective coating that managed to survive long-term exposure on the International Space Station, the rover is able to protect itself pretty well from the harsh environments of space.

Image courtesy of NASA/JPL