The Artemis Accords have been hailed as a roadmap to the future of human space expansion, with statements often wrapped in pretty bows that emphasize the common national interests and ambitions of the participants in the multilateral agreement. Without question, signatories like the US, Japan, and the EU share interests in expansion beyond low-Earth orbit, but often missed in the signing ceremonies is the fact that national motivations related to space exploration are often not, in reality, the same — or even all that well aligned.
Franklin Antonio, a founder of the electronic chip maker Qualcomm, died at the age of 69 in May 2022, but in his passing, he bequeathed $200 million from his estate to the SETI Institute. The gift is the gift of life, in a way: it means that SETI research at the SETI Institute is now assured a healthy existence long into the future.
A heating globe can create catastrophic events like torrential rain, tropical storms, intense wildfires, and droughts. In 2023, Storm Daniel caused the death of over 10,000 people in Libya, according to NOAA. In August, Hurricane Dora exacerbated a wildfire on the island of Maui in Hawaii, which then became the deadliest wildfire in U.S. history.
The Artemis Accords have been hailed as a roadmap to the future of human space expansion, with statements often wrapped in pretty bows that emphasize the common national interests and ambitions of the participants in the multilateral agreement. Without question, signatories like the US, Japan, and the EU share interests in expansion beyond low-Earth orbit, but often missed in the signing ceremonies is the fact that national motivations related to space exploration are often not, in reality, the same — or even all that well aligned.
Franklin Antonio, a founder of the electronic chip maker Qualcomm, died at the age of 69 in May 2022, but in his passing, he bequeathed $200 million from his estate to the SETI Institute. The gift is the gift of life, in a way: it means that SETI research at the SETI Institute is now assured a healthy existence long into the future.
A heating globe can create catastrophic events like torrential rain, tropical storms, intense wildfires, and droughts. In 2023, Storm Daniel caused the death of over 10,000 people in Libya, according to NOAA. In August, Hurricane Dora exacerbated a wildfire on the island of Maui in Hawaii, which then became the deadliest wildfire in U.S. history.
Starship achieved a maximum altitude of 150 kilometers, its highest ever. The second integrated test flight successfully demonstrated the highly dynamic stage separation system, booster boost-back burn, and all the mitigations that were in place after the first flight.
Today, demand for strategic minerals outpaces supply as humanity plunges deeper into a human-made climate crisis. We urgently need new sources of critical metals that we can access without leaving scars of environmental degradation on our planet. Lunar and asteroid mining offer new targets for resource extraction and responsible stewardship.
Northrop Grumman announced it would end its solo bid for a commercial space station and join a competing effort. In September, Blue Origin’s proposal for a space station was said to be in limbo as other programs, such as Blue Origin’s lunar lander for NASA’s Artemis program, took precedence.