SpaceX Starlink Project Launching Thousands Of Satellites To Provide Internet Services

       Satellite have been used for communication for decades. Although there have been some attempts to provide Internet services via communication satellites, the technology was slow and expensive which limited its use. These satellites were in geosynchronous orbit which is twenty three thousand miles from the Earth.

Private Israeli Company SpaceIL Getting Ready To Send Beresheet Lander To The Moon

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Artist’s concept of the Israeli Beresheet Lunar Lander

        The race to explore the Moon is heating up. Major players such as the U.S. and China are talking about returning to the Moon to stay. A lunar lander was just sent by China to explore the far side of the Moon. In addition to national space agencies, private companies are getting into the game. Now an Israeli nonprofit company named SpaceIL is leading an effort to send a lander to the Moon.

History Of NASA Work On Lunar Gateway Project - Part 2 of 2 Parts

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Artist’s concept of the NASA Gateway

Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
       In September of 2017, NASA and Roscomos, the Russian counterpart to NASA, signed a joint cooperation agreement. This agreement called for collaboration on exploration of the Moon and deep space, including the development and use of the Gateway.

History Of NASA Work On Lunar Gateway Project - Part 1 of 2 Parts

Part 1 of 2 Parts
       I have blogged before about the NASA Gateway project to build a space station that would share the orbit of the moon and serve as a platform to the support of deep space exploration. Today I will go into more details about the NASA lunar Gateway project.

Honeybee Robotics Develops Prototype For A Steam-Powered Asteroid Mining Spacecraft

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WINE spacecraft prototype

         We tend to think of steam powered transportation as an antiquated technology. While we still heat water to steam and generate electricity, we have moved on to liquid fuels, electricity and even compressed air to power our vehicles. However, steam is making a comeback as a propulsion system for spacecraft.

ConsenSys Acquires Assets Of Planetary Resources

        Planetary Resources (PR) was founded in 2012. The original mission of PR was to find and mine near-Earth asteroids for valuable resources. As I mentioned in a recent post, both water and platinum group metals are thought to exist in large quantities on asteroids. Larry Page, Eric Smidt, Ross Perot Jr. and Charles Simonyi all contributed a portion of their billions of dollars to the start up.

Private And National Space Companies Have Plans To Mine The Moon And Asteroids

        Moon Express is a private company that was formed in the U.S. in 2010 to compete for the Lunar X Prize and eventually mine the Moon for natural resources with economic value. Last month, Moon Express was awarded a Commercial Lunar Payload Services contract by NASA. The company is now eligible to bid on delivering science and technology payload to the Moon for NASA.

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