Elon Musk officially endorsed Donald Trump for president of the United States on July 13, 2024, shortly after Trump survived an assassination attempt. Musk, a billionaire technology entrepreneur, has made groundbreaking contributions in multiple industries, particularly space travel and exploration. Even before Musk’s endorsement, Trump was reportedly considering giving the billionaire an advisory role if […]

The post What Trump-Musk love-in means for US space ambitions appeared first on Asia Times.

Although our universe may seem stable, having existed for a whopping 13.7 billion years, several experiments suggest that it is at risk – walking on the edge of a very dangerous cliff. And it’s all down to the instability of a single fundamental particle: the Higgs boson. In new research by me and my colleagues, […]

The post Higgs particle could end the universe … but we’re still here appeared first on Asia Times.

June 25, 2024, marked a new “first” in the history of spaceflight. China’s robotic Chang’e 6 spacecraft delivered samples of rock back to Earth from a huge feature on the moon called the South Pole–Aitken basin. After touching down on the moon’s “far side”, on the southern rim of the Apollo crater, Chang’e 6 came […]

The post China’s space economy plan coming into celestial view appeared first on Asia Times.

A new RAND report emphasizes China’s rising risk tolerance and growing strategic maneuvers in space, an aggressive push forged to challenge US dominance in the domain. The RAND report examines open-source Chinese defense literature, providing a comprehensive overview of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) perspectives on space-based escalation over the past two decades. It asserts that […]

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The US has flagged as a growing threat to global security an increasingly deepening four-way autocratic quadrilateral quasi-alliance that’s deepening space collaboration among Russia, China, North Korea and Iran. This month, Air & Space Forces Magazine reports that General Stephen Whiting, commander of the United States Space Command (USSPACECOM), expressed concern over those four countries’ […]

The post A space quad: Russia, China, North Korea and Iran appeared first on Asia Times.

There are three ways to look for evidence of alien technological civilizations. One is to look out for deliberate attempts by them to communicate their existence, for example, through radio broadcasts. Another is to look for evidence of them visiting the Solar System. And a third option is to look for signs of large-scale engineering […]

The post Dyson spheres and the quest for alien megastructures appeared first on Asia Times.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Northrop Grumman plan to build a lunar railway system, setting the stage for a new era of space military operations, exploration and economy. This month, Defense News reported that DARPA and the US defense contractor are collaborating to create a moon-based railway system to facilitate the […]

The post DARPA moon train heralds heated race for lunar supremacy appeared first on Asia Times.

China’s Shenlong robotic space plane has been spied placing six unidentified objects into Earth’s orbit with amateur spacecraft trackers closely following and recording emissions from the mysterious wingmen, according to a space.com report. The six objects have been designated OBJECT A, B, C, D, E and F with some of them appearing to emit signals […]

The post China’s space plane puts mysterious wingmen in orbit appeared first on Asia Times.

This month, the US Space Force participated in a training exercise to refine its defensive and offensive skills using the Moonlighter imaging satellite. The Space Force says Moonlighter is the world’s first and only hacking sandbox in space, previously featured in Space Systems Command’s Hack-a-Sat 4 competition. The source notes that the primary objective of […]

The post US girding up for cyberattacks against satellites appeared first on Asia Times.

In a significant expansion of the AUKUS agreement, the US, UK and Australia are collaborating on a groundbreaking space surveillance initiative, signifying the bloc’s emerging space-power capabilities.  This month, Air & Space Forces Magazine reported that the US, UK and Australia have agreed to establish advanced space-tracking radar sites in their countries as part of […]

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Introduction by Asia Times Science Editor Jonathan Tennenbaum In September Eric Lerner created a sensation with his Asia Times article, “Saying goodbye to the Big Bang,” arguing that the Big Bang theory is contradicted by an overwhelming mass of astronomical evidence accumulated over decades, including recent data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. The data forced […]

The post The Big Bang never happened – so what did? appeared first on Asia Times.

The US Space Force (USSF) is gearing up for future wars of attrition in outer space, a strategic shift from putting capabilities in orbit to building the architectures to defend space-based systems and assets against adversary attacks. The USSF’s expanded mission statement, issued in September, aims to “secure our nation’s interests in, from and to […]

The post Star power: US preparing for a space war with China appeared first on Asia Times.

China will send an unmanned spacecraft to the south pole of the moon next year with the lunar aim of bringing two kilograms of rock samples back to Earth.  The China National Space Administration (CNSA) said on September 29 it will send Chang’e-6 to the far side of the moon, which has not yet been […]

The post China-India rivalry playing out on the moon appeared first on Asia Times.

After a journey of billions of kilometers, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission has culminated in a small black capsule blazing through the sky before touching down in the Utah desert. Inside is likely to be the largest ever sample of dust and rock returned from an asteroid. Extracted and brought back with great technical ingenuity from an […]

The post NASA just retrieved largest-ever astroid sample appeared first on Asia Times.

There’s a lot of trash on the moon right now – including nearly 100 bags of human waste – and with countries around the globe traveling to the moon, there’s going to be a lot more, both on the lunar surface and in Earth’s orbit. In August 2023, Russia’s Luna-25 probe crashed into the Moon’s […]

The post Cosmic debris: Humanity is already trashing the moon appeared first on Asia Times.

From the early days of human space activity in the 1960s, missions to the moon have attracted significant global attention. India’s recent success in landing the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the moon was technically demanding and occurred in a previously unexplored part of the moon. As well as the scientific benefits, India has already enjoyed the […]

The post The many upshots of Modi on the moon appeared first on Asia Times.

The successful landing of India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft near the south pole of the moon has got the Japanese excited about the Lunar Polar Exploration (LUPEX) Mission scheduled for 2025 and the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) mission, which may be launched as soon as August 28. LUPEX – a collaboration between Japan and India […]

The post Don’t forget Japan in the moonshot race appeared first on Asia Times.

A Russian spacecraft has failed to provide Moscow a chance to lead in China’s international space station project after it crashed into the moon in a suspected excessive braking. Luna-25, a Russian lunar lander, failed to enter the pre-landing orbit due to an engine failure and lost contact with Earth on August 19. Had it […]

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Astronomers have discovered more than 5,000 planets outside of the solar system to date. The grand question is whether any of these planets are home to life. To find the answer, astronomers will likely need more powerful telescopes than exist today. I am an astronomer who studies astrobiology and planets around distant stars. For the […]

The post New, thin-lensed telescope could see far beyond James Webb appeared first on Asia Times.

A committee set up by NASA has examined about 800 reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs), or what most of us would call UFOs (unidentified flying objects). NASA defines these events as sightings “that cannot be identified as aircraft or known natural phenomena from a scientific perspective.” The creation of this committee shows that NASA […]

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