Space: The New Frontier

100 kilometers above the Earth’s surface lies an invisible frontier: the edge of space. This is the Karman Line the boundary between our planet’s atmosphere and what lies beyond. What will it take to cross that line?

Launching payloads into space is a historically difficult task. Now missiles designed to carry atomic warheads send satellites and probes into the solar system—one of Mankind’s few undertakings that doesn't occur in nature.

The International Space Station serves as an observation post research lab and classroom. But other assets orbiting Earth help our everyday lives by delivering communications observing weather and handling global positioning and resource management.

Our seafaring nature has translated well to the space age as we seek to “sail out” into the unknown. The U.S. and NASA have set their sights on manned missions to Mars: can they navigate the dangerous seas of deep space?

As the ExoMars rover continues to explore Mars is giving up her secrets. Ultraviolet light reveals invisible clouds and the search for methane continues. Getting to Mars is one thing; staying long-term is another. Can we really land humans on the red planet?

Our solar system is so vast it is nearly 150 million kilometers or 1 Astronomical Unit (AU) from the Sun to the Earth. And Pluto is up to 48 AUs away! Although humans cannot yet travel that sort of distance we can—and do—send robots and probes in our place; and the results are astounding.

Space exploration is expensive but there is one program that is essential: the Planetary Defense Program which locates identifies and deflects wayward asteroids. At last count there were 15000 asteroids that were dangerously close to Earth.

For an instrument first developed in the 17th century the telescope has traveled a long way. Now the latest version of the once-humble telescope is going a lot farther—carrying us closer to the first light that ever bathed our universe.

Stars come in all shapes and sizes. They can be warm or cold and dim or bright. Recent discoveries suggest that the number of stars in our Milky Way galaxy alone may exceed 200 billion. What more can we learn about these citizens of the night sky?

We don’t know much about two of the enduring mysteries of the Universe—Dark Matter and Dark Energy—but scientists are devoting great time and energy into learning much more.