A Wet Run for a Dry Planet: NASA Tests Drilling Technology in the Desert with Mars Sample Return in Mind [Slide Show]
Despite a gummed up drill bit and three days of very un-Martian precipitation, engineers pronounced the test a success--and learned to expect the unexpected, whether it be in the California outback or on Mars
Water Lust: Why All the Excitement When H2O Is Found in Space?
Mars, Europa, interstellar nebulae, and now even the moon all seem to be getting wetter with every observation. But what is it about this simple hydrogen-oxygen combo that makes it the sine qua non of finding extraterrestrial life?
Salvaging NASA's Planetary Grand Tour: Sending Voyager 2 Where No Probe Had Gone Before--Or Since
The twin Voyagers set the pace for planetary exploration. And although the technology on new probes far surpasses theirs, no other spacecraft has yet explored more of the solar system and its interstellar environs
Almost Heaven: Landing the Thirty Meter Telescope Fortifies Mauna Kea's Position as Earth's Eye on the Sky
With 13 observatories and counting, the frosty summit of a dormant volcano on Hawaii's Big Island could have the bragging rights as the planet's clearest window on the universe
Dome Big Dome: Giant Observatories Augur New Era of Cosmology
When a new generation of giant ground-based telescopes comes online in the next decade, human eyes will see what no one has seen before