EVANSTON, Ill.— Packing for outer space? Here’s one thing you won’t want to forget.

Northwestern University researchers have synthesized a new form of melanin enriched with selenium. Called selenomelanin, this new biomaterial shows extraordinary promise as a shield for human tissue against harmful radiation.

“Given the increased interest in space travel, and the general need for lightweight, multifunctional and radioprotective biomaterials, we’ve become excited about the potential of melanin,” said Northwestern’s Nathan Gianneschi, who led the research. “It occurred to our postdoctoral fellow Wei Cao that melanin containing selenium would offer better protection than other forms of melanin. That brought up the intriguing possibility that this as-yet undiscovered melanin may very well exist in nature, being used in this way. So we skipped the discovery part and decided to make it ourselves.”

The Falcon 9, SpaceX’s most commonly-used rocket, has completed another successful droneship landing.

Featured image source: spacex / NASA

SpaceX performed its first crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on May 30^th. The Demo-2 mission launched NASA Astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft, atop a Falcon 9 rocket, from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. The astronaut duo arrived at the station on May 31^st. They have been performing vital tasks since, while Dragon remains docked to the ISS Harmony module. Dragon is actively monitored from SpaceX’s mission control station and also by the astronauts.

👨‍🚀 🌔 A historic first on the Moon 🛰️ 🪐 Spacecraft arrivals at Jupiter and Saturn 🚀 🔴 Mars launches and landings.

Space exploration doesn’t take a summer break! A look at NASA History milestones from the month of July:

The Starship, SpaceX’s giant ship destined for the moon and Mars, overshadows its Falcon 9 predecessor in more ways than one.

NEW DELHI: NASA’s Moon mission — Artemis — will land the first woman on the Moon by 2024. The Artemis programme is part of America’s broader Moon to Mars exploration approach, in which astronauts will explore the Moon and experience gained there to enable humanity’s next giant leap, sending humans to Mars.

Here is all you need to know about the mission:

What is Artemis?

Success, the saying goes, has a thousand fathers. Sure enough, when a SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off May 30, placing a Crew Dragon with two NASA astronauts on board into orbit on the first human orbital spaceflight from U.S. soil in nearly nine years, plenty of prospective parents stepped forward.

President Donald Trump, who attended the launch at the Kennedy Space Center, was quick to take credit for it. “With this launch, the decades of lost years and little action are officially over,” he said in a speech at KSC two hours after liftoff. “Past leaders put the United States at the mercy of foreign nations to send our astronauts into orbit. Not anymore.”

Others cried foul, noting that the commercial crew program started during the Obama administration. In a call with reporters days before the launch, former NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and former Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) praised work by Joe Biden, Obama’s vice president and the 2020 Democratic nominee for president, to build support for the program in its early years. “He was very much a part of the decision-making that went into this and ultimately brings us to this success,” Nelson said.

The NASA’s Space Launch System rocket booster segments that will help power NASAs first #Artemis mission around the Moon are getting ready for launch. NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems team is prepping them for assembly and integration activities ahead of stacking with the rocket: http://go.nasa.gov/3d9M6F7

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The rocket booster segments that will help power NASA’s first Artemis flight test mission around the Moon arrived at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday for launch preparations.

All 10 segments for the inaugural flight of NASA’s first Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft were shipped by train from Promontory, Utah. The 10-day, cross-country journey is an important milestone toward the first launch for NASA’s Artemis program.

“The arrival of the booster segments at Kennedy is just the beginning of the SLS rocket’s journey to the pad and onward to send the Orion spacecraft to the Moon,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. ” Artemis I will pave the way toward landing the first woman and the next man on the surface of the Moon in 2024 and expanding human exploration to Mars.”