Lifeboat Foundation

Wherever there are people, the party is sure to follow. Well, a party of microbes, at least. That is what scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have found after a 30-day microbial observation of the inflatable lunar/Mars analog habitat (IMAH).

What is an “analog habitat?” For NASA, analogs are experiments and processes that are developed and tested on the ground in the confines of special laboratories on Earth. Because of the danger, distance, and expense of space flight, it makes good sense to test out conditions that space travelers will face — before they ever launch.

For NASA, there are five different space stresses evaluated in analog missions. These stresses are the subject of analog missions that often make use of a carefully designed habitat to replicate space conditions. These five challenges are:

The story of the RD-180, the big rocket engine that could.

Payload fairings protect satellites during launch and are jettisoned after rockets reach space. The fairings SpaceX uses for the Heavy and the company’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, which fall back to Earth in two pieces, cost about $6 million each, company founder and CEO Elon Musk has said.

There’s thus ample motivation to recover and reuse this expensive hardware. Indeed, SpaceX equips both fairing halves with parachutes and small steering thrusters, to bring the gear down softly and under control.

And that’s where Ms. Tree comes in: Snagging the fairing halves before they hit corrosive seawater makes reuse more feasible and cost effective, Musk has said.

Blizzard and Snowflake, an albino alligator couple, are proud parents to the world’s first batch of albino alligator eggs, according to Wild Florida Airboats and Gator Park.

The park, which is located in Kenansville, Florida, announced that caretakers discovered eggs inside the pair’s exhibit, WFTV 9 News reported. The Wild Florida Airboats and Gator Park’s “Croc Squad” gathered the 19 albino alligator eggs and transported them to a secure space, FOX 10 News noted. A video on Facebook captured footage of the 19 rare eggs, which were super small in size.

A new study by researchers from the Dexeus Women’s Health research network in Barcelona found that frozen sperm samples survived when exposed to microgravity.

That could mean that sperm banks in space are possible, providing future space travelers with the ability to reproduce in space with sperm samples brought up from Earth.

“Some studies suggest a significant decrease in the motility of a human, fresh sperm sample,” Montserrat Boada who presented the research yesterday at an annual meeting in Vienna, Austria, said, as quoted by The Guardian. “But nothing has been reported on the possible effects of gravitational differences on frozen human gametes, in which state they could be transported from Earth to space.”

Mars has to have its own internet because no one’s going to wait 20 minutes for a download.

Elon Musk’s multibillion-dollar Mars rocket explained.

Research find that frozen sperm is unaffected by microgravity and can survive spaceflight.

Tune in for liftoff tonight at 11:30 p.m. EDT to watch all the action unfold!