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Star Letter 013: The Modern Age of Spaceflight (to Venus?)

Okay, we will say it. We miss the Mars Rover, Opportunity. It’s still unresponsive during this massive dust storm. We are hoping that Oppy will be waking up soon, as is NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Here on Earth, however, there is a startup company in Alabama that is working on a technology that will be […]

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Is a Human Mission to the Clouds of Venus Possible?

A city among the clouds sounds like something out of Star Wars, but a NASA Concept called HAVOC or High Altitude Venus Operational Concept proposes just that. Well, not exactly like Cloud City in Empire Strikes Back, but a giant airship floating among the clouds of Venus. Yes, you read that right. (Video Credit: NASA) […]

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Star Letter 012: Will Mars Destroy Our Beloved Opportunity Rover?

Strange times on both Earth and Mars this week. With robots left to deal with a crisis on our future home.  The Opportunity rover was built and launched to Mars for a mission that would see it survive 90 sols or 92 Earth days on the surface of the red planet. Before it went into […]

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Star Letter 011: Understanding Life and Its Meaning in the Cosmos

Welcome back, awesome space people! This week has been busy for Star Letters! So much has happened, and we cannot wait to inform you. Eleven high school students had the amazing opportunity to learn all about the growth of vegetables and plants on the International Space Station. How amazing, you may ask? So amazing that […]

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Mars Curiosity Rover Finds Building Blocks of Life on Red Planet

NASA announced new martian findings brought to us by the Mars Curiosity Rover. Curiosity arrived on Mars six years ago in what Dr. Paul Mahaffy, the Director of NASA Goddard, describes as “exciting seven minutes of terror”. When the robotic emissary drilled down into the surface of Mars, it detected organic molecules and pattern consistency […]

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Star Letters 007: A Feast Of Space For The Untrained Eye

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…the sky. But don’t worry, it’s not boring and unexciting.  In fact, it’s quite the opposite.  We could go on and on about the wonders of space and the universe (which we often do), but we want to focus on how to see the cosmos as clear as possible.   […]

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Star Letters 006: SpaceX and NASA Trek On Toward Mars With Coastal Missions

We know that Earth and Mars are supposedly very similar in terms of planetary structure, but how similar? NASA’s InSight mission could help us find some answers.   For the first time ever, an interplanetary mission will be launching from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in a ULA Atlas V rocket.  When it lands […]

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Star Letter 005: Interplanetary Travel Looking Grim For Aliens (And Us)

We know that not everyone has the same optimism for getting to Mars. Why? Because as it turns out, traveling to a new world is REALLY expensive. NASA’s Chief of Human Spaceflight Bill Gerstenmaier says that they will be sticking to a “flat budget”, so the question remains the same…will we EVER get to Mars!? […]

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Star Letter 004: Earth Day is Every Damn Day

“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero […]

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SpaceX Begins Construction on Mars Colony Ship in Los Angeles

As SpaceX and NASA huddle at Kennedy Space Center in Florida to launch an extraordinary mission to search for Earth-like worlds beyond our solar system, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that the city would host the construction of humanity’s first interplanetary passenger ship. That ship? The SpaceX BFR or Big Falcon Rocket, built by […]

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