Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Space Travel

Georgia Tech engineers Glaucio Paulino and Jerry Qi show two of their 3-D printed "tensegrity" structures that fold flat and build themselves up with heat. These are just proofs of concept, but Qi and Paulino predict that structures like this could be used to build space habitats or heart stents.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Print, Then Heat for Self-Assembling Space Stations

With special ‘memory’ polymers, stents and space habitats could one day build themselves

The Bonneville Crater on Mars

New Research

Mars Surface May Be Too Toxic for Microbial Life

The combination of UV radiation and perchlorates common on Mars could be deadly for bacteria

This flatworm fragment went to space and became a double-headed worm.

New Research

What Space-Faring Flatworms Can Teach Us About Human Health

Their experiment had some weird results—and could one day help humans thrive in microgravity and back here on Earth

The astronauts of "2001: A Space Odyssey" hide in a pod to discuss the troubling behavior of their spacecraft's artificial intelligence, HAL 9000. In the background, HAL is able to read their lips.

Ask Smithsonian

When We Go to Mars, Will We Have a Real-Life HAL 9000 With Us?

How generations of NASA scientists were inspired by an evil Hollywood supercomputer

How NASA Cut Costs With a New Kind of Spacecraft

With budgets for space exploration falling toward the end of the 1960s, NASA began to make plans for a new kind of reusable spacecraft to save money

“I saw these beautiful shapes and forms,” says Soluri, creator of the series “Evidence of Human Spaceflight.”

New Photos Reveal What’s Left Behind When a Rocket Travels to Space

Michael Soluri captures these strangely evocative traces of America’s heroic extraterrestrial journeys

Rocket Lab lifts off in New Zealand.

Trending Today

New Zealand Sent a 3D-Printed Rocket to Space

Will the Electron usher in a new era for satellites?

A mid-air tourist flight. The author is second from the left.

The Future of Zero-Gravity Living Is Here

Entrepreneurs predict there will be thousands of us living and working in space. Our correspondent takes off to see what that feels like

Space mice snuggle with their Earth-bound mother.

New Research

Why Scientists Sent Mouse Sperm to the International Space Station

Back on Earth, a pile of new pups proves that mouse DNA can survive space

New Research

Why Morning Glories Could Survive Space Travel

The seed of the common garden flower could survive long journeys in space

New Research

Scientists Make Sturdy Bricks From Mars-Like Soils

Their findings may be a step forward in the mission to build structures on the Red Planet

Peggy Whitson's latest record is one of many she's held during her inspiring career.

Trending Today

Astronaut Peggy Whitson Breaks NASA Record for Most Days in Space

She has spent 534 cumulative days (and counting) in orbit

Sergei Korolev was technically still a political prisoner when he began working on the Soviet rocket program.

The First Manned Space Flight Was the Rocket Designer’s Victory as Much as Yuri Gagarin’s

Sergei Korolev designed the entire Soviet rocket program. But nobody knew his name until after he died

Part of the seized "Supergun," now at a museum in England.

The Bizarre Story of Saddam Hussein’s Failed “Supergun”

It was called “Big Babylon” and it was originally supposed to fire satellites into orbit

SpaceX launches it's first re-used Falcon 9 rocket

Cool Finds

Watch SpaceX’s Recycled Rocket Stick Its Landing

The reused Falcon 9 booster rocket may usher in an era of cheaper and more frequent trips into space

If bed is your calling, consider volunteering for an exhaustive—and exhausting—French study.

France Wants You to Lie on Your Back for 60 Days in the Name of Space Research

But only if you’re a man

Velcro was originally available only in black, but even when it started coming in multiple colors, 1960s fashionistas wanted nothing to do with it.

Before Velcro’s Patent Expired, It Was a Niche Product Most People Hadn’t Heard Of

The hook-and-loop tape’s moment in the sun came after others were free to copy it

Behold the glory of the middle of the Milky Way—thanks to an even better photo database at NASA.

Cool Finds

NASA Launches the Galaxy’s Most Glorious Space Database

Now you can easily peruse more than 140,000 of the agency’s photos, videos and visualizations

Mount Etna's glowing lava flow can be spotted at bottom left.

Mount Etna’s Fiery Eruptions Are Visible From Space

Astronaut Thomas Pesquet captured an image of the volcano’s glowing lava

The latest iteration of the four-legged LEMUR exploration robot clings to a test rock surface in Aaron Parness’ lab in a recent test of its microspine capabilities.

Think Big

A New Generation of Interplanetary Rovers Is Crawling Toward the Stars

These four-legged, wheel-less robots will explore asteroids and the frigid outer worlds of our Solar System

Page 22 of 37