Awesome Space

Kursgezagt sums up the risks and benefits of building a space elevator. It presents a myriad of technological and engineering problems, and we can’t afford to screw it up even once. But its resulting cost savings might be too enticing for us to pass up.

On 4/8/16, after four failed attempts, SpaceX finally managed to land the first stage booster of its Falcon 9 rocket into a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean. The rocket deployed SpaceX’s Dragon spaceship, which carried supplies to the ISS. Skip to 27:15 for the landing.

Blank on Blank animates the thoughts of the late, great astrophysicist as he discusses our tendency to treat Earth as the of center of the universe, likely a big mistake if and when we ever do encounter beings from another world. From a 1985 interview with Studs Terkel.

A time-lapse of the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft docking at the International Space Station last year. TMA-16M ferried astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Korniyenko to the space station for their one-year mission.

An exploration and puzzle game where you play an astronaut on a last ditch mission to save Earth. You’re sent to humanity’s bases on the Moon, where something appears to have gone horribly wrong. Coming to Windows, Mac and Linux.

Earlier this year Caltech astronomers shared mathematical observations that point to a ninth planet orbiting the Sun. Because we’re terrible at visualizing large numbers, Mark Rober made this simplified scale to show just how far Planet 9 is from us and the Sun.

(PG-13 Language) Earth finally makes contact with an alien race, but it turns out the guy on the other end of the line thinks our human representative is a telemarketer. Then the alien decides to have a little fun with the caller.

We’ve always been under the impression that astronauts had to pack light, but one silly piece of cargo found its way onto the International Space Station – a gorilla suit. Unless that’s a real gorilla, and he already ate astronaut Scott Kelly. Today’s official hashtag: #SpaceApe

The extended version of Audi’s big Super Bowl 50 spot is a tribute to the space program, David Bowie, our elders, and awesome sports cars all in one, as a retired astronaut is lost until he gets a chance to drive Audi’s 205mph R8 supercar. Wouldn’t we all like that chance?

Kurzgesagt explains what a red dwarf is, and why we should care about these small, dim stars, then envisions the day trillions of years in the future, when the last star in the universe burns out, and the universe goes dark.

ISS astronaut Scott Kelly demos a pair of special teflon-coated paddles which allow him to bounce a blob of water between them just like a ping pong ball. We’re guessing the slow motion movement through microgravity would make for some really long rallies.

After two failed attempts, SpaceX finally managed to both launch the Falcon 9 rocket and safely land its first stage booster. The reusable rocket is a significant step towards drastically reducing the cost of going to space. Landing at 31:16.

Space shooter Everspace is more FTL than Star Citizen. It’s a single-player game that’s focused on action and is rewarding even in short bursts, although it does have long term progression. Launching on Windows with support for the Oculus Rift.

Kurzgesagt explains the basics of black holes: how they form, how they distort time and how they dissipate in the first of a two-part lesson. Bonus points for the calm yet detailed explanation of a brutal death by gravity.

Jeff Bezos’ private space travel corporation Blue Origin successfully launched its New Shepard reusable rocket to appx. 62mi and then landed it back safely on Earth. It’s meant to be used for space tourism, i.e. to take a small group of people to the edge of space.

(Flashing lights) Playmodes used Eduardo Cajal’s upcycled fuselage to make Porta Estellar (Star Gate), an audiovisual installation that took audiences on a breathtaking six-minute interstellar trip. It was opened to the public in Barcelona’s Ciutadella park this past Sept.

“There are often several fire burning parts to an up goer.” MinutePhysics and XKCD teamed up to explain how to explore space – but with one major restriction – they could only use the 1000 most common words in the English language to describe rocket science.

While it’s still in Steam Early Access Alpha, this physics-based space simulator is still incredibly impressive, with the ability to create your own planets and universes, then play god with gravity, climate, and even collisions to wreak havoc on your worlds.

Planetbase is a resource management sim about colonizing planets. Start with a handful of settlers, then gather resources, build facilities and robots and survive the occasional solar flare and meteor strikes to grow your community.

Filmmaker Tom Kucy put together this soul-stirring short film using a mix of elements from NASA’s Apollo Archive, using a subtle technique called parallaxing to bring life to these serene scenes of space exploration. (Thanks Greg!)

An extended look at the hardcore space sim Star Citizen sees three players in two different ships take on a couple of missions, seeking and engaging with enemies in dogfights and on foot. We hope you can turn off the voice of the ships’ virtual assistant.

By combining water, food coloring and an Alka-Seltzer tablet, astronauts on the International Space Station created orbs which hover momentarily in space, then start bubbling apart like tiny planets that are about to go supernova. Watch in 4K if your display supports it.

Astroneer is a space survival game in which you participate in the interstellar equivalent of a gold rush. Land on alien planets to terraform and excavate, gather resources, expand and become wealthy or wiser. Coming to Steam Early Access in 2016.