Ilustration of a conceptual spacecraft enabled by nuclear thermal propulsion. Credit: NASA

The Nuclear-NASA Era?

Ilustration of a conceptual spacecraft enabled by nuclear thermal propulsion. Credit: NASA By Karl Grossman, Published by Counter Punch, 13 October 2026 “We are entering the ‘Nuclear NASA-era’ which represents a major transformation for space exploration,” said the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Agency, Jared Isaacman, last week

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The Push for Nuclear Power Plants on the Moon

By Karl Grossman, Published by Columbus FreePress, 13 October 2026 The lead front page story in the New York Times last week was headlined: “Superpowers Racing to Put Nuclear Reactors on Moon.” The nations involved: the U.S., China and Russia. And there was a subhead: “Experts Warn of Radioactive Risks From

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An artist's concept of possible nuclear fission reactors on the Moon. Credit: NASA

Reactors on the Moon?

An artist's concept of possible nuclear fission reactors on the Moon. Credit: NASA By Karl Grossman, Published by Counterpunch, 9 October 2026 The lead front page story in the New York Times this week was headlined: “Superpowers Racing to Put Nuclear Reactors on Moon.” The nations involved: the U.S., China

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A new report from Europe raises serious alarms about orbital collisions

By Eric Berger, Published by Ars Technica, 23 September 2026 “I think we are going to lose the ability to use certain orbits.” The 2013 sci-fi blockbuster film Gravity, starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, popularized the notion of the Kessler syndrome. In the movie, Russia shoots down a defunct

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NASA expands Deep Space Network with giant new dish in California desert

Antennas at the Deep Space Network's Goldstone complex near Barstow, California. The recently completed Deep Space Station 23 is in the foreground to the right. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) By Elizabeth Howell, Published by Space.com, 6 September 2026 The new antenna will boost capacity on NASA's increasingly strained deep-space communications network

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Every patch of human skin the size of a pencil eraser carries roughly a million bacteria, and NASA now warns those microbes vent from spacesuits and could survive in the shaded craters near the Moon’s South Pole for days after the astronauts leave

By The Artful Age Editorial Team, 2 September 2026 A patch of human skin the size of a pencil eraser carries roughly a million bacteria. That number holds whether the skin belongs to a toddler, a grandmother, or an astronaut sealed inside a spacesuit on the way to the Moon.

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NASA plans to send a working nuclear reactor toward Mars in late 2028. Space Reactor-1 Freedom will split uranium atoms in deep space to generate electricity for its engines — the first test of a technology NASA hopes will eventually help power human missions across the Solar System.

NASA's Space Reactor-1 Freedom cruises past Mars in this artist's concept, demonstrating nuclear electric propulsion in deep space. Source. Credit: NASA. By Lachlan Brown, Published by Space Daily, 21 August 2026 NASA has put a date on an idea that the United States has studied for more than six decades

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