In 2003, the Hubble Space Telescope took the image of a millenium, an image that shows our place in the universe. Anyone who understands what this image represents, is forever changed by it.

NASA Langley Research Center is involved in the development of photonic devices and systems for space exploration missions. Photonic technologies of particular interest are those that can be utilized for in-space communication, remote sensing, guidance navigation and control, lunar descent and landing, and rendezvous and docking. NASA Langley has recently established a class-100 clean-room which serves as a Photonics Fabrication Facility for development of prototype optoelectronic devices for aerospace applications. In this paper we discuss our design, fabrication, and testing of novel active pixels, deformable mirrors, and liquid crystal spatial light modulators. Successful implementation of these intelligent optical devices and systems in space, requires careful consideration of temperature and space radiation effects in inorganic and electronic materials. Applications including high bandwidth inertial reference units, lightweight, high precision star trackers for guidance, navigation, and control, deformable mirrors, wavefront sensing, and beam steering technologies are discussed. In addition, experimental results are presented which characterize their performance in space exploration systems.

The next president of the United States should give NASA an additional $3 billion each year, both to get to Mars and to focus attention on science issues in space and on Earth, a group of scientists, industry figures and former astronauts said on Thursday.

Back to the Moon? Push on to Mars? Visit an asteroid? At Stanford University on Tuesday, 50 space experts and advocates from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, industry, academia and advocacy groups are gathering to ask whether the United States is on the right track in its plans to reach the Moon by 2020, build a long-term lunar base there and eventually send humans to Mars.

The objective of the Aurora Programme is first to formulate and then to implement a European long-term plan for the robotic and human exploration of solar system bodies holding promise for traces of life.

Three years ago, President George W. Bush told NASA to return American astronauts to the Moon. Geoff Brumfiel reports on how far they have got.

Article by Arran Frood about legalities of property rights in space exploration