For more than a century, popular culture has promised that humanity will spread effortlessly across the Solar System, turning ...

Humanity has already flung machines into interstellar space, but sending people is a different problem entirely. The physics of propulsion, the fragility of the human body, and the sheer size of the ...

Illustration comparing the planets of the Solar System and the Sun on the same scale. The planets are shown to scale relative to each other but their distances are not. From left to right the bodies ...

Another day, another ambitious company emerges to harness the power of the Sun from Earth's orbit. Okay, it's not quite that common an occurrence, but there are indeed a number of firms giving this a ...

Overview Energy plans to develop satellites collecting solar power in geosynchronous orbit and beaming it to Earth using near-infrared wide-beam lasers. Credit: Overview Energy WASHINGTON — A space ...

Nanotechnology enables the use of materials with unique optical, electrical, and thermal properties. These materials can be engineered to absorb sunlight more efficiently, reduce energy loss, and ...