Astronauts

Take one small step today and experience the historic moon-landing through VR. This video showcases how VR is allowing the public to travel through space through the eyes of those who lived through it.

Twelve astronauts have walked on the moon to date, and they all agree that our lunar neighbor smells like gunpowder. Scientists argue this scent comes from unstable minerals that cling to their suits and the rocks they return to the ship. Notwithstanding, space itself has a different smell, often compared to steak or metal, which experts believe, rather poetically, is the smell of dead stars.

Mars remains the most viable interplanetary destination due to its relatively habitable orbit. There are many challenges, however, including the huge distance to Mars, the need for advanced propulsion systems, uncertainty over the impacts of long-duration space travel on astronauts, and the need for safe landing techniques and equipment to handle Martian conditions. Human-manned missions to Mars are not likely to occur until the 2030s at the earliest.

Astronaut essentially translates to space sailor, though these sailors may be referred to differently depending on their home country. For example, Russian star sailors are called cosmonauts. Though why American, European, Canadian, and Japanese...

Twelve Central Illinois residents are asked to share their thoughts on where they were when the first people landed on the Moon. This almost one-hour program is a collaboration of Eastern Illinois University's Booth Library, the EIU Department of History, and WEIU, and it premiered at EIU's Booth Library, January 24, 2019.

The Space Launch System is intended to be the most powerful rocket ever built by NASA. Possible missions include returning to the moon and perhaps even reaching Mars. This speculative and mostly silent video uses animation to explore the inner workings of the SLS, showing it launching and in space flight.

Astronaut Mae Jemison describes her journey from space-loving girl in Chicago to astronaut looking down on Chicago and thinking about her younger self in this two-minute video. Physician, engineer, educator, entrepreneur and the first woman of color in the world to go into space, Dr. Jemison was a NASA astronaut for six years.

NASA's Artemis mission plans to see humans return to the moon by 2025, with long-term plans to build the first lunar base on its surface. To begin, astronauts will dwell for days at a time in SpaceX's Starship, which is capable of landing and taking off again from the moon. Over time, NASA plans to harvest minerals from the lunar surface to construct an oxygen pipeline as well as the rest of the base. Watch this video to see a sophisticated, detailed description of NASA's plans for the base.

Outside the protective atmosphere of Earth, astronauts are constantly bombarded by radiation, which, among other dangers, increases the risk cancer. While those of us on Earth can mitigate the effects of similar radiation by limiting exposure,...

From space radiation to isolation, humans struggle when it comes to traveling and living in space. What does this mean for long-term spaceflight? This hour-long podcast episode attempts to answer that question while detailing five major spaceflight hazards.