This week's Question: NASA astrobiologist Chris McKay recently edited a special issue in the journal New Space, publishing papers that came out of a 2014 meeting with scientists and space business professionals. The goal of the 2014 meeting was to explore and develop low-cost options for building a human...

This week's Question: NASA announced last week that it was resurrecting a supersonic aircraft called the Quiet SST (“QueSST”). The space agency believes that the traditional sonic boom can be mitigated into a soft thump, or “heartbeat.” Supersonic planes could potentially...

This week's Question: Autonomous vehicles have been touted as a way to combat roadway accidents and reduce energy expenditure and greenhouse gas emissions. A new study from University of Leeds, University of Washington, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, however, claims that the actual impact may be both...