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Credit: NASA

NEW YORK – A few hours ago, at a toy store not so far away, Space.com sent one of its reporters to eat Wookie cookies, attend “Light Saber Academy,” and meet the owner of the world’s largest “Star Wars” memorabilia collection, in a daylong countdown to “Force Friday.”  

Tomorrow (Sept. 3), is “Force Friday”: Also known as the day Hasbro and Disney will reveal a new line of “Star Wars” toys, inspired by the new movie, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” set to be released on Dec. 18. The toys will be available at the Toys ‘R’ Us in Times Square at 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401 GMT), but leading up to the big reveal, the store has an entire day of “Star Wars” activies planned. Space.com reporter Calla Cofield went into the field to capture the action. Some amazing Star Wars LEGO sculptures welcomed visitors upon arrival: 

Where are those droids we’re looking for?

Maybe this guy can find them?

From Calla: “Star Wars and sci-fi artist Jeff Carlisle teaching the kids how to use simple shapes to make Star Wars characters. They did Yoda, TIE Fighters, the Millennium Falcon, Vader and R2D2.”

Shh! In session, this Star Wars class is. Younglings are learning to use the Force.

From Calla: “Steve Sansweet curated a ‘Star Wars’ vintage toy display that’s spread throughout the store. It features this hysterical line of action figures where all the guys are shaped like He-Man and Leia is cross eyed. Read the paragraph that goes with it.” 

We don’t remember Mark Hamill being this bulked up for the movies.

“Chewie, we’re home. And our shoulders are HUGE.”

This is the van we’re looking for!

Steve Sansweet was on hand to sign copies of his new book, “Star Wars: The Ultimate Collectors Guide.”  Sansweet is president and CEO of the non-profit Rancho Obi-Wan, which is based around his massive “Star Wars” toy collection (over 300,000 pieces!). Sansweet says he’s most excited about the technology that will appear in the new generation of “Star Wars” toys. He referenced, as an example, the incredible little BB-8 robot, designed by the Sphero toy company.

“I think this is going to be a breakthrough kind of merchandising event and breakthrough for the new movies. We’re really going to see the technology being integral to what the toy does,” Sansweet said. 

In the vintage toy displays that Sansweet curated, there are some awesome examples of bygone technology in “Star Wars” toys. For example, a “Movie Cassette Color Show” toy from the 1970’s let the user run short movies through a sort of plastic film-based movie camera. But Sansweet said the film would get scratched with every viewing. 

Some of the items in Sansweet’s collection are extremely rare and valuable, but he emphasized that a collector shouldn’t get into the game hoping the items will eventually become valuable. He says he plays with all the toys he buys, and will buy a second one if he thinks he’d like to keep one in good condition. 

“You need to find what you love,” he said. 

Stay tuned for more amazing photos from the midnight toy reveal at the Toys ‘R’ Us here in Times Square!

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. 

Is that really a floating spoon on Mars? No, but this photo from NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity this week does show a weird rock that looks like a floating spoon. It was likely sculpted by Martian winds, NASA says. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

A so-called “floating spoon” on Mars spotted by NASA’s Curiosity rover is cooking up a storm on the Internet, but it’s actually a cool rock formation sculpted over time by the Martian winds, officials with the space agency say.

The uncannily spoon-shaped rock was photographed by Curiosity on Sunday (Aug. 30) during the rover’s 1,089th day on Mars, and word of the rock spread online in the days that followed. In the Curiosity photo, a handle shape juts out from an outcrop and ends in a rounded tip much like a spoon. It even casts its own spoon-shaped shadow on the ground below.

But alas, per NASA, the “spoon” is not some leftover debris from a Martian campsite or kitchen. Like other “sightings” on Mars, it’s a strangely shaped rock. [Photos of the Face on Mars and Other Optical Illusions]

“There is no spoon. This weird Mars feature is likely a ventifact — a rock shaped by wind,” NASA officials wrote in an image description. 

This photo by NASA’s Curiosity rover shows the raw image of Mars that includes a spoon-shaped rock at the lower center. Curiosity took this photo with its Mastcam camera on Aug. 30, 2015, the rover’s 1,089th day on Mars.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

We’ve included two views of the “spoon on Mars” here, one with the formation picked out and the other the raw image from Curiosity’s Mastcam camera. Seeing shapes and patterns that aren’t really there is known as pareidolia — and those mysterious shapes are merely optical illusions that trick the human eye and brain. 

There’s a long history of seeing strange shapes on the Red Planet, dating back to the eerie “Face on Mars” first spotted by NASA’s Viking 1 orbiter. Since then, other shapes, including a rat, woman, jelly doughnut and — more recently — a crab, have been reported by eagle-eyed observers poring over NASA’s photos. So far, they’re all rocks, though. Every last one.  

NASA’s Curiosity rover landed on Mars in August 2012 and is now into its third year on Red Planet. The rover is currently studying a rock formation known as the Stimson unit inside the vast Gale Crater, according to a status update posted today (Sept. 2). Curiosity is expected to head for new location nearby, known as the Bridger Basin, on its way toward a spot called Bagnold Dunes.

Mars Myths & Misconceptions: Quiz

No planet is more steeped in myth and misconception than Mars. This quiz will reveal how much you really know about some of the goofiest claims about the red planet.

0 of 10 questions complete

Mars Myths & Misconceptions: Quiz

No planet is more steeped in myth and misconception than Mars. This quiz will reveal how much you really know about some of the goofiest claims about the red planet.

0 of questions complete

“It’s exciting to be driving again, and I’m sure we’ll encounter some beautiful views as we continue to drive through this interesting terrain,” Curiosity science team member Lauren Edgar, a research geologist with the USGS Astrogeology Science Center, wrote in the status update.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Falcon 9 return-to-flight mission will be the first of an upgraded version with increased performance. Credit: SpaceX

PASADENA, Calif. — The return to flight of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, still a “couple of months” away, will also be the first launch of an upgraded version of the vehicle with increased performance, the company’s president said Aug. 31.

Speaking at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Space 2015 conference here, Gwynne Shotwell said the company was working through a series of intensive reviews of the Falcon 9 after its June failure while preparing the latest upgrade to the vehicle to increase its performance.

“Our next flight will be both the return to flight and the first flight of the upgraded vehicle,” she said. “So whenever people ask me what keeps me up at night, it’s getting ready for that flight.” [SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Rocket Explosion in Slow Motion (Video)]  

SpaceX had been working for some time on a upgrade to the current Falcon 9 v1.1, sometimes called v1.2, that features engines with increased thrust, providing an increase in performance of about 30 percent. That first launch of the upgraded Falcon 9 was scheduled for September before the June 28 launch failure.

Shotwell said after her panel session that there is a payload assigned to that return-to-flight mission, but could not name it without the permission of the customer. Prior to the launch failure, SES was scheduled to launch its SES-9 satellite on the first upgraded Falcon launch.

SpaceX blamed the June launch failure on a broken strut holding down a helium bottle in a propellant tank in the rocket’s upper stage. Helium leaking from the bottle then caused the tank to overpressurize and burst. Shotwell said SpaceX still believes that is the root cause of the failure.

Shotwell added that while this problem is relatively straightforward to correct, SpaceX is also examining the vehicle for other potential issues. “What we wanted to do was to take advantage of the lessons that we learned from that particular failure and make sure we’re not seeing something like that anywhere throughout the vehicle,” she said. That includes a series of top-down reviews, and having the work done by every company engineer checked by another engineer.

That additional investigation has delayed the vehicle’s next launch. While SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said in July the vehicle could return to flight in September, Shotwell suggested it may be November before that launch takes place. “It’s taking more time than we originally envisioned to get back to flight,” she acknowledged. “We’re a couple of months away from the next flight.”

Shotwell remained optimistic about not just returning the Falcon 9 to flight this year, but also successfully landing the vehicle’s first stage, either on an oceangoing platform or a pad on land, as part of SpaceX’s efforts to develop a reusable version of the vehicle. The company has attempted landings of the first stage on its “autonomous spaceport drone ship” after launches in January and April, but neither was successful.

“I want to see a Falcon 9 first stage land on a drone ship or land on my landing site this year,” she said. “I want to stick a landing this year.”

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.

An Apollo moon rock sample in the Lunar Sample Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Credit: Science/AAAS

Some of the moon soil collected by Apollo astronauts has deteriorated significantly during its four-plus decades on Earth, a new study reports.

Scientists found that the median particle size in a set of 20 different Apollo soil samples held in laboratories for research use has decreased by more than half since the samples were first measured 40 years ago.

“It might be accurate to state that the Apollo lunar soils are literally crumbling to dust,” the scientists, led by Bonnie Cooper of Hanyang University in South Korea, wrote in the new study. [‪NASA’s 17 Apollo Moon Missions in Pictures]

Between 1969 and 1972, Apollo astronauts brought 842 lbs. (382 kilograms) of lunar rocks and dirt back to Earth. Eighty-three percent of that material remains unexamined in nitrogen storage at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Cooper told Space.com via email. The other 17 percent has been allocated to researchers for study in a number of different laboratories.

The 20 soil samples Cooper and her team looked at belonged to this latter group. Between 2007 and 2012, they used laser-diffraction techniques to measure particle sizes in the samples, which were provided by JSC and the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. The researchers compared their results with the original soil measurements, which were made in the 1970s using sieves.

The differences between the two datasets are stark. For example, the median particle diameter has decreased from 78 microns (0.0031 inches) to 33 microns (0.0013 inches). And in the original sieve data, 44 percent of soil particles were between 90 and 1,000 microns (0.0035 to 0.039 inches) wide; today, just 17 percent of the particles are that large.

The most likely explanation for the degradation is damage caused by water vapor, the scientists say.

“Leaching by water vapor causes the specific surface area of a lunar soil sample to multiply, and a system of pores develops,” they wrote in the study, which was published online last week in the journal Nature Geoscience. “These structural changes may be attributed to the opening of existing, but previously unavailable, pore structure or the creation of new surfaces through fracturing of cement or dissolution of amorphous particles.”

Apollo Quiz: Test Your Moon Landing Memory

It has been more than four decades since the first men landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. Test your memory of the moon landing with this quiz.

0 of 10 questions complete

Apollo Quiz: Test Your Moon Landing Memory

It has been more than four decades since the first men landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. Test your memory of the moon landing with this quiz.

0 of questions complete

The new results suggest that the Apollo soil samples being studied by scientists are not pristine, Cooper said.

“People should not assume that the Apollo lunar soil samples remain representative of soils found in the natural environment of the moon, especially if they have been exposed to air,” she told Space.com via email. “In addition to particle size distribution, other geotechnical properties (such as strength and cohesion) must also have changed. Also, for example, water found in the sample might be taken to be lunar in origin when in fact it is the result of contamination.”

Cooper suspects that all of the researcher-allocated material has been altered to some degree. The unexamined samples may not be completely pure, either.

“Based on other evidence, it’s possible that even the samples stored in nitrogen may be compromised,” Cooper said. 

There is no known way to restore degraded samples to their previous state, she said, adding that off-Earth storage is likely required to keep extraterrestrial material 100 percent pristine.

“To store future samples so that they are not contaminated by Earth’s atmosphere, we need a facility like the International Space Station (with samples stored outside the pressurized area and examined robotically) or a similar facility on the moon,” Cooper said. “If such a facility existed, new lunar samples (and samples from elsewhere in the solar system) could be stored with far less risk of contamination.”

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

This artist concept shows Comet Hitchhiker, an idea for traveling between asteroids and comets using a harpoon and tether system. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornelius Dammrich

A NASA spacecraft may one day sling itself from one comet or asteroid to another using a harpoon and a superlong tether.

That’s the idea behind Comet Hitchhiker, a proposal that received funding last year from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, which seeks to encourage the development of transformative exploration technologies.

“This kind of hitchhiking could be used for multiple targets in the main asteroid belt or the Kuiper Belt, even five to 10 in a single mission,” Comet Hitchhiker concept principal investigator Masahiro Ono, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement. (The Kuiper Belt is the ring of icy bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune; Pluto is its most famous resident.) [Best Close Encounters of the Comet Kind]

Comet Hitchhiker would grab hold of an asteroid or comet using its harpoon, then let out some tether while applying a brake to capture kinetic energy from the target object. The probe could then land softly by reeling in the line, which would likely need to be 62 miles to 620 miles (100 to 1,000 kilometers) long in total.

Rapidly retrieving the tether (using the harvested kinetic energy) would accelerate Comet Hitchhiker away from the body and on toward its next target, all without the need for any kind of propellant, NASA officials said.

Comet Hitchhiker, shown in this artist rendering, is a concept for orbiting and landing on small bodies.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornelius Dammrich

This strategy could enable the low-cost exploration of multiple bodies throughout the solar system, including orbital or landed missions to faraway comets and Kuiper Belt objects. (Currently, such distant targets can be studied only with flyby missions because of the tremendous amount of fuel that would be required to slow a spacecraft down enough, Ono wrote on Comet Hitchhiker’s NIAC page.)

Comet Hitchhiker could also get to faraway destinations relatively quickly, according to Ono. By hopping onto a comet, the spacecraft could arrive at Pluto’s orbit in about 5.5 years, Ono wrote; for comparison, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft traveled for 9.5 years before reaching the dwarf planet for its epic July 14 flyby.

“We strongly believe that the Comet Hitchhiker concept will advance the frontier of space exploration to the most exotic worlds in the solar system,” Ono wrote on the concept’s NIAC page.

But this is all in the realm of speculation, for Comet Hitchhiker remains a concept in early development. The study received a 2014 NIAC Phase 1 award, which grants research teams about $100,000 to perform initial analyses over a period of nine months.

Phase 1 awardees can apply for a Phase 2 grant, which is worth up to $500,000 for two more years’ worth of concept development.

Landing on a comet isn’t as crazy as it may sound; the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission pulled off the feat last November when its Philae lander touched down on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (though Philae’s anchoring harpoon failed to fire and the probe bounced twice before finally settling on the comet’s surface).

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

The space-based action shows “Killjoys” and “Dark Matter” will both be getting second seasons in 2016, the Syfy network announced this week.

“Dark Matter” tells the story of six people who wake up on a spaceship with no memory of who they are, or how they got there. According to a statement from the network, the show averaged 1.8 million viewers in its first season. The second season will consist of 13 episodes, and will premiere sometime in 2016.

“Killjoys” follows three space-romping bounty hunters and their talking spaceship through a planetary system called The Quad, where class tensions are about to boil over. The trio’s lives are further complicated as their leader Dutch’s dark past begins to haunt her. The show averaged 1.5 million viewers in its first season, according to Syfy. The 10-episode second season will air sometime in 2016. [Syfy’s ‘Killjoys’ in Photos: Space Bounty Hunting Action & Adventure]

“Dark Matter,” is based on a graphic novel by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie, former producers and writers for the “Stargate” franchise. Mallozzi serves as showrunner for “Dark Matter,” and just before the show premiered, he spoke with Space.com about some of the awesome science fiction featured in the show. (Among other things, Mallozzi created a faster-than-light travel mechanism that involves the traveler downloading his or her brain to a computer, and uploading it into a clone body in a distant location.)  

The first season ended with a shocking revelation and a major cliffhanger, leaving fans eager for a second season. The show’s cast includes Melissa O’Neil, Marc Bendavid, Anthony Lemke, Alex Mallari Jr. and Jodelle Ferland, with Roger Cross and Zoie Palmer.

Created by screenwriter Michelle Lovretta (who talked with Space.com before the show’s premiere), “Killjoys” is packed with lots of treats for science fiction fans, including gorgeous cosmic scenery and talking spaceships. There’s also great chemistry among the show’s three main cast members — Hannah John-Kamen as Dutch, Luke Macfarlane as D’avin and Aaron Ashmore as John.

“With exciting space-based action, deep world building and a standout cast, ‘Killjoys’ has struck a nerve with viewers and critics alike,” Bill McGoldrick, executive vice president of original content at Syfy, said in a statement. “We can’t wait to see what adventures Michelle Lovretta and Temple Street take Dutch, John and D’avin on in season two.”

The Syfy channel has a strong space lineup set for late 2015 and 2016. In December, the network will debut a 10-part series called “The Expanse,” based on the book series of the same name by James S. A. Corey (the pen name for Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck). The network has also announced plans to develop shows based on Frederik Pohl’s book “Gateway,” and Dan Simmons’ novel “Hyperion.” In addition, the network’s time-travel-themed show “12 Monkeys,” which is inspired by the 1995 Terry Gilliam movie, has also been renewed for a second season. 

Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

The MUOS-4 satellite launched aboard an Atlas V rocket on Sept. 2, 2015. The rocket trail reflected sunlight in the early dawn hours to create this stunning aerial light show. Credit: United Launch Alliance

Early this morning, in a double display of sheer power and explosive force, two rockets thousands of miles apart blasted off toward space within 6 hours of each other.

Just before dawn today (Sept. 2), a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying a military communications satellite. The rocket’s fiery tail reflected the light coming from below the horizon, creating the illusion of a glowing orb hanging over the water. The fantastic sight was captured in the photograph above.

Earlier in the day (12:37 a.m. EDT (0437 GMT), a Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying three human passengers headed for the International Space Station.

Photographs of the Soyuz rocket taking off show the enormous trail of fire that propelled the rocket skyward. The arrival of the three spaceflyers at the orbiting laboratory early Friday morning (Sept. 4) will bring the total crew count to nine. There have not been that many crewmembers on the station at once since November 2013, according to NASA.

A Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft launched ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen, commander Sergei Volkov and Aidyn Aimbetov to the International Space Station on Sept. 2, 2015, from Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.
Credit: ESA/S. Corvaja

The Soyuz spacecraft is carrying cosmonaut Sergey Volkov; Denmark’s first astronaut, Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency (ESA); and Kazakhstan’s Aidyn Aimbetov. After launch, the three astronauts radioed a status update down to mission control, saying, “Everything is in order on board.” 

The Atlas V rocket that took off from Cape Canaveral carried the fourth satellite in the U.S. Navy’s MUOS communications network. The satellite system “works like a smartphone network in space,” according to a statement from the Navy, and will be used by military personnel around the world. The satellites are built by Lockheed Martin.

A Soyuz rocket carrying three crew members headed for the International Space Station took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazahkstan at 12:38 a.m. EDT (0438 GMT) on Sept. 2, 2015.
Credit: ESA/S. Corvaja

The Atlas V left the ground at 6:18 a.m. EDT (1018 GMT), and the light of the rocket leaving Earth made a spectacular sight against the backdrop of a predawn sky. The first three MUOS satellites launched in 2012, 2013 and 2015.

An Atlas V rocket carrying the MUOS-4 satellite took off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:18 a.m. EDT (1018 GMT). This long exposure snapshot captured the streak of the rocket’s fiery tail across the predawn sky. Credit: United Launch Alliance.
Credit: United Launch Alliance

Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.