interstellar travel

Space.com's editors present a reading list for space and sci-fi lovers, as well as children who are interested in astronomy and spaceflight.

"Chemical rockets that we use today, even with the extra speed boost from flying by planets, or from swinging by the sun for a boost, just don't have the ability to scale to useful interstellar speeds."

All four technologies are grounded in reality, but some are more feasible than others.

Due to the mind-blowing distances and speeds required, interstellar travel remains a major spaceflight challenge. But new research highlights yet another hurdle: Communication blackouts.

Fungi piggybacking on space missions is dangerous to astronaut health and spacecraft equipment, but studying its behavior is also useful for long-term space missions.

NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft had a communication breakdown with Earth, but has now resumed regular communications thanks to the agency's Deep Space Network.

NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft is alone drifting through interstellar space after a communications breakdown left it unable to receive commands or transmit data back to Earth.

The reels are not much to look at and the quality of their recordings exists in other formats. Their pedigree, though, is unique, which is why they could be worth 10 times their weight in gold.

NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) is back to normal operations after controllers successfully reset its computer March 2, NASA said.

NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) reset its flight computer Feb. 18 and has been unresponsive to commands ever since, agency officials said Friday (Feb. 24).