Reuters reports on Curiosity’s latest discovery – the dried bed of what was apparently once a mucky, life-filled lake on Mars:

The lake, located inside Gale Crater where the rover landed in August 2012, likely covered an area 31 miles long and 3 miles wide, though its size varied over time.

Analysis of sedimentary deposits gathered by NASA’s Mars rover [...]

International Business Times hints at what the first commercial satellite means for the future of space:

After two failed launch attempts due to technical glitches last week, the 22-story Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 5:41 p.m. EST. The rocket carried a 7,000-pound communications satellite called “SES-8,” owned by Luxembourg-based SES S.A., [...]

Washington Post reflects on the future of space exploration. Rather than the will of a great nation, today it takes a determined billionaire to send a man to Mars:

Billionaire Dennis Tito, tired of being told that we can’t send humans to Mars just yet, on Wednesday revealed his scheme for launching two astronauts to the red planet as early [...]

NASA has just taken chatting about the weather to a new level with MAVEN, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution rocket, which just launched yesterday:

The agency’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft separated from an Atlas V Centaur rocket’s second stage 53 minutes after launch. The solar arrays deployed approximately one hour after launch and currently power [...]

The Telegraph reveals that America’s space agency isn’t quite as clean as it could be. A previously unknown bacteria has been multiplying happily in *two* rooms designed to be the most germ-free places on Earth:

These rooms are kept extremely dry, are cleaned with chemicals including bleach and have negative air pressure to keep out any contaminants.

Ultraviolet light and [...]

You might have seen on BBC and elsewhere that India launched a rocket to Mars. But have you seen the Quartz article on just how inexpensively they managed to do it?:

Christened Mangalyaan, or Mars vehicle, the rocket is part of a scientific mission that cost a grand total of Rs 4.5 billion, or $73 million. In terms [...]

No, not quoting that classical sot Li Bai, but the (mostly) sober-minded folks at Outside, who are now celebrating Dogfish Head’s latest special beer… made with moon dust in it:

Called “Celest-jewel-ale,” this batch of Oktoberfest was brewed with German malts and hops, fermented in the brewery’s special yeast, and sprinkled with ground-up lunar metorites. The craft brewery [...]

Yep. Virgin Galactic has announced that it’s sending a reality TV show contestant into space while cameras roll:

“Space Race” is a groundbreaking, elimination competition series where everyday people compete for the ultimate prize – a trip for the winner into space on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo for a life-changing experience few people have ever enjoyed, all captured on camera. [...]

ABC (the American network) asks why send a toolbox into orbit when you can send one tool that makes all the other ones?:

In NASA labs, engineers are 3-D printing small satellites that could shoot out of the Space Station and transmit data to earth, as well as replacement parts and rocket pieces that can survive extreme temperatures.

“Any time [...]