Obama canceled the manned space program and now the American Natural History Museum is asking the question: Where next? If you are in New York, they will host a great debate on space exploration on March 15. More

The NASA space program? Kind of hamstrung at the moment. But! Coming this April: An “ambitious plan” from the Obama Administration that will officially outline the agency’s future, and the future of U.S. space travel . The “plan” arrives this April 15.

Martian rovers with wheels are so 2009, man. And they get stuck in the sand way to easily. What we need is an army of tumbleweed beach ball robots surveying hundreds of miles of Martian surface. NASA’s on the case. The concept is mind-numbingly simple: It’s a big, bouncing ball that’s light enough to be pushed around Mars by nothing but the planet’s wind

In 2006, a NASA spacecraft returned to Earth with samples that scientists hoped might contain cosmic dust, a byproduct of star formation. They let the public look for the elusive particles online. A squinting citizen might have just found one. The particles in question are pieces of interstellar dust, a substance containing atoms formed during the birthing of the sun and our neighboring planets. Don Brownlee, a researcher at the University of Washington, likens the dust to a “library of what was in the early solar system.” You would assume that the first cosmic dust would be discovered in a laboratory by some crazy-haired scientist, but the distinction may go to a Canadian man named Bruce Hudson. Hudson was a participant in Stardust@home, a program that anyone with an internet connection use a virtual microscope to scour the samples for these particular particles

Around 600 million metric tons of water ice were discovered in shadowy craters at the moon’s north pole. How much is that, in terms that mean something to you? Possibly enough to sustain a mother-F-ing moon base, that’s how much. A piece of NASA radar equipment hitching a ride on an Indian probe made the discovery, which was reported earlier today. It was only last September that water ice was confirmed to exist on the moon’s south pole, but these significant deposits bring us that much closer to the ultimate space nerd dream of a base on the moon

NASA’s Johnson Space Center says that they can put a version of C-3PO on the Moon in just one thousand days. One that can be controlled from Earth using telepresence. If they can really make this happen, it’s amazing news. Imagine sending every scientist to the Moon Back in the Lunar exploration days, scientists had to tell astronauts what to do up there, and how to identify interesting things during the limited time they had.

NASA can put humanoids on the Moon in just 1000 days. They would be controlled by scientists on Earth using motion capture suits, giving them the feeling of being on the lunar surface. I’d pay to use one. Imagine sending every scientist to the Moon Back in the Lunar exploration days, scientists had to tell astronauts what to do up there, and how to identify interesting things during the limited time they had.

NASA can put humanoids on the Moon in just 1000 days. They would be controlled by scientists on Earth using motion capture suits, giving them the feeling of being on the lunar surface. I’d pay to use one. Imagine sending every scientist to the Moon Back in the Lunar exploration days, scientists had to tell astronauts what to do up there, and how to identify interesting things during the limited time they had. For Apollo 15, the first mission that carried the Lunar Rover, astronauts were trained in field work by Caltech geologist Leon Silver.

As we’ve been hearing for months , 2010 is going to be a year of belt-tightening for NASA . But it still has some cool technologies on the way: inflatable space stations , research into mid-orbit refueling, and new autonomous space vehicles. Inflatable space station modules rank high on NASA’s wish list for an important reason: they’re cheap. However, don’t let the price fool you. Despite costing less, the modules can be larger than current models for the same weight, provide just as much protection, and even be tested with the currently deployed ISS.

Based upon plant research by entities like NASA, Air Purifier Review has assembled the 15 houseplants that are best at cleaning your air (without electricity). The overall best? The Areca palm, also known as Chrysalidocarpus lutescens . [ AirPurifierReview via Unplggd ]