A congressional committee has proposed that a new branch of the military be formed, called the United States Space Corps. As proposed in the National Defense Authorization Act for 2018, this would be the first new branch added since the formation of the United States Air Force in 1947. The USSC would be subordinate to the Department of the Air Force, much in the way the United States Marine Corps is part of the Department of the Navy.
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In the escalating space-race that has been re-kindled between the world’s spacefaring nations, the controversial EM Drive could be taking a leading role in propelling new spacecraft through the cosmos, as China has not only successfully tested their own version of the reactionless propulsion device, but NASA has also published a paper saying that the device does indeed work. China has now taken the next step in proving whether or not the device will be viable for use in space, and is currently conducting experiments on a proof-of-concept drive on board the Tiangong-2 space station.
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NASA has announced that they have confirmation that Saturn’s moon Enceladus has a food source that could support potential microbial lifeforms. This crucial ingredient accompanies Enceladus’ grocery list of elements needed to support life: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, organic molecules, and of course, liquid water.

"Almost all of the conditions that astrobiologists have identified for habitability are present on Enceladus: water, organics, and a chemical energy source," explains Hunter Waite, from the Southwest Research Institute. "The only things that are left on the checklist are phosphorus or sulfur."
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Four possible candidates for the elusive Planet Nine have been discovered, following an intense, three-day search involving approximately 60,000 amateur astronomers, coordinated through a Zooniverse citizen science project by Siding Spring Observatory at Australian National University (ANU). In addition, the participants in the search have classified more than four million other objects.

"With the help of tens of thousands of dedicated volunteers sifting through hundreds of thousands of images taken by SkyMapper, we have achieved four years of scientific analysis in under three days," remarks ANU researcher Brad Tucker.
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