Almost from the very first time humans noticed that Venus was a planet, it has been called “Earth’s twin.” It’s located near our planet, shares the same material composition, and is close to Earth’s size. But thanks to Venus’ insanely hot temperatures and punishing acid-laden atmosphere, Mars has gotten most of the attention as far as planned future exploration missions go.

NASA researchers are turning their attention toward exploring Venus one day with a project called HAVOC (High Altitude Venus Operational Concept). The concept incorporates a floating craft not unlike a blimp that will float above the surface of Venus at around 50 kilometers. At this distance, the craft will be in conditions similar to those found on Earth in terms of gravity, pressure, radiation protection, and density. Instruments and probes carried on-board the craft could be sent out to take readings and help us understand Earth’s “twin” planet better than ever.

Despite the planet’s hostile surface, a manned mission to Venus may be more plausible than a similar excursion to Mars since Venus is closer to Earth. The HAVOC system is ideal because, since it will hover so far above Venus, it won’t have to deal with the logistical headaches of landing on the surface and subsequent take-off – not that humans could survive the surface, anyway.

Unfortunately, the whole “blimp floating above Venus” plan doesn’t involve actually flying a blimp through space, which would be rad. Instead, it would be flown to its designated floating spot by standard space gear and deployed on-site. Then, manned crews would conduct tests and experiments in 30-day shifts, kind of like a Venusian version of the International Space Station. NASA says that, while the idea has been thrown out there, the agency currently has no future plans for a manned mission to Venus. But they do cheerfully note that “missions to the Venusian atmosphere can expand humanity’s future in space.”

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Finding life on Mars has been a benchmark of space exploration progress for decades, hence our fascination with the Curiosity rover and all of the data it provides NASA. But some people think that Curiosity will never find anything just scraping the surface and taking shallow rock samples. They think that, if the red planet currently supports living organisms, evidence of that life could be buried deep beneath the surface.

A non-profit startup called Explore Mars wants to launch (pun very much intended) an ambitious project to find life under Mars’ surface. They call it ExoLance, and they’re raising funds for the endeavor on Indiegogo. According to Explore Mars, all data collected so far from Mars clearly shows that the planet is – or was at some point – able to support life.

Given the harsh conditions on Mars’ surface, the team – led by the former director of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program – believe that extant life forms likely retreated underground. If this is true, Curiosity is not equipped with the proper tools to explore those life-supporting regions and won’t return the results that so many of us are hoping it will find.

The ExoLance project would address this problem in a half scary/half totally logical way: by firing several penetrating probes into the surface of Mars. As the delivery vehicle carrying the arrows approaches the planet, kinetic energy would help launch the arrows a couple of meters down below the surface. The arrows would then break in two, with the top part remaining on the surface as a communication link and the bottom part holding the scientific measuring equipment.

From there, the probe that’s embedded in the surface would measure key markers that would indicate whether current living organisms are present. Additionally, the instruments would measure whether the organisms are similar to those found on Earth or have a completely different composition. If the Indiegogo campaign is successful, the group will test their hardware by firing arrows from aircraft into the surface of the Mojave desert. The experiment will determine whether the probes can withstand the impact and burrow to the depth needed to collect useful samples.

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Most 3D printers – even the low-end ones – still cost thousands of dollars. What the rest of the world has still to master (i.e., making these futuristic machines affordable enough for everyone), one West African inventor did on his own for a mere $100. Kodjo Afate Gnikou, who lives in Togo, scrabbled together the needed parts mostly from e-waste.

E-waste is a global problem that is only getting worse as people around the world discard their “old” gadgets for the brand new shiny ones – and as poorly-made or low life expectancy machines stop working. To keep these potentially harmful materials out of landfills while empowering Africans with the latest technology, Gnikou dug through a junkyard and found discarded but usable tech materials.

The W.Afate project is supported by WoeLab, a group of hardware hackers in the city of Lomé. The project is also a part of FacLab-France, a group that wants to make essential machines from recycled e-waste in preparation for missions to Mars. 3D printers can be a vital part of future space missions, so the W.Afate project could end up taking e-waste to the red planet, but in the most benevolent way possible.

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