SpaceX launched 24 Starlink internet satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California today (Sept. 13), on the company's 115th Falcon 9 mission of the year.
Lasers aren’t just useful for entertaining cats or pointing out features of powerpoint slides. They can also drill holes on icy extraterrestrial bodies from comets to Mars polar caps. At least according to a new paper in Acta Astronautica by researchers at the Technical University of Dresden, who describe a new laser drill for use on icy surfaces throughout our solar system.

