When astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore returned to Earth after an unexpected nine-month stay aboard the International Space Station, their faces told a story NASA didn't need to narrate.

Image of the lunar surface, looking south across Mare Imbrium, with the crater Copernicus (58 miles in diameter) visible in the distance, in an image of the lunar surface taken during the Apollo 17, ...

This story is part of the ZDNET In Depth series that examines the most innovative technologies of our generation. Inside perhaps the most functional rat's nest of cables imaginable, a European Space ...