May 2018
Challenging the boundaries of materials science
... flammability, but it is the particular operational environment that will determine which tests are applicable. Skilled materials engineers and their associates are needed to manage and control such lists. Thermal cover returned from a space...
January 2019
Materials make the space mission
...most demanding and hostile operational environments in which human engineering products are required to function Arrival at the ...and coatings, first noted in the early 1980s when engineers found Space Shuttle thermal blankets had been severely eroded...
February 2020
Climate change and spaceports – a difficult balance
... and accompanying support flights?”. The simple answer is that I believe the positives outweigh the negatives. I left engineering because of the limited options in the county of Cornwall whilst other contemporaries of mine reluctantly left the county...
May 2020
Developing a commercial market for small sample return
...said they covet as a source of air to breathe and fuel for propulsion. As scientists go to work on their samples, so will engineers, devising ways to extract the resources with better-than-simulated materials - nothing ultimately compares to the real...
August 2020
Interstellar aspirations
... potential for an Isp of several hundred thousand, which just begins to make interstellar missions plausible. The first engineering attempt to build a fusion-propelled rocket, based on Freeman Dyson’s Orion concept, began in the late 1950s. Dr Dyson...
May 2024
Out of this world – NASA’s textile technicians and innovations for space voyages
... products, sleeping bags, and blankets. Details of some innovative textiles and fibres follow. Membrane modules Membrane engineering is an innovative solution needed for deep space exploration. Filtration membranes for air and water purification and...
