March 2016
Rosetta – Starting from Scratch
... vicinity of a planet, and uses its gravity field for a further acceleration in its heliocentric orbit - thereby stealing a bit of the planet’s orbital energy. This makes the journey very long but at the end the spacecraft...
November 2019
PROSPECTing for lunar polar volatiles
... yet we can see it on most days; its diameter corresponds to the distance from Madrid to Moscow; its surface is a bit smaller than that of Asia. While other continents are typically separated from ours by the water of oceans...
October 2020
Connecting the global space community
... President of the International Astronautical Federation you have set up an IAF Global Advocacy Agenda. Can you tell us a bit more about it? Five decades after the Moon landings, we are facing particularly important decisions about the...
31 October 2018
Black hole status of the Milky Way centre confirmed with striking new data
... to measure extremely small angles in the sky with extremely high accuracy; angles that are so small, its a bit like picking out a one-euro coin on the surface of the Moon. "It’s mind-boggling to actually witness material...
August 2017
On-orbit assembly will deliver major benefits in coming decade
... information can be moved through the system, measured in bits per second. Similar to Moore’s Law for computer processor... new payload would refresh the technology and instantly increase the bit-rate of the asset. As an illustration, we again assume...
May 2021
Visions of beating gravity
... at home with these grand projects. As my choice of company acronym illustrates, I believe challenge should always be a bit crazy – a bit ‘MAD’. Preferably also a bit against the flow. Only then can life shine. The author at work in his specially...
