August 2016
Our changing world and the mounting risk of a calamitous solar storm
...Satellites (red shows where the magnetic field is strengthening and blue shows where it is weakening). This means the potential ... XPrize, SpaceShipOne, SpaceX, Skybox, O3b, ViaSat, Blue Origin, Stratolaunch/Viking, Virgin Galactic, etc. have embraced...
November 2017
Japanese space industrial policy in transition
... ideas or outright changing the behaviour of industry. This is no ground-breaking idea such as those demonstrated by SpaceX or Blue Origin. Nevertheless, I find the Vision a very pragmatic and down-to-earth proposal for the current Japanese space...
October 2018
Mining the Moon for fun and profit
.... The price ULA is willing to pay on the surface of the Moon is US$500/kg for 1100 mT of propellant per year. Blue Origin and SpaceX are also developing transportation architectures that require in-space refuelling. In addition, NASA has indicated...
February 2019
The Space Elevator – an alternative path to space?
...large upfront investment. Successfully competing with rockets in their latest incarnations (in the form of the SpaceX BFR, Blue Origin NewGlenn, NASA SLS, not to mention aerospike engines) is tough. Developing space infrastructure such as space solar...
April 2019
Building the UK’s first spaceport
... a spaceport which allows vehicles and people to return safely. This is currently being established by companies such as Blue Origin and SpaceX but can potentially add a great deal of complexity to a spaceport design and its operations. A horizontal...
July 2019
Settling the final frontier
... century than building rockets. Witness the success of Jeff Bezos with Amazon, versus his ongoing investment in Blue Origin. But Bezos himself is bullish on space colonisation for similar reasons. His stated desire is to have millions of people...
