September 2026
Spacecraft protection and resilience - a convergent approach
... in its hardware, its software and the commands it receives. But what if a fault caused by a burst of cosmic radiation is indistinguishable from one introduced by a cyberattack? Burak Oktenli explores why space engineers and cybersecurity specialists...
April 2020
Protecting against the dangers of space radiation
... example, can deliver a hazardous high flux burst of high energy protons over one or two days. Galactic cosmic radiation, composed of protons and alpha particles as well as heavy ions, still needs significant research. As a continuous flux it can...
February 2020
Surviving bacteria in space
... and technical support are very limited. In the case of astronauts, living in microgravity and being exposed to cosmic radiations causes many physiological disturbances including the dysregulation of the immune system, which increases the risk for...
September 2026
Towards a research roadmap for human reproduction beyond Earth
... safely conceive children beyond Earth? How would pregnancy develop in reduced gravity? What effect would cosmic radiation have on embryos? Who decides the ethical boundaries of such research? If humanity truly intends to become a multiplanetary...
February 2016
Defending Earth against cosmic hazards
... 2012 and was imaged by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) Earth is a constantly bombarded not just by solar radiation but by cosmic radiation originating from the nuclear reactions in stars, from novae and supernovae and even pulsars. Recent...
August 2016
Our changing world and the mounting risk of a calamitous solar storm
... the feasibility of electrostatically inflated membrane structures (EIMS) to create systems to protect astronauts in orbit from cosmic radiation. It seems quite possible to create a cluster of such inflatable structures with a magnetic field charge...
