March 2016
Space Oddities: The Problem with Imagination
... by the lack of imagination around them. Veterok and Ugolyok, launched into space on 22 February 1966 aboard the Cosmos-110 biosatellite, pictured at the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems, USSR Ministry of Health As she says: “I always...
March 2016
Space debris conundrum for international law makers
... train of debris created by the February 2009 collision between the commercial satellite Iridium-33 the Russian satellite Cosmos-2251; in September 2013, the US Air Force reported the Cubesat had passed less than 75 m away from...
September 2016
Transforming US space policy
... Earth orbit will continue to grow due to collisions, even if nothing new is launched. Catastrophic collisions such as Iridium 33-Cosmos 2251 will occur every five to nine years. Each such collision will create thousands of pieces of debris...
April 2017
Mega-challenges for mega-constellations
... capability to perform manoeuvres and the fact that most of these missions occur in low altitude orbits (e.g. Cosmos-type Earth observation satellites). The operating altitudes now selected by most of the megaconstellations correspond to quasieternal...
June 2018
Cosmic communications and the anthropology of outer space
... intelligent beings? In 1990, Voyager 1 pivoted to take a ‘portrait’ of Earth that helped relativize the planet as part of a larger cosmos. The famous ‘pale blue dot’ photo from almost four billion miles away underscores Earth’s smallness...
August 2018
Exoplanet census promises radical discoveries
... next decade is out. This would bring us one step closer to understanding whether we are not alone in the cosmos and usher in a new era of astronomy, laying the groundwork for future telescopes designed to characterise Earth-like...
