May 2019
Cold comfort for astronauts
... volume-space. This design philosophy is also driven by resource limitations and sustainability. Today’s human exploration missions primarily revolve around the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS was designed as an international laboratory...
June 2019
The challenge of planetary protection
... made recommendations on the Phobos/Deimos sample return categorisation regarding the International JAXA-led Martian Moons eXploration mission (MMX). This is an ambitious project that will travel to Mars and survey the red planet’s two moons...
July 2019
A reluctant American hero
... new awareness of the environmental issues for Earth from the late 1960s, stemming from the Apollo exploration missions. Seeing Earth from the Moon in the Apollo 11 photos was a powerful message and Apollo 8’s Bill Anders...
February 2020
Europe’s role in space standardisation
... standards will be the key issue as we introduce autonomous vehicles to Europe’s road networks. Data from ESA’s Earth Explorer missions address scientific questions that help predict the effects of climate change and address scientific questions that...
June 2021
China’s ascending commercial space sector
...constellations, and the fourth phase of the China Lunar Exploration Program. Overall, despite the 2020s having begun with... year, and future Chang’e missions, deep space exploration missions and even human lunar missions planned for later in the decade...
August 2021
AI in space – a legal perspective
... and space segments and between space assets, and effectively enhance communications networks for deep space exploration missions. Space imagery processing that once took humans hours, days or weeks to review and analyse can be automated...
