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...
August 2020
Interstellar aspirations
...star system within a generation. To achieve a transit time comparable to current long-term space exploration missions to the outer solar system, the Starshot mission would need to last a few decades at most. This requires a probe to travel about 1000...
November 2021
The philosophy of space missions today
...applications may be less than the expected practical scientific benefits in other types of missions. A second ethical issue associated with scientific exploration missions is the potential health risks to astronauts. This is an issue that arises with...
