January 2017
New oceans beckon for solar sail technology
... to one ninth of the original. This can also work in our favour if, for example, a sail is deployed near Mercury, which is at 0.39 AU and will give you 2.5 times the thrust available at Earth. Like a sailboat, a space sail-craft...
August 2017
Big science from small spacecraft
... primary mission target. NASA missions that have used this slingshot effect include Galileo (Jupiter), MESSENGER (Mercury), Cassini (Saturn), and Parker Solar Probe (the Sun). Now, imagine that every time a mission executes...
October 2017
Can Australia’s space industry overcome years of political setback?
... tracking stations throughout the country that played a signifi cant role in major US space programmes such as Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. Continued maintenance of these stations has contributed to the evolution of Australia’s role in international...
September 2017
Australia’s unique space history
... Venus, as well as the Apollo programme, before being closed in 1972. A spaceflight tracking station used for the Mercury, Gemini programmes and early Apollo Saturn rocket tests was also established on the Range, operating from...
May 2018
Space safety – the problem with dual hatting
... and those at risk from failure. At first there was a professional class of ‘risk takers’ and it is no accident that Mercury astronauts were chosen from military test pilots. By the time of the Space Shuttle, astronaut safety was...
May 2018
Challenging the boundaries of materials science
... prohibits the sale of electronic equipment containing certain hazardous substances including lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenylethers in EU countries. Although this directive does...
