July 2014
In thrall to a star: understanding the Sun will help us understand our own climate and environment
... International Space Station, particularly during spacewalks, and for high-altitude aircraft crews and passengers, particularly on polar flights. Superstorms Over the course of an 11-year solar cycle the Sun will produce thousands of flares and...
July 2014
In search of strategic stability
... question of maintaining strategic stability in this new world, where opposition occurs on many levels and is not simply bi-polar, is the main issue today. The Cold War, which was the opposition of two systems, did not...
December 2014
India joins the major league with the Mars Orbiter Mission
...? First, the rocket used for this record-breaking mission already existed – the proven four-stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The use of this launcher, however, imposed weight constraints, reducing the total...
December 2014
Terraforming Mars: from CFCs to Total Recall
.... Where might this CO2 come from? One idea is to mobilise the CO2 ice stored in the Martian polar caps and in the regolith (the Martian soil). But the amount of CO2 stored in these reservoirs is probably...
March 2015
Dawn of ion propulsion
... thrust is to make the initial orbit larger, so the spaceship will need more time to gently adjust to a circular, polar orbit at 13,500 kilometres (8,400 miles). It will reach that altitude on about 23 April which, as it turns out, differs...
February 2016
The Benefits of a British Spaceport
... launched from Norfolk then you had a clear run over the North Sea and over the polar icecap - and they thought this would be an ideal site.’ Brancaster was also relatively near Hatfield, Stevenage...
