March 2015
Sizing down and reaching higher with CubeSats
... a time when the exploration of space was dependent on monster rockets and huge satellites. Think of the American Saturn or Atlas, the French Ariane and the Russian N1 and Proton vehicles. In that sense, the space industry...
February 2016
Nuclear Flashlamps in Space
... of stars. Artist’s conception of the view from the surface of Centaur object 10199 Chariklo that orbits between Saturn and Uranus The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has always tacitly assumed that any civilization...
March 2016
Searching for water in the Solar System
..., when Solar System-wide travel will be common, the volatile resources available there are incommensurable - from Saturn’s rings, to Enceladus and its geysers, from Europa’s ocean, to Titan hydrocarbon lakes. There, too, it’s all about...
August 2017
Big science from small spacecraft
... 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 a gravity assist...
November 2017
Preserving Apollo’s lunar legacy
... Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin - as true envoys of almost all humankind. And all speak fervently of peace. On 16 July 1969 a Saturn V rocket lifted off on a historic voyage and four days later millions of people watched as the first human...
September 2017
Australia’s unique space history
... 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 1960-66. Located not far from Island...
