July 2018
Using algae to support astronauts on deep space missions
... Earth from high mountain lakes to the frozen seas of the Arctic. This capacity for adaptation is necessary as spacecraft cabin environments are very different from Earth’s atmosphere, especially regarding partial pressure of carbon dioxide, airborne...
January 2019
Materials make the space mission
... well as those included in approved data sources, including ESA and NASA databases. The first challenges for spacecraft materials actually start on Earth. High mechanical loads on structural materials, electronic components and propulsion systems are...
04 December 2017
After 37 years, Voyager 1 fires up dormant thrusters
... thrusters fire in tiny pulses, or "puffs," lasting mere milliseconds and Voyager uses them to subtly orient the spacecraft so that its antenna points back towards us so that it can communicate with Earth. With correctly functioning thrusters...
10 August 2018
Fiery inferno awaits NASA's Parker Solar Probe
... electrons) and can reach temperatures of a few million degrees; a region that is known as the corona. “We’ll be going where no spacecraft has dared go before — within the corona of a star,” said project scientist Nicky Fox of Johns Hopkins Applied...
May 2018
Challenging the boundaries of materials science
... electrical and structural engineers work to avoid conventional hardware failures that may cause the loss of function of a spacecraft system or designs that are so costly to build that the project fails on economic grounds. Initial screening test...
August 2018
Measuring the pulse of Mars
... mission has done before it. NASA’s InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) spacecraft will peer deep into Mars’ interior using three main research techniques to give scientists an unprecedented look...
