September 2017
Australia’s unique space history
... tracking station in 1960. This station played an important role in the early exploration of the Moon, Mars and Venus, as well as the Apollo programme, before being closed in 1972. A spaceflight tracking station used for the Mercury...
May 2018
PLATO the habitable zone explorer
... see the disc of the planet as it passes in front of its host star - like we can with the transits of Venus or Mercury in our Solar System - but we can detect the small decrease in the star’s brightness that is caused...
June 2018
Space 2080 a future perspective
... exploration The collection of data on Saturn’s rings is done with hundreds of probes inspecting their rocks. The atmosphere of Venus is modelled with the aid of autonomous aer’Bots which drift with the winds. Following the characterisation...
November 2019
PROSPECTing for lunar polar volatiles
... landers including Huygens, Beagle2, Philae and Schiaparelli, and has supported the implementation of the Mars Express, Venus Express, and ExoMars 2016 and 2020 missions.
February 2020
Preserving our space heritage
...? If you know where and when to look, the ISS is pretty unmistakable. In fact, during its construction it overtook Venus to become the second brightest object visible in the night sky, after the Moon. Even so, watching the...
April 2020
Reviving Russia’s space programme
... Luna 25, 26, 27 and 28 was repeatedly delayed and these missions have still to fly, while Venera D, a long-duration Venus lander first designed in the 1980s, is not due to appear until the late 2020s. The retirement of the...
