March 2015
Dawn of ion propulsion
... spacecraft ever to orbit a resident of the asteroid belt. It is also the only ship ever targeted to orbit two deep-space destinations. This unique mission would be quite impossible without its advanced ion propulsion system, giving it capabilities...
January 2019
Visiting an asteroid to find out how life began
...the Sun Hayabusa2 spent 2.5 years after swing-by travelling in deep space towards Ryugu. Over such long journeys, the spacecraft is...one of the first missions to use ion engines in deep space. The first Hayabusa visited the stony-type asteroid Itokawa,...
May 2020
Mixed reality in the design of space habitats
...’, access to extended communication opportunities with family and friends, and opportunities to interact with media. However, deep space travel and remote bases pose new challenges, such as absence of resupply missions, communication delays, increase...
April 2026
Spaceflight and the radiation problem
... for a suitable launch window to enable a return journey. This means we’re looking at 18 months to three years of exposure to the deep space environment. A spacewalk can be fun, as this image of NASA’s Jessica Meir shows, but astronauts who spend six...
17 December 2021
First commercial lunar distance communications network validated in space
Working together, Intuitive Machines (IM) and Goonhilly Earth Station (GES) Ltd. recently integrated GES’s newly commissioned deep space antenna (GHY-6) into IM’s Lunar Telemetry and Tracking Network (LTN). The LTN will provide near-continuous ...
March 2026
Humanity – the potential of space
.... From fantasy to reality Moving from scarcity to abundance will not automatically solve deep-seated social inequities In 2012, I cofounded Deep Space Industries (DSI), one of two asteroid mining companies launched that year. At the time, asteroid...
