October 2015
From NEOs to real action: testing asteroid impact scenarios
...as a result of the nature of the exercise participants, the focus of both of the exercises was on the deflection and disruption mitigation methods, with a lesser emphasis on effective and robust disaster management arrangements. Sadly the latter didn...
October 2015
Growing space businesses in the UK: from incubation centres to public funding
... a space environment. It can often be difficult to gauge the size of the market and to estimate when a technology is truly disruptive. This makes future Returns on Investment and their Net Present Value difficult to estimate. Funding routes Projects...
October 2015
Down to Earth: how to deorbit satellites and save money
... dealt with more effectively Similar challenges not only affect LEO and large constellations of satellites, but disrupt the business-as-usual scenarios, including GEO and MEO satellites. As space gets more crowded, it is important to be able...
March 2016
The Use of 3D Printing for Space Applications
According to ASTM F2792-12 (Standard Terminology for Additive Manufacturing Technologies), Additive Manufacturing (AM) can be described as, ‘a process of joining materials to make objects from 3D model data, usually layer upon layer’. AM enables the...
March 2016
Exploration and cooperation at the heart of European space vision
... as one of humanity’s strongest drivers. “To be risk adverse is not the right thing for the future,” he states. “So we need disruptive ideas and we have to allow them.” During his tenure as ESA DG Woerner expects to witness significant break-throughs...
July 2016
France, Europe and Russia - two decades of space launch cooperation
... with equivalent scientific results). These ambitious projects raise such important questions such as whether technological disruptions for launchers will be needed or not. Will, as some of Arianespace’s competitors contend, reusable rockets play...