October 2018
Sustainable ways of living on the Moon and Mars
... – and perhaps those on Mars too – most believe that fuel, air, food and power supplies will need to be locally sourced...a good chance of working. Elon Musk is banking on local fuel supply manufacture on Mars to allow for the refuelling of its BFR...
03 February 2020
“Breakthrough” 3D-printed rocket engine tests completed in Fife
... Skyrora has completed a week of static horizontal firings conducted in Fife to compare the behaviour of kerosene and eco-fuel. The test firings allowed Skyrora to assess its innovative 3D-printed 3.5kN LEO engine, which will be used...
April 2018
Servicing the space economy
...uses electric propulsion with a substantial supply of onboard gaseous fuel. This fuel is then used to reach the client spacecraft, for... the satellite being decommissioned from GEO, with wasted fuel onboard, the operators can use all of that propellant...
April 2021
Satellite servicing comes of age
...television signals to millions of customers, it has run out of fuel and is drifting in orbit. The other, a brand new satellite...or helping satellites that are still operating, but lack sufficient fuel, to achieve a graveyard orbit. Launch of MEV-2 from...
June 2017
Bepi-Colombo will unveil Mercury’s secrets
..., to be inserted in to an orbit a spacecraft needs to be slowed down, therefore a lot of fuel needs to be carried for the manoeuvres – in fact going to Mercury requires more fuel than going to Pluto! Even if engineers were able to stabilise a Mercury...
07 March 2018
World's first firing for ESA's air-breathing electric thruster
...up air molecules from the top of the atmosphere to use as fuel. The technology is set to pave the way for how future ...team set about finding a way to continually replenish the onboard fuel and thus keep the satellite working. “This project began with...
