October 2015
Taking AIM with ESA: proposing the first visit to a binary asteroid system
... and a micro lander, and proximity operations in low gravity. All are applicable to future missions. Such technologies have...precise physical phenomena apart than the extremely low gravity that govern the surface character of asteroids, influence...
October 2015
Copernicus, ESA’s most ambitious Earth Observation programme
...of technological development. GOCE: Launched in 2009, the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) mission... to accurately determine global and regional models of Earth’s gravity field and geoid, the shape that the surface of ...
March 2016
Saving Earth from an Expanding Sun
... so that it does not escape the asteroid’s gravity. In that case the asteroid follows the spacecraft,... along a radius from the centre of Earth. This is called gravity gradient stabilisation. Could shifting Earth to a different orbit ultimately be ...
October 2016
Project MOONWALK
... and bulky space suits. Even under zero gravity conditions, these suits significantly constrain natural human ... be used both on land and under water (to simulate reduced or zero gravity conditions on the Moon or in orbit). Thus the suit is a valuable...
January 2017
Elon Musk and Mars - looking for a snowball effect
... developments in spaceflight since the Apollo days, my conclusion is that, providing humans can adapt successfully to its low gravity, Mars colonisation will become possible. But getting the transport and life-support technologies up to the required...
November 2017
Reusable air-launch and the space access paradigm
... engine thrust/weight can be smaller because the low initial trajectory angle does not have large gravity losses; rocket engines can have a lower combustion chamber pressure, which reduces pump complexity and stress...
