March 2015
Sizing down and reaching higher with CubeSats
... fields as diverse as earth observation and soon enough, interplanetary missions. A 1959 lecture by Richard Feynman may have launched...well spill over into the larger satellite industry, interplanetary scientific missions and even how we operate our ...
March 2015
Dawn of ion propulsion
... of xenon. Because the xenon is used so frugally, the corresponding thrust is very gentle. The main engine on some interplanetary spacecraft may provide about 10,000 times greater thrust but, of course, such systems are so fuel-hungry...
June 2015
Promoting growth at geostationary orbit with a one-stop-shop
... us providing the building blocks that enable others to achieve their dreams. We’re unlikely to be the company that provides interplanetary communications, but we are likely the company that provides the solution that enables that company to close...
October 2015
Earth independence: new definitions of home on Mars missions and beyond
.... When astronauts leave planet Mars, they’ll have to do it independently. Finally, after again facing the challenge of months of interplanetary transit, they must survive another entry, descent and landing, bringing them safely back to the surface...
February 2016
Is Jupiter Really Our Protective Shield?
...1951) Collision Probabilities with the Planets and the Distribution of Interplanetary Matter, Proc. Roy. Irish. Acad., 54A, 165-199. 30 Opik, E.J., (1976) Interplanetary encounters: close-range gravitational interactions. Elsevier Scientic Publishing...
August 2017
Big science from small spacecraft
... of Mars using a seismometer. In parallel, JPL has developed the MarCO (Mars Cube One) spacecraft as the first interplanetary cubesats, intended as pathfinders for the space science community. Two MarCO spacecraft are scheduled to launch on the...
