April 2019
Is a military space force justified?
...’, where competing forces deployed from the cargo bays of space shuttles to participate in hand-to-hand combat by firing laser weapons at each other. As a practical matter, a combat troop force in orbit would be relatively useless but they could...
June 2020
Saving Earth – time for a new cooperative framework
... energy beams, missile systems armed with nuclear weapons and even more exotic approaches, such as so-called ‘laser bees’, to divert or break apart threatening asteroids or comets. The UN General Assembly has not only endorsed the...
November 2020
Walking on the Moon
... hopes this notional target will be exceeded. The rover’s payload includes a high-definition camera and a LIDAR (laser-based measuring device). An additional aspect of this first mission – especially important in this age of social media...
July 2021
Arecibo - an astounding legacy
... galaxy, which has merged with another galaxy and is undergoing a burst of star formation. A maser is analogous to a laser – an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation – with the light ‘replaced’ by radiation at microwave...
October 2021
Russia and China – a new space axis
...on the upcoming Luna missions: Luna 25 (Switzerland); Luna 26 (Slovakia); Luna 28 (Germany); with the largest contribution, a laser landing system, drill, sample handler and analyser on Luna 27 (Britain and Italy). However, this is hardly a programme...
February 2023
Remote sensing by satellite - People’s Republic of China
...band SAR. GF 5 has six sensors, including a hyper spectral camera and a directional polarisation camera. The extra laser altimeter system on GF7 enables three-dimensional research. Resolution capabilities and other information about Gaofen satellites...
