February 2018
Growth drivers, requirements and threats in the smallsat industry
... five to eight year design life. Developments in electrical propulsion expected towards the late 2020’s may extend that lifespan but... technologies for photovoltaic cell performance, thermal control, propulsion and power supply - has led to reduced ...
June 2018
Striding through space
...solid base to attach the MMU, which would provide propulsion and orientation control in a free-flying, untethered environment... today on the International Space Station (ISS). This small propulsive backpack is worn during spacewalks, and would be used ...
August 2018
Measuring the pulse of Mars
...a co-investigator on the InSight mission based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The mobile service tower at SLC-3 is ... on deep space CubeSat performance, including navigation, propulsion and communication information, but it could also mean...
November 2018
BepiColombo – a mission to explore Mercury
... Mercury, in combination with the thrust provided by the Mercury Transfer Module (MTM) - which is powered by a solar electric propulsion system - to reach its destination. The spacecraft will have a 7.2-year cruise, with one Earth flyby, two...
January 2019
Visiting an asteroid to find out how life began
... that accelerates positively charged atoms of xenon gas using an electric field. They are an incredibly efficient form of propulsion, producing a change in velocity ten times greater than traditional chemical thrusters for the same fuel consumption...
February 2019
A universal spaceship design concept
... increasing the risk of failure. In contrast, the spaceship concept described here offers a combined gravity, navigation and propulsion solution, in which one single and compact spaceship body provides all these functionalities, thus minimising the...
