March 2015
On-orbit satellite servicing, insurance and lessons of Palapa B2 and Westar 6
... and the transfer of fluids on the exterior of the International Space Station. This is a major achievement; in space, weightless propellants move in unexpected ways, and anticipating how to transfer these corrosive and hazardous fluids from one...
March 2015
Sowing a new dream
.... I would like to end with a quote from one of my own space classes: “The space dream will never be weightless, and the science dream has endless energy.”
March 2015
Dawn of ion propulsion
... push not for a few minutes, like most engines, but rather for months or even years. In the weightless and frictionless conditions of spaceflight, the effect of this thrust can gradually build up to allow the spacecraft to achieve...
October 2015
Eating in space: from Michelin-starred chefs to self-sufficiency
... food seem less tasty and appealing. More importantly perhaps, as it’s far less easy to mitigate, microgravity and weightlessness makes fluids in the body shift to the head, which has a similar effect to blocked sinuses. This severely...
February 2016
The Benefits of a British Spaceport
... niche market for affordable microgravity flights carrying science and technology experiments on short periods of weightless flight. Another potential spaceport user, though on an altogether different scale, is Reaction Engines’ Skylon spaceplane...
November 2016
Moon or Mars - NASA’s next logical step?
.... Cultural and language differences did not create significant problems but the effects of cosmic radiation and weightlessness could obviously not be factored into such an experiment. NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Expedition 24 flight engineer...
