Rarely does something get developed which is a real game changer in space exploration. One example is the Skylon reusable single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane. Powered by the hypersonic SABRE engine it operates like a jet engine at low altitude and more like a conventional rocket at high altitude. Sadly, ‘Reaction Engines’ the company that designs the engines has filed for bankruptcy.
Continue reading “Reaction Engines Goes Into Bankruptcy, Taking the Hypersonic SABRE Engine With it”Good News, the Ozone Layer Hole is Continuing to Shrink
Climate change is a huge topic and often debated across the world. We continue to burn fossil fuels and ignore our charge toward human driven climate change but while our behaviour never seems to improve, something else does! For the last few decades we have been pumping chlorofluorocarbons into the atmosphere causing a hole in the ozone layer to form. Thanks largely to worldwide regulation changes and a reduction in the use of these chemicals, the hole it seems is finally starting to get smaller.
Continue reading “Good News, the Ozone Layer Hole is Continuing to Shrink”Voyager 1 is Forced to Rely on its Low Power Radio
Voyager 1 was launched waaaaaay back in 1977. I would have been 4 years old then! It’s an incredible achievement that technology that was built THAT long ago is still working. Yet here we are in 2024, Voyager 1 and 2 are getting older. Earlier this week, NASA had to turn off one of the radio transmitters on Voyager 1. This forced communication to rely upon the low-power radio. Alas technology around 50 years old does sometimes glitch and this was the result of a command to turn on a heater. The result was that Voyager 1 tripped into fault protection mode and switch communications! Oops.
Continue reading “Voyager 1 is Forced to Rely on its Low Power Radio”New View of Venus Reveals Previously Hidden Impact Craters
Think of the Moon and most people will imagine a barren world pockmarked with craters. The same is likely true of Mars albeit more red in colour than grey! The Earth too has had its fair share of craters, some of them large but most of the evidence has been eroded by centuries of weathering. Surprisingly perhaps, Venus, the second planet from the Sun does not have the same weathering processes as we have on Earth yet there are signs of impact craters, but no large impact basins! A team of astronomers now think they have secured a new view on the hottest planet in the Solar System and revealed the missing impact sites.
Continue reading “New View of Venus Reveals Previously Hidden Impact Craters”China Trains Next Batch of Taikonauts
China has a fabulously rich history when it comes to space travel and was among the first to experiment in rocket technology. The invention of the rocket is often attributed to the Sung Dynasty (AD 960-1279.) Since then, China has been keen to develop and build its own space industry. The Chinese National Space Administration has already successfully landed probes on the Moon but is preparing for their first human landers. Chinese astronauts are sometimes known as taikonauts and CNSA has just confirmed their fourth batch of taikonauts are set for a lunar landing.
Continue reading “China Trains Next Batch of Taikonauts”NASA Focusses in on Artemis III Landing Sites.
It was 1969 that humans first set foot on the Moon. Back then, the Apollo mission was the focus of the attempts to land on the Moon but now, over 50 years on, it looks like we are set to head back. The Artemis project is the program that hopes to take us back to the Moon again and it’s going from strength to strength. The plan is to get humans back on the Moon by 2025 as part of Artemis III. As a prelude to this, NASA is now turning its attention to the possible landing sites.
Continue reading “NASA Focusses in on Artemis III Landing Sites.”The Connection Between Black Holes and Dark Energy is Getting Stronger
The discovery of the accelerated expansion of the Universe has often been attributed to the force known as dark energy. An intriguing new theory was put forward last year to explain this mysterious force; black holes could be the cause of dark energy! The theory goes on to suggest as more black holes form in the Universe, the stronger the pressure from dark energy. A survey from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) seems to support the theory. The data from the first year of operation shows the density of dark energy increases over time and seems to correlate with the number and mass of black holes!
Continue reading “The Connection Between Black Holes and Dark Energy is Getting Stronger”Astronauts Could Take an Asteroid Ferry from Earth to Mars
This idea really is quite a fascinating one. Currently a trip to Mars would require large amounts of air, water and other resources to sustain human life but would also expose travellers to harmful levels of radiation. A wonderful solution has been proposed in a new paper recently published by researchers from Ukraine. They propose that asteroids which already travel relatively close by Earth, Mars and even Venus already could be used to hop between the planets. They are already making the journey anyway and so perhaps the cosmos already provides the solution to interplanetary travel.
Continue reading “Astronauts Could Take an Asteroid Ferry from Earth to Mars”Webb Scans Vega for Planets
To northern sky watchers, Vega is a familiar sight in the summer sky. It’s one of the brightest stars in the sky and in 2013, astronomers detected a large ring of rocky debris surrounding the planet. The prospect of planets suddenly became a real possibility so astronomers turned the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on the star. The hunt achieved 10 times the sensitivity of previous ground based searches but alas no planets were discovered.
Continue reading “Webb Scans Vega for Planets”Red Dwarf Stars Might Be Able to Hold Onto Their Atmospheres After All
Exoplanets are a fascinating aspect of the study of the Universe. TRAPPIST-1 is perhaps one of the most intriguing exoplanet systems discovered to date with no less than 7 Earth-sized worlds. They orbit a red dwarf star which can unfortunately be a little feisty, hurling catastrophic flares out into space. These flares could easily strip atmospheres away from the alien worlds rendering them uninhabitable. A new piece of research suggests this may not be true and that the rocky planets may be able to maintain a stable atmosphere after all.
Continue reading “Red Dwarf Stars Might Be Able to Hold Onto Their Atmospheres After All”