Space Exploration Technologies Archives

November 20, 2024November 20, 2024 by Mark Thompson

How Could Astronauts Call for Help from the Moon?

Exploring the Moon poses significant risks, with its extreme environment and hazardous terrain presenting numerous challenges. In the event of a major accident, assistance might take days or even weeks to arrive. To address this, Australian researchers have created a distress alert system based upon the COSPAS-SARSAT technology used for Earth-based search and rescue operations. It relies on low-power emergency beacons that astronauts could activate with minimal setup and use a planned lunar satellite network for communication and rescue coordination.

November 17, 2024November 17, 2024 by Mark Thompson

What Should Light Sails Be Made Out Of?

The Breakthrough Starshot program aims to cross the immense distances to the nearest star in just decades. Using a high-powered laser to propel a reflective sail technology to relativistic speeds is their mission. The selection of sail material is key to its success as it must be lightweight while being able to withstand acceleration and radiation from the laser. A recent study explores various materials and proposes that core-shell structures—spherical particles composed of two different materials—could be a promising solution.

October 28, 2024October 28, 2024 by Mark Thompson

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.

September 30, 2024September 30, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Unloading Cargo on the Moon

LANDO prepares to move its payload to a safe spot on the simulated lunar surface. NASA/David C. Bowman

I don’t think it’s something I have ever really thought of! Robotic explorers can travel around the Solar System visiting our neighbouring planets but when they arrive, sometimes a scientific package must be deployed to the surface. Never occurred to me just how that’s achieved! With a number of landers scheduled to visit the Moon, NASA are testing a new robotic arm called the Lightweight Surface Manipulation System AutoNomy capabilities Development for Surface Operations or LANDO for short! It will lift payloads off the lander and pop them down gently on the surface of the Moon.

September 28, 2024September 28, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Space Perspective Completes a Test Flight, Sending a Balloon to 30 km

It’s great to see so many private organisations entering the space sector. Space Perspective are another and they have just completed a successful uncrewed capsule ascent to an altitude of 30km. Their Neptune-Excelsior capsule was carried by a balloon and landed in the ocean 6 hours later. It was able to maintain its cabin pressure and stability throughout the flight proving that it met the requirements for future passenger flights starting in 2025.

July 24, 2024July 24, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Astronauts Can Now Watch 4K Streaming Video on the Station

A graphic representation of a laser communications relay between the International Space Station, the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration spacecraft, and the Earth. Credit: NASA/Dave Ryan

We take high definition streaming for granted in many parts of the world. Even now, as I type this article, I have the Martian streaming in high definition but until now astronauts on board the Space Station have had to accept low definition streaming. A team of researchers at NASA have developed and used a new system using an aircraft as a relay. A laser terminal was installed on a research aircraft and data was sent to a ground station. The signals were sent around the Earth and beamed to a relay satellite which then sent the signal on to the Space Station. What the astronauts will actually use it for is less likely to be streaming HD movies but will certainly be able to take advantage of the high bandwidth for science data and communications.

June 28, 2024June 28, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Growing Habitats and Furniture in Space Out of Mushrooms

Artist concept depicting a new novel aerospace concept for NIAC Phase III 2024. Credit: Lynn Rothschild

Over the years we have often seen astronauts gently and deftly moving structures into place with their bare hands. Thinks are easy to move in space but getting them there is slightly more tricky and costly. A new piece of research has explored the possibility of growing structures in space based on food substrates. NASA has now awarded a grant to a proposal to investigate further growing structures using fungal mycelial composites, that’s mushrooms to you and I.

April 20, 2024April 20, 2024 by Mark Thompson

What’s the Most Effective Way to Explore our Nearest Stars?

Project Starshot, an initiative sponsored by the Breakthrough Foundation, is intended to be humanity's first interstellar voyage. Credit: breakthroughinitiatives.org

It was 1903 that the Wright brothers made the first successful self-propelled flight. Launching themselves to history, they set the foundations for transatlantic flights, supersonic flight and perhaps even the exploration of the Solar System. Now we are on the precipice of travel among the stars but among the many ideas and theories, what is the ultimate and most effective way to explore our nearest stellar neighbours? After all, there are 10,000 stars within a region of 110 light years from Earth so there are plenty to choose from.

April 8, 2024April 8, 2024 by Mark Thompson

What Could We Build With Lunar Regolith?

A close-up view of astronaut Buzz Aldrin's bootprint in the lunar soil, photographed with the 70mm lunar surface camera during Apollo 11's sojourn on the moon. There'll soon be more boots on the lunar ground, and the astronauts wearing those boots need a way to manage the Moon's low gravity and its health effects. Image by NASA

It has often been likened to talcum powder. The ultra fine lunar surface material known as the regolith is crushed volcanic rock. For visitors to the surface of the Moon it can be a health hazard, causing wear and tear on astronauts and their equipment, but it has potential. The fine material may be suitable for building roads, landing pads and shelters. Researchers are now working to analyse its suitability for a number of different applications.

March 14, 2023March 14, 2023 by Laurence Tognetti

Exploring Lava Tubes on Other Worlds Will Need Rovers That Can Work Together

Artist's rendition of autonomous rovers using the breadcrumb style communication network within a lava tube. They are exploring and collecting data, which is then relayed back to the mother rover at the tube's entrance, which then relays the data to an orbiter or a blimp. (Credit: John Fowler/Wikimedia Commons, Mark Tarbell and Wolfgang Fink/University of Arizona)

Planetary exploration, specifically within our own Solar System, has provided a lifetime of scientific knowledge about the many worlds beyond Earth. However, this exploration, thus far, has primarily been limited to orbiters and landers/rovers designed for surface exploration of the celestial bodies they visit. But what if we could explore subsurface environments just as easily as we’ve been able to explore the surface, and could some of these subsurface dwellings not only shelter future astronauts, but host life, as well?