With $42 million to spare, if you have enough for an outright spaceship purchase you could own, Sotheby’s is holding an auction featuring 173 items such as an Apollo 11 lunar sample return bag flown during its mission and Vostok 3KA-2 capsule that sent Cosmonaut Gagarin on the inaugural human orbital flight. Space Shuttle Orbiters…
An international mission to Neptune and Triton has long been overdue; such an expedition could shed more light on what these ice giants represent. Like Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune are ice giants; planets with only trace amounts of hydrogen or helium present. But unlike Jupiter, their orbital periods are short enough for missions to Uranus…
Spacecraft equipment must operate within an acceptable temperature range to complete its mission successfully, doing this by either absorbing or rejecting heat from its environment. Hardware available to accomplish this includes multilayer insulation systems to shield equipment from excessive solar and planetary heating, thermal paints and coatings that change optical properties (such as solar absorptance…
A spacecraft bus serves as the main structure and support mechanism for satellite payloads, providing power, commanding, telemetry and an appropriate thermal environment. Spacecraft buses or platforms designed with sophisticated capabilities have enabled the deployment of more powerful communications antennas, high resolution remote sensing/meteorological sensors, and precise navigational payloads. Structures and Mechanics Subsystem A spacecraft…
Spacecraft produces luxury fifth wheels and semi-trailers designed specifically to each buyer, drawing in customers such as RVers, traveling performers, film production companies and travel agencies. Fifth wheel campers resemble residential homes and can be customized according to a customer’s specifications, making them perfect for camping adventures of any length and purpose. Due to their…
Scientists are making concerted efforts to learn more about Mars. If they hope to make it habitable for human life in the future, more knowledge must be accumulated first. One way of accomplishing this task is through growing plants that provide food and oxygen for astronauts – however this increases both weight and cost for…
Not every task requiring spacecraft requires the brute power of a massive rocket motor; some tasks need far more subtle actions like changing satellite positioning or giving another craft a gentle push while docking with it. These low-force thrusters utilize electricity to ionize gases like xenon and krypton, propelling them at high velocity out of…
Up until recently, only two spacecraft had ever visited Mercury: NASA’s Mariner 10, which accomplished three flybys between 1974 and 1975. Mariner 10 was successful in using Venus’ gravity to speed towards Mercury and sent back fuzzy images of its heavily cratered surface. Meanwhile, MESSENGER proved more successful, mapping all of it and discovering water…
Millions of people witnessed as the space shuttle Challenger lifted off from a frigid Florida morning on January 28, 1986, carrying Christa McAuliffe – a teacher from New Hampshire chosen as America’s inaugural civilian astronaut. Although companies are creating technology to help clean up space debris, fragmentation remains an issue. Researchers study this phenomenon by…
