The turbocharged capitalism of private space flight is strangely at odds with the brotherly, generous global consensus that built the legal framework for extra-terrestrial travel.
Articles on Space travel
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A prototype solar sailing satellite has just successfully been deployed in orbit, pointing the way to the future of space travel.
There’s a cosmic speed limit that unfortunately means you aren’t going to be firing up warp drive anytime soon.
Radiation in space could lead to cognitive decline.
Making science ‘sexy’ leads us to keep looking in the wrong place for the things science could do for us.
It’s no TIE fighter, but the Dawn probe is driven by the future of spacecraft propulsion: ion engines.
Literature has long imagined other worlds but now space travel and planetary colonisation look to become scientific fact.
Some climatologists argue it may be too late to reverse climate change, and it’s just a matter of time before the Earth becomes uninhabitable – if hundreds of years from now. The recent movie Interstellar…
Generations of mariners have spent time anxiously watching the weather, waiting for the right conditions. It seems that despite all the high-tech advances we’ve made, spacecraft are still subject to the…
Last week was a particularly grim one for private space flights. Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo crashed in the Mojave Desert, about 150km north of Los Angeles, killing a pilot, Michael Alsbury, and seriously…
This week, I can predict with a high degree of accuracy that more than 50,000 car accidents will occur in the US, over 500 of which will involve fatalities. Last week was no different. Is social media…
Success never comes without sacrifice. And frontiers are never crossed without some type of loss. We are seeing with brutal clarity that the frontier of successful space travel is one which has not yet…
Who will preserve the first lunar landing site at Tranquility Base for future generations? It seems an odd question given the fact that this extraordinary archaeological site was created on July 21, 1969…
It is three years since the final flight of the US space shuttle programme, during which time NASA has had to rely on the Russians, its allies, in space at least, to ferry astronauts and supplies between…
The United Arab Emirates has announced plans to launch a mission to Mars by 2021. A first for the Arab world, the mission and accompanying Space Agency are a big deal for the UAE – scientifically and politically…
A famous picture in the English edition of Newton’s “Principia” shows cannon balls being fired from the top of a mountain. If they go fast enough, their trajectory curves downward no more steeply than…
With India and China planning lunar surface missions, privately-funded space entrepreneurs competing for the US$40 million Google Lunar X Prize and discussions around lunar mining intensifying, working…
Why send jellyfish to space? Well, because it’s awesome which is true of anything involving space. But mostly because of little crystals that they keep in their bodies, and what these crystals can tell…
Cheap, fast nuclear fusion may power the first human expedition to Mars. Scientists in the US are building components of…
American multi-millionaire and “space tourist” Dennis Tito plans to help fund a trip to Mars for two intrepid astronauts – as you may have read about on The Conversation. But they won’t be stopping – just…
Top contributors
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Associate Professor in Archaeology and Space Studies, Flinders University
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Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences, The Open University
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Professor of Aerospace Medicine and Rehabilitation, Northumbria University, Newcastle
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Professor of Hypersonic Aerodynamics, The University of Queensland
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Senior Lecturer, Centre for Hypersonics, School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering, The University of Queensland
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Kevin Orrman-Rossiter is a Friend of The Conversation.
Sterrenkenner, History & Philosophy of Science, The University of Melbourne
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Professor of Astrobiology, UNSW
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Associate Dean of Innovation and Engagement, Swinburne University of Technology
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Space Plasma Physicist, Imperial College London
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Senior Lecturer in Physics, Nottingham Trent University
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Associate Professor, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
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Associate Professor of Hip-Hop, University of Virginia
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Reader in Astrophysics, Keele University
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Senior Lecturer in Space Systems Engineering, University of Glasgow
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Professor of Strategy, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick