The space laws designed to protect planets and moons from contamination.
Articles on Spacecraft
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We’ve already sent probes to land on Mars. The challenge now is to get people there and bring them home again.
Voyager 2 launched in 1977 and visited all four gas giants in our Solar System. It’s now almost 18 billion kilometres from Earth and has finally joined its twin in interstellar space.
Air resistance makes it near impossible to predict the path of a crashing satellite.
There are loads of applications for 3D printers in space.
Using terrestrial forensic science to point the finger of blame to criminals in space will be much harder than it looks.
Technology had enabled humans to explore the deep sea, the Earth’s poles, and outer space. But we shouldn’t forget historical lessons about frontiers in the process of traversing them.
Whatever happens next in new space race will happen quickly. The opportunity is there for Australia to be involved, but it won’t be there for long.
Getting to Mars with current rocket technology will use massive amounts of fuel to move very small cargoes. There is a more fuel-efficient way.
There’s more to sleeping in space than just nodding off.
It’s an ambitious plan to send a micro-spaceship to our stellar neighbour but is this possible with today’s technology or even technology in the near future?
Building a tiny starship may be doable. The big challenge will be making sure it survives all the hazards in interstellar space.
After last summer’s Pluto flyby, the New Horizons spacecraft started sending data back to Earth – at 2 kilobits per second. Here’s some of what scientists have learned so far from that rich, slow cache.
We’re on the cusp of being able to consistently launch and land rockets, greatly reducing the cost of space travel. But how long before there’s a Millennium Falcon in every garage?
Spaceplanes seem like a great idea – perhaps one that has come too late.
Nimble and cheap commercial science could be the way to get more eyes in the sky.
Everything in space is so far away, but probes bring us closer.
A prototype solar sailing satellite has just successfully been deployed in orbit, pointing the way to the future of space travel.
Russian space vessel Progress M-27M is falling towards Earth but what risk does it pose?
After ten years in space NASA probe will get up close and personal with Mercury a final time.
Top contributors
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Associate Professor in Archaeology and Space Studies, Flinders University
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Senior Lecturer in Space Systems Engineering, University of Glasgow
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Ph.D. Candidate in Aerospace Engineering, University of Florida
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Professor of Hypersonic Aerodynamics, The University of Queensland
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Lecturer in Astronomy, Nottingham Trent University
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Associate Professor, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
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Research Associate, The Open University
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Assistant Professor, Northumbria University, Newcastle
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Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, University of Southampton
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Professor of Planetary Science and Astronomy, George Mason University
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Professor of Sleep and Physiology and Director of Surrey Sleep Research Centre, University of Surrey
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Professor of Planetary Geosciences, The Open University
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Professor of Physics and Astronomy, UCL
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Spacecraft Engineer, University of Bristol
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Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences, The Open University