MoonLITE Mission The US space agency has described the MoonLITE mission to send a small probe to the Moon in 2013 as “inspirational”. The unmanned project involves the craft firing 4m-long darts called penetrators onto the lunar terrain. The devices would enable scientists to scratch beneath the surface of the Moon and assess geological...
Safety OBJECTS IN ORBIT About 10,000 catalogued items 7% – operational spacecraft 22% – redundant spacecraft 17% – old rocket bodies 13% – mission-related objects 41% – miscellaneous fragments Source: Esa
Electric (Ion) Propulsion Electric propulsion works by using electrical energy to accelerate a propellant to much higher velocities than is possible using chemical reactions. The most common propellant used in ion engines is xenon. Early experimental ion engines used mercury and caesium, but they proved hard to work with. At room temperature, mercury is...
Solid Fuel Solid-fuel rocket engines were the first engines created by man. They were invented by the Chinese in the 13th century and have been widely used since then. The “rocket’s red glare” in the American National Anthem, which was written in the early 1800′s, refers to the small solid-fuel rockets that were used...
Solar Propulsion Interplanetary Solar Sails A solar sail is a spacecraft that has an immense, lightweight mirror attached to it. It derives its propulsion by being pushed by light reflecting off of the mirror, instead of traditional rocket engines. The light used could be supplied by sunlight or lasers placed in orbit. Sunlight exerts...