Right now, the ESA and NASA are tinkering with closed-loop life support systems that — if perfected — might totally eliminate the need for water and oxygen shipments to the ISS. Cracking this technology could become the key to long-distance space travel in the future [source: ESA]. OK,...
This crew spent 84 days in orbit, conducted experiments and photographed comet Kohoutek. Skylab was never meant to be a permanent home in space, but rather a workshop where the United States could test the effects of long-duration space flights (that is, greater than the two weeks required ...
they’ve captured the public's imagination. The Starlink satellite train is often mistaken for UFOs because of its otherworldly appearance. However, this striking formation is short-lived; as the satellites ascend to theiroperational orbitat 340 miles (550 kilometers), they disperse and blend into...
Forty years to the month after Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space, Dennis Tito showed that there was money to be made in human spaceflight -- lots of money, as he plunked down a reported $20 million for his flight.
“We don’t want the mission to be cost prohibitive,” she says, referring to the cost per kilogram of anything launched into space. While thecost per kilogram has decreased for low-orbit flights, every kilogram you can leave behind on exceptionally long trips counts even more. ...
allows effective spin up as well as orbit boost. Long pauses after some pulses allow more time for crew to adapt to the higher spin rate and do more tests. If second stage engine cutoff is at 200 x 200 kilometers, a 3 rpm spin-up can boost the orbit to 260 x 260 kilometers. If...
The International Space Station (ISS) was developed and built thought the combined efforts of participating space agencies in five nations: Canada, the United States, European, Japanese, and Russian. Most of the astronauts that have worked on the ISS have come from these countries, however other...
Although the vast majority of the food available on the ISS comes from a standard set of 200 food and beverage items -- with much of it sent to the space station long before new astronauts arrive -- each astronaut gets to pick a small set of "bonus containers" of special food. By sma...
As humanity looks towards expanding activity from low Earth orbit to the Moon and beyond, resource use efficiency and self-sustainability will be critical to ensuring success in the long term. Furthermore, solutions developed for the stringent requirements of space will be equally valuable in meeting...
and even urine. As off-putting as this might sound, this highly efficient recycling system is what allows the astronauts on the ISS to have regular access to water. So the next time you feel like you could do with a long, hot shower, just be glad you haven't had to go many months...