Category: Long Articles
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Ion Engines are a Game Changer, and Here’s Why!
Since the dawn of the human space age, there have been constant efforts on making spaceflight more efficient, cheaper and more accessible. As we all know, the propulsion system of a rocket mostly determines its performance. Till date, almost all of our spaceflight endeavours have been carried out using chemical propulsion methods. Chemical Rocket Propulsion…
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What is the SpaceX Falcon 9?
Falcon 9 is a reusable, two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of people and payloads into Orbit. Reusability allows SpaceX to refly the most expensive parts of the rocket, which in turn drives down the cost of space access. Engines Merlin is a family of rocket engines developed…
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History and Evolution of Reusable Rockets and Spacecrafts
While the Space Race was coming to a close, the public interest for spaceflight was decreasing and so were government funds, there came a need for the reusability of rockets. NASA scientists already predicted the need for reusability even before the Apollo landings, back in 1968, and decided that after sending men to the moon,…
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Head to Head : Saturn V vs SLS
From sending men on a voyage to the moon to having a permanent human existence in space for more than 20 years, NASA has come a long way in developing spaceflight vehicles and pushing the limits of human space exploration. But according to a lot of people, an integral part of NASA’s history lies in…
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V2 – the Nazi German missile that sparked the Space Race
Most people claim that the Space Race started with the launch of Sputnik in 1957, but it is surprising that the causes of the Space Race had connections as far back as 1944. While World War II war was coming to a close in Europe, the Allies were winning. In a bid to change the…
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WHY HAVEN’T WE FOUND THE ALIENS YET: AN ANALYSIS OF THE THEORIES
Are we alone in this vast expanse of the universe? Every month or two, there are reports of ‘sightings’ of UFOs (Unidentified Flying Object), strange creatures and footprints, conspiracy theorists debating whether the arrival of aliens is being hidden by the Government, reputed scientists claiming that aliens are already present on earth. Whether Extraterrestrial life…
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6 WOMEN WHO MADE THEIR MARK IN ASTROPHYSICS
February 11 marks the International Day of Women in STEM. It is a day for celebrating the role women and girls play in science. It is also a day to raise awareness about giving women opportunities to pursue careers in STEM fields and to awaken interest in young girls for STEM. In this blog post,…
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THE SPACE DEBRIS CHALLENGE
Humankind has been launching all sorts of spacecrafts (such as space rockets, satellites, shuttles etc.) since 1957. Often, after a space-craft is no longer useful to us, it is just left to its own devices in the space. In this post, we will look into the challenges posed by space debris.
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Russian Amur: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Succesor?
Amur (or АМУР in Russian) is a Russian methane fueled orbital launch vehicle set to launch on 2026. Amur will be the first Russian methane-fueled launch vehicle. Amur will be developed for a given cost of a launch service of $22 million per launch. The rocket will also receive an unprecedented level of reliability. It is…
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Way to the launch of Artemis 1 #3: SLS has been powered on for the first time
A lot has happened at the Kennedy Space Center in the last month. From installing 13 cubesats to software testing. We will look at everything in the third part of our series on the way to the launch of the Artemis I mission to the Moon.
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Rockets?🚀
Rockets are some things that take something into space.