Lidar technology, which uses a laser to measure the distance to a target, was first developed to help track spacecraft, and to help them autonomously rendezvous; a lot of spin-off technologies from human spaceflight, due to the challenges of tr

000E: Do spacecraft ever collide?

Nov 30th, 2020 6m 12s

By the late 1970’s engineers were starting to grasp the risk of the ever-growing space debris population; we have best-practise guidance in place to help avoid the creation of more debris; space debris, much like pollution on Earth is a negativ

000D: Who governs space?

Nov 23rd, 2020 5m 57s

Issues relating to the use of space have been dealt with through the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space; five UN Treaties between 1967 and 1979; the Moon and other bodies be used “exclusively for peaceful purposes” but

000C: How do we live in space?

Nov 16th, 2020 6m 6s

Space sickness is experienced by as many as half of people as they adapt to weightlessness; just like on ground, exercise and health checks are vital; as water is the most heavily consumed item for life support it’s vital that as much be recycl

000B: How do you power a spacecraft?

Nov 9th, 2020 5m 52s

The only external source of energy available to a spacecraft with reasonable flight heritage is solar radiation; the use of unfolding solar arrays is common; in a fuel cell, hydrogen and oxygen, or a similar combination, are combined to produce

000A: How do you move around in space?

Nov 2nd, 2020 5m 54s

The main way of changing the velocity of a spacecraft is to take part of the mass of the spacecraft, and eject it; anything but small plane changes require a lot of energy, which can make such manoeuvres prohibitive; the Earth’s diameter is alm

0009: Is space an empty vacuum?

Oct 26th, 2020 6m 47s

Earth’s atmosphere has an effect on all spacecraft up to at least 500km, but on occasions to over 1000km; Electric and magnetic fields exist around most bodies in space, including the Earth and the Sun; Space also contains a number of plasma en

0008: Can you make money in space?

Oct 18th, 2020 6m 10s

The most valuable service from space is communications; space enables reliable, and high-quality communications far from terrestrial infrastructure; it is estimated that over 13% of the non-financial business economy gross domestic product is s

0007: Why go to space for science?

Oct 11th, 2020 5m 17s

By studying the space environment around the Earth we can better understand how it effects our lives, and our planet. Spaceflight osteopenia causes astronauts to lose, on average, more than 1% of bone mass per month in space, making them good s

0006: Why is going to space good for society?

Oct 4th, 2020 5m 14s

Satellites monitor the Earth’s weather and are responsible for the vast majority of the accuracy of weather forecasts. A satellite-aided search and rescue system ensures immediate detection of an alert anywhere in the world, and aids the rescue

0005: Why go to space for national security?

Sep 30th, 2020 5m 50s

Space technology has probably contributed more to the pursuit of peace than just about any other technology. Locating all kinds of radio transmissions from Earth is a key form of military surveillance from space. A number of countries have dedi

0004: Where are the spacecraft?

Sep 27th, 2020 5m 9s

All orbits below 2000km altitude are termed low-Earth Orbits, or LEO. The duration, or period of an orbit increases as altitude increases. A geostationary spacecraft appears stationary in the sky. If you are north of Svalbard, at over 81 degree

0003: What's an orbit?

Sep 20th, 2020 4m 57s

A satellite is an object that orbits something else. An object in orbit is in continual freefall, moving forward so fast it never hits the ground. The closest point of an orbit to Earth is termed perigee, and the furthest point is apogee. An or

0002: How do we get to space?

Sep 13th, 2020 5m 50s

Space travel became a seriously considered engineering endeavour through the works of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. To access space a dedicated vehicle is required, a launch vehicle. Multistage rockets are two or more rockets, or stages working in se

0001: Where is space, & what’s a spacecraft?

Sep 6th, 2020 4m 8s

As altitude increases the air gets thinner, that is, atmospheric density decreases. The nominal boundary to space as the von Kármán ellipsoid, a curve, above the surface of the Earth at 100km altitude. A spacecraft is a vehicle or vessel design

0000: What’s a Nibble in Space?

Aug 30th, 2020 3m 17s

The basic unit of information is a bit. It has two possible values, “0” (zero) or “1” (one). Eight bits make up a byte. Each hexadecimal digit represents four binary digits, termed a nibble. A nibble is half a byte.

Trailer

Aug 18th, 2020 45s

Nibbles in Space is a series of short podcasts, making space more accessible. A nibble is half a byte. A nibble is 4 bits of information, whether you listen to it as a podcast or if want a little more of a Nibble you can read it at SpaceProf.xy