achtergrond Tag

It’s the question that man has asked himself since the dawn of time. Is there life out there? Green men walking around, or at least some form of life on a distant planet? Let’s take a look at why we haven’t found any extraterrestrial life yet, and how big the chances are we’re going to find it. If you’ve ever looked outside on a bright night, you probably wondered about that age old question at least once: is there someone out there, perhaps at this very moment looking at me?Read More

Blue Origin claims its sub-orbital rocket has made its third consecutive flight. The company’s goal is to eventually create a rocket that can take people into space and back for a fee, though it’s not yet sure how much that will be. But are there actually people who want to pay a lot of money to blast off on a dangerous rocket? Is there a future for space tourism? The real competitions race for space tourism really took off with the British Virgin Galactic, one of the many undertakings ofRead More

North Korea has claimed it launched another satellite into orbit, spreading anger throughout the international community. It’s not the first time the country has claimed a satellite launch, but how serious should we take the claims of the totalitarian state? Let’s take a look at North Korea’s controversial space program. North Korea has said it launched a satellite into orbit, using “a long-range rocket”, but it’s actually not quite clear what the object put into orbit was.  Kwangmyongsong The country itself has named the satellite Kwangmyongsong-4, the successor to threeRead More

Astronomen zeggen een negende planeet in het zonnestelsel te hebben ontdekt, de mysterieuze ‘Planeet X’. Als dat echt waar is, is het één van de grootste astronomische ontwikkelingen in decennia – maar dat is een heel grote ‘misschien’… Wat is ‘Planeet X’ precies, en bestaat ‘ie nou wel of niet? ‘Planeet X’, of ‘Planeet 9’ zoals astronomen hem ook wel noemen, is alleen ontdekt via zwaartekrachtsafwijkingen van dwergplaneten en asteroiden aan het einde van het zonnestelsel. De vondst daarvan werd gedaan door een team astronomen van de Caltech Universiteit inRead More

You’re 400 kilometers above the Earth, locked in a small space with your colleagues, far away from your family… It doesn’t sound very pleasant to be in space during the holidays, but even in the International Space Station astronauts celebrate Christmas. But how? The 6 astronauts currently aboard the Station aren’t the first to spend Christmas there – and they won’t be the last. The Station has been permanently manned since 2001, which means there have been quite a few Christmas parties. Decking the halls with jolly The ISS isRead More

Yesterday, SpaceX wrote history by sending six satellites into space, and then landing the same rocket upright so it can be used again. Quite an amazing feat, but let’s look at why exactly SpaceX’ rocket landing is so revolutionary. And what will this mean for the future of spaceflight? What actually happened The company launched the heaviest version of its self-produced and designed rocket, the Falcon 9 v1.1, on a mission that carried 11 ORBCOMM communication satellites to Low Earth Orbit. That was always the primary target of the mission,Read More

Being an astronaut is still a pretty dangerous profession, with a fatality rate of no less than 4% despite everyone’s intense efforts to prevent serious accidents. But what would happen though, if one of the astronauts in the ISS died now? What happens if you die in space? Turns out, there’s not really a protocol for that… Let’s start with The only deaths that (probably) occurred in space are those of the crew members of Soyuz 11, (Georgiy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsayev), who had died during their descentRead More

Our first encounter with intelligent aliens is an interesting subject for many science-fiction movies. Are we going to use music to communicate? Or would They have some magical Babel Fish? The truth is, the question of what our first message to the Visitors will be is quite controversial. Humanity started to seriously think about sending messages into space in the early 70s, at about the same time when the SETI institute (‘Search for Extra Terrastrial Intelligence’) was founded. Massive telescopes searched the skies for that elusive beacon the ET’s might’veRead More

China gaat zijn eigen navigatiesysteem opnieuw uitbreiden. Het grootste nieuws is misschien wel dat China een eigen navigatiesysteem heeft… Wat is het voor systeem, en  is het anders dan GPS? GPS = Amerika Je staat er misschien niet altijd bij stil, maar GPS (‘Global Positioning System’) is geen universeel systeem. Het is Amerikaans – specifieker, het is van het Amerikaanse leger.  Het GPS-programma begon in 1989, toen de Amerikanen de eerste navigatiesatelliet lanceerden. Inmiddels zijn er 35 actieve GPS-satellieten, die ook periodiek worden vervangen door nieuwe. Dat betekent ook datRead More

Europa krijgt definitief een eigen nieuwe draagraket. ESA heeft een miljardencontract uitgeloofd aan Airbus om de Ariane 6 te bouwen, de opvolger van de Ariane 5, het werkpaard van de Europese ruimtevaart. De raket moet Europa ‘competitiever maken’ tegenover de groeiende concurrentie. Er worden eigenlijk 2 nieuwe raketten gebouwd: De Vega-C en de Ariane 6. Die eerste is een opvolger van de kleine Vega-raket, een voertuig dat inmiddels 5 succesvolle lanceringen heeft uitgevoerd – meest recent die van Europa’s eigen ruimteveer, de IVX Paradepaardje De Ariane-raketten zijn de belangrijkste rakettenRead More