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Rocket Travel

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Issue 113

Come aboard and find out why rocket are set to replace commercial aircraft

- James Horton

Rocket Travel

Anywhere in the world, in less than an hour.” Elon Musk and his company SpaceX may have already revolutionised the way we utilise rocketry, but now they seek to use their technology to take us to Mars, the Moon, and even from city to city. And, quite amazingly, the price of enjoying this last application could cost the same as an economy airline ticket.

Known as the ‘Big Falcon Rocket’, or more simply as the BFR, SpaceX’s upcoming spacecraft is set to satisfy all of our space-faring needs in one neat package. It will build upon the staggering success of their previous two rocket designs: the Falcon 9, which at the time of writing has successfully completed nine launches in 2018, and the Falcon Heavy, which first took to the skies in February of this year. These rockets have demonstrated for the first time in our history that not only can you land the first stage of a rocket booster on the ground safely, but you can reuse it. It is from this milestone that the BFR’s goal to not only take people off-world, but also shuttle them around it, becomes viable and immensely promising.

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Why are we still sending probes to Mars?

Mars is perhaps the most interesting, and certainly the most Earth-like world in the Solar System, and there's a huge amount still to find out about it.

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BURMESE PYTHONS HAVE CELLS THAT HELP THEM DIGEST ENTIRE SKELETONS

Researchers found that specialised cells in Burmese pythons' intestinal lining process calcium from the bones of their meals. This helps explain how these predators digest whole prey.

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DISCOVERING THE TITANIC

Finding the remains of this iconic liner on the seabed was no easy feat, but after more than seven decades the wreckage revealed itself

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Melting glaciers could trigger volcanic eruptions around the globe

Melting glaciers could make volcanic eruptions more explosive and frequent, worsening climate change in the process, scientists have warned. Hundreds of volcanoes in Antarctica, Russia, New Zealand and North America rest beneath glaciers. But as the planet warms and these ice sheets melt and retreat, these volcanoes are likely to become more active, according to the authors of a new study analysing the activity of six volcanoes in southern Chile during the last ice age. “Glaciers tend to suppress the volume of eruptions from the volcanoes beneath them. But as glaciers retreat due to climate change, our findings suggest these volcanoes go on to erupt more frequently and more explosively,” said Pablo Moreno Yaeger, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

time to read

2 mins

Issue 206

How It Works UK

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The world's dams hold so much water they've shifted Earth's poles

The construction of thousands of dams since 1835 has caused Earth's poles to wobble, new research suggests. Scientists found that large dams hold so much water, they redistribute mass around the globe, shifting the position of Earth's crust relative to the mantle, the planet's middle layer. Earth's mantle is gooey, and the crust forms a solid shell that can slide around on top of it. Weight on the crust that causes it to shift relative to the mantle also shifts the location of Earth's poles. \"Any movement of mass within the Earth or on its surface changes the orientation of the rotation axis relative to the crust, a process termed true polar wander,\" researchers wrote in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

time to read

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Issue 206

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WHY WE STUDY SPACE DUST

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HOW DINOSAURS BECAME BIRDS

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time to read

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WHY ARE SMOKE DETECTORS RADIOACTIVE?

These devices use a radioactive element to help sniff out smoke and alert you to a potential fire

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SALLY RIDE MEMORABILIA COLLECTION SELLS FOR OVER £100,000

A set of memorabilia chronicling Sally Ride’s pioneering path to space just fetched a pretty penny at auction.

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Issue 206

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