Articles

Thoughts on Space Policy and Latest Space News. Published Monthly by the Sherwood Observatory.

Mars Mission in trouble

Luck had it that as soon as I had decided to write an article for my October post on the importance of sample return missions on the back...

Trans-Neptunian Objects Under the Spotlight

When the James Web Space Telescope (JWST) was launched almost two years ago now—time flies—one of the key observations I was looking...

The Holy Grail of Planetary Science

After travelling for over 160 million kilometres in space, the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft whizzed by Earth on the 24th of September to release...

India is on the Moon

Having written about the ups and downs of India’s past Chandrayaan missions in my second book – Imaging Our Solar System – it was with...

The Wanderers

Interstellar space, this vast region of space that lies between stars, is a very empty place with an average density of only about one...

Looking for Aliens: Why Technosignatures are better than Biosignatures

Is there anybody out there? The question of whether or not there is another life or even intelligent life in the universe is one of the...

Could There Be Another Kuiper Belt?

I have always been fascinated by the Kuiper Belt and the worlds that lay beyond it. The Kuiper Belt, home to Pluto and Arrokoth, is...

We're off to Ganymede

A few weeks ago, a booming sound rumbled throughout the lush jungles of French Guiana as Ariane V took off for its penultimate launch,...

A New Case for Ariel's Ocean

When Voyager 2 whizzed past Uranus in January 1986, it encountered a system tilted by 97.7 degrees, as if lying on its side. Such a...

First Step

‘Five minutes to go. You’re still OK, Harper?’ said a man through the intercom. Her voice was too dry to reply, so she gave a thumbs up...

Retrograde

This is the beginning of a novel. Chapter 1 Near Sarakka Crater, on Callisto Freyja’s pickaxe hit on the rock-solid ice hard. It made a...

Universal Equilibrium

‘Life in space is aberrant, an unnatural situation. We shouldn’t be here,’ the man said, staring at the bedroom ceiling. ‘Where should we...

Between the Ice and the Stars

This is the beginning of a short story. Ice particles lifted in the tenuous atmosphere as his boot stepped onto the frozen ground. The...

Beyond the Psyche Report

In May last year, I shared with you (here) my initial thoughts on the 782-page Planetary Decadal Survey published by the US National...

The Tale of Two Images

Last week, I gave a talk at a local astronomy club on the topic of my latest book: the evolution of space mission cameras and instruments...

Looking at the Year Ahead

Remarkable, don’t you think, that we have made it through another year in the amazing story of humanity, so terrific, so tremendous, but...

Artemis: Expect the Unexpected

Just a few weeks ago, on the 16th of November to be precise, I woke up at 5h45 in the morning (UK time) and went to my living room in my...

Juno's Daring Flyby of Europa

It seems that not a month goes by without some fantastic images being returned from an imaging instrument somewhere in space. Of all the...

The Neptune System Up Close

How lucky we are to live during the era of the James Webb Space Telescope! Webb has merely begun its decades-long mission (hopefully, it...

A Galaxy of Cephalopods

When considering life in outer space, we have been bathed – dare I say conditioned - for over a century now with stories that mainly...