Tag
#spacecraft
2 posts
New Horizons Mission Detects Significant Slowdown of Solar Wind in Outer Solar System
New Horizons measures the solar wind slowing down as it encounters interstellar gas, helping scientists define the heliosphere's boundary and understand our solar system's edge.
How Spacecraft Survive the Violence of Atmospheric Reentry
When a spacecraft plunges back into Earth's atmosphere, friction compresses the air in front of it so violently that the gas heats to thousands of degrees — hot enough to vaporize metal. Surviving this requires one of the cleverest engineering compromises in spaceflight: a shield that deliberately ablates, burning away to carry the heat with it. Without it, every astronaut return would be fatal.