The Greatest Space Technologies – Part 3

We are entering the unfathomable vast world of the cosmos more and more every day. With space exploration more prevalent now than ever before and technology progressing on an exponential curve, curious minds continue to investigate the universe’s mysteries and invent technology to help us understand a little bit more each day. Some of the greatest space technologies are:

International Space Station (ISS)

A large artificial space station orbiting the earth in low orbit, ISS was launched in 1998 and has been expanding ever since and is now the largest artificial body in orbit. Seen by naked eye each night from the Earth’s surface, it provides a space for research in the many laboratories in which astronauts perform experiments.

SPS-ALPHA

Touted as the ultimate solution for the most challenging issue for humanity ‘The Energy Crisis’, SPS-ALPHA (Solar Power Satellite via Arbitrarily Large Phased Array) is a concept derived to harvest precious solar energy efficiently from space and transmit it in wirelessly to major energy markets on Earth. But, there is still time for this technology to actually come into practice. However, when it does, it will be possible to harvest hundreds of megawatts to hundreds of gigawatts from space and transmit it to the earth efficiently.

Solar Probe Plus

A robotic spacecraft planned to launch for the study of the outer corona of Sun, Solar Probe+ was announced in 2008 and might see the light of the day this year. It includes a trajectory using the repeated assist from the gravity of Venus that will push the probe into the close trajectory of the Sun. Its objective includes studying the structure and dynamics of the Sun’s magnetic field, explore dusty plasma near the Sun, and determine what mechanism accelerates and transports energetic particles.