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DEEP SPACE | SOLAR SYSTEM | EXPLORATION
ORION
KILLER
NEBULA
COMETS
See inside this cosmic
stellar nursery
The science of these
deadly ice missiles
with the James Webb Space Telescope
10
Revealing distant exoplanets Seeing the Big Bang
Unravelling the mystery of dark matter
AMAZING
FACTS ABOUT
NEUTRON
STARS
METEOR
SHOWERS
47 TUCANAE
ANTARES
ROCKET
MISSION FUTURE
TO JUPITER SPACE TECH
Can we put man on Drilling distant moons
Jupiter’s biggest moons? ISSUE 16 and printing lunar bases
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Blast-off to a universe
of knowledge
" Our goal is to open up the
space frontier to anybody who
has the desire to go there”
48 Steve Isakowitz, President of Virgin Galactic
Crew roster
It’s been just over a year Scientists and space-agency professionals learn Jonathan O’Callaghan
since the biggest rover on to be sceptics first, so deal adeptly with this type (cid:81) Jonny's poignant
Hale-Bopp comet
Mars touched down in Gale of question. But, as a journalist embroiled in the experience
Crater and began one of creation of All About Space magazine, the notion made him a keen
volunteer for a 'Killer
the most widely publicised that someone would question the pursuit of Comets' feature
space missions in recent science for the sake of science left me reeling.
Gemma Lavender
history. Curiosity has had The general rejoinder is, for sceptics scrutinising (cid:81) Gemma's
quite an incredible year. But Curiosity's billion-dollar budget, that the spin-off long-running
obsession with
seriously, has it really been technolgies created with every space mission
the JWST made
all that great? What has alone both justify the cost and are of enormous her perfect for
our cover feature
the Mars Science Laboratory actually achieved benefit to the world. But that’s an argument for
that's beneficial to mankind? ‘Proof of a habitable the professionals: for space fans, it’s a cheap Elizabeth Howell
environment’ – so what? defence. Curiosity is exploring Mars because we (cid:81) This issue
our futuretech
These were the questions posed to me by a want to know and we are capable of sending it articles were
disappointed friend. After realising the intrepid there, as human beings we shouldn't need further both embraced
by super tech-
Martian rover hadn’t discovered extraterrestrial justification than that. savvy Elizabeth
life, fossils of microbes, or even any direct proof
Laura Mears
that Mars once played host to life, but had simply
Ben Biggs (cid:81) 'All About'
discovered rocks that showed Mars once had leaves the Solar
the potential to support life, he wanted to hear Deputy Editor System, destined
for the Orion
justification for NASA’s MSL mission. nebula, courtesy
of Laura
Contact
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LAUNCH
16
PAD
YOUR FIRST CONTACT
WITH THE UNIVERSE Deep Space
06The most
incredible photos Discovery
taken from the furthest
reaches of observable
space, to inside the
laboratory on Earth
FEATURES
16 Deep Space
52 Space
Discovery
Kitchen ISS
We discover the unbelievable sights
Ever wondered how the ISS crew
that Hubble's successor, the James
cooks and eats in zero gravity?
Webb Space Telescope, will show us
54 FutureTech
24 10 Facts
Europa Drill
Neutron Stars
The mission and technology to drill
Ten amazing facts about these
beneath the crust of this icy moon
insanely dense cores of dead stars
56 Focus On
26 Killer Comets
Diamond-
These balls of ice and rock have
Crushing Cluster
fascinated mankind for aeons, but are
they on a collision course with Earth? A look the massive globular star
cluster, 47 Tucanae
36 FutureTech
Space Factories 58 Inside Vostok 1
Get to grips with 3D printing buildings, We open up Yuri Gargarin's famous
Moon bases and even food in space Russian space capsule
38 All About: 60 Mission to
Orion Nebula Jupiter
58
One of the most famous cosmic clouds The amazing technology behind the
in the sky comes under our all-seeing future missions to the Jovian moons
Inside
telescope this month
72 Focus On
48 Interview Vostok 1
Antares Rocket
Virgin Galactic
The rocket set to take
Virgin Galactic president Steve a private spacecraft
Isakowitz tells us why space flight for to the ISS
everyone is closer than you think
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“ Our goal is to open up the
space frontier to anybody who
has the desire to go there”
76 Your questions
48
Steve Isakowitz, President of Virgin Galactic answered
Our experts answer our
26 readers’ top questions
Killer STARGAZER
Comets Star-watching basics to
kick-start your hobby
82 Maksutov-
Cassegrain
telescopes
Expert advice on the best use for
this telescope type
84 What’s in the sky?
T ake a tour of this month’s skies
86 M eteor Showers
H ow to view the upcoming light
show this month
88 Me and my
telescope
All About Space readers show us
their best astrophotography efforts
93 Astronomy
kit reviews
A ll About Space looks at a refractor
scope, an eyepiece kit and more
36
Space
38
Factories
All About:
Orion Nebula
60
98 Heroes
Mission to of Space
Jupiter
The original rocket scientist,
Wernher Von Braun
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A decade of
beautiful Venus
This fantastically detailed composite image of
Venus was shot over the course of a decade of
radar investigations by Earth’s Arecibo radar, which
came together during the Magellan mission in the
early-Nineties. The colours you see here have been
added to represent elevation, from blue (low) to
yellow and red (high), as well as highlight some
of Venus’s most striking features. The squiggly
pinkish part running across the planet’s equator,
for example, is Venus’s highest mountain range,
Maxwell Montes. It reaches 11km (6.8mi) above
the Venusian surface and is also volcanic.
6 www.spaceanswers.com
Feature: Topic here
www.spaceanswers.com 7
LAUNCH PAD
YOUR FIRST CONTACT WITH THE UNIVERSE
Underwater spacewalk
Here, European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet is in
training at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston, Texas. The lab
is owned by NASA, of course, although as a part of training for
International Space Station missions, NASA welcomes astronauts
from other space agencies to come to this highly specialised,
world-class facility. One of the best ways to prepare for EVAs and
spacewalking around the ISS is by diving, where the buoyancy of
the water mimics the weightlessness of space.
Mount
Doom of
the Solar
System
This is Olympus Mons, a
Martian shield volcano
that, some time in the far-
flung future, will probably
feature among the top ten
tourist attractions in the
Solar System. It’s absolutely
enormous, the tallest peak in
the Solar System at around
25km (16mi) high and
certainly the biggest volcano,
too. This image shows part of
its southeastern flank, colour-
coded to represent elevation.
The original image was
shot by the High Resolution
Stereo Camera on the ESA’s
Mars Express. Olympus
Mons is also extremely wide:
at around 624km (374mi)
wide, its surface area would
cover most of France.
8 www.spaceanswers.com
Ancient feeding frenzy
Peering through the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, scientists spotted
this ancient curiosity that existed around two billion years after the Big Bang: it's a rare alignment
between a galaxy and an even more distant quasar in the background. The light from the quasar
passing through the stellar dust has allowed ESO scientists to investigate in detail the dynamics of
the galaxy. Gas is being drawn towards its core, providing the fuel for star formation while driving
galactic rotation. It's the best view scientists have had of a galaxy feeding yet.
www.spaceanswers.com 9
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YOUR FIRST CONTACT WITH THE UNIVERSE
ISS removal vehicle
The ESA's ATV-4, the fourth automated transfer vehicle to service the ISS, was launched
at the beginning of June carrying the heaviest supply load yet. The vehicle took 2,489kg
(5,487lb) of dry cargo, including food and oxygen, and arrived at the ISS at the beginning
of August on board the 'Albert Einstein'. Once the crew has finished unloading the stores
onto the station and filling 'Albert Einstein' back up with over 1,200kg (2,645lb) of rubbish,
at the end of October 2013 it will detach from the station before burning up as it re-enters
Earth's atmosphere.
10 www.spaceanswers.com
