Astronomy & Planetary Sciences

The man who has done it all James Perry, Editing Director Image credit: NASA On a recent visit to the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier took the time to answer some questions on his career, advice, and thoughts for the future. Q: Could you briefly introduce yourself? CN: I’m Claude Nicollier from Switzerland, I just turned 80 years of age last year so I’m no longer a young man – but I was in the past, like everyone! I was born in 1944 at the end of the last world war, which Switzerland was not really involved in. I had a happy childhood in Vevey, near Lausanne in the West, French-speaking part of Switzerland. Very early on I really had a passion for airplanes, for the sky. I looked at the planets, the moon and star clusters with a small teles...

From Sumeria to SpaceX Alex Nedelcu, Leonardo Times Editor The ancient Sumerians made the first recorded observations of Mars.Subsequent civilizations, from Egypt to China, studied the motion of the planet and ascribed meaning to its blood-red color. But how have our views of Mars evolved? And how are our perspectives going to change in the future? Mars has a radius equal to half the Earth’s, a thin atmosphere dominated by carbon dioxide and an utterly inhospitable climate [1]. Once, it might have been capable of sustaining life, as proven by the traces of water in solid form that were found in 2018 in polar regions. Its surface, covered in iron oxide, is reminiscent of blood, which led to the ancient Romans calling it Mars after their god of war. Mesopotamia, China, Rome Th...