Images Dated 25th January 2005

Dover, Kent: Britains Hovercraft, The SR-N 1 flying saucer, Kicks up a fine spray

Dover, Kent: Britain's Hovercraft, The SR-N 1 flying saucer, Kicks up a fine spray of salt water as she comes up the beach at Dover this morning, after skimming across the Channel from Calais on a ten inch cushion of air the SRN 1 made the journey in two hours and three minuetes. with Test pilot, Lieut Commander Peter Lamb, inventor, Mr Christopher Cockerell, and flight observer John Chaplin They crawled about the open deck as moveable ballast during the 21 mile flight.
25 July 1959

© 2005 Credit:Topfoto

Ramscoop spaceship

Ramscoop spaceship, computer artwork. This is a theoretical spaceship that is suitable for travel to the stars. Instead of carrying fuel, it uses the hydrogen gas found between the stars. Even though the interstellar hydrogen density is very low, a powerful magnetic field would be generated to scoop hydrogen from a large volume of space. The hydrogen would pass into the fuel scoops and then into a fusion reactor. Hot plasma from the reactor would exit through exhaust nozzles, providing thrust. Such a ship could approach the speed of light, when relativity effects would lead to short journey times to the stars for travellers relative to non-travellers

© CHRISTIAN DARKIN/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Moon base

Moon base. Computer artwork of an astronaut at a base on the Moon. Humans will require protective suits and sealed buildings when on the Moon. This is because the Moon has no atmosphere and a wide range of surface temperatures from -170 (night) to 127 (day) degrees Celsius. The lunar day-and-night cycle is nearly 30 Earth-days long. The Moon has a gravity that is about a sixth of that of the Earth. Storage tanks (upper left) will include the water, oxygen and fuel needed by the astronauts. A wheel of a moon rover is seen at right. On the ground are solar panels to provide energy. The Moon is about 384, 000 kilometres from the Earth (seen in background)

© CHRISTIAN DARKIN/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY