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Journal: all
Keyword: structural design considerations
Total 25 articles
Article    14 Jun 2023
Małgorzata Polkowska
Space tourism is recreational space travel, whether by government vehicles, such as the Russian Soyuz and the International Space Station (ISS), or by vehicles built by private companies. Since the flight of the world’s first space Space tourism is recreational space travel, whether by government vehicles, such as the Russian Soyuz and the International Space Station (ISS), or by vehicles built by private companies. Since the flight of the world’s first space tourist, American businessman Dennis Tito (28 April 2001), space tourism (orbital) has been slowly growing. Orbital space tourism is very expensive, so a number of private companies have decided to concentrate on building much cheaper suborbital vehicles, designed to take passengers to altitudes of up to 100 km. On 4 October 2004, SpaceShipOne, funded by Virgin Galactic and designed by an American engineer, won the X Prize and, in doing so, ushered in a new era of commercial crewed spaceflight and space tourism. Since then, the design and construction of suborbital spacecraft have become increasingly popular. Such ships, in principle, do not have the ability to cross the imaginary 100 km boundary and enter the Cosmos area. However, space tourists can find themselves weightless for a few minutes. In fact, not only technical but legal difficulties have caused suborbital tourism to develop at a slow pace so far. This article concentrates on some legal challenges regarding space tourism, not going into details about states’ politics and international organizations’ activities. or Access Full Article
Highlights of Sustainability
Volume 2 (2023), Issue 2, pp. 100–109
4047 Views3614 Downloads
Article    8 Sep 2022
Annalisa Stacchini, Andrea Guizzardi and Michele Costa
Highlights of Sustainability
Volume 1 (2022), Issue 3, pp. 202–223
7239 Views1767 Downloads9 Citations
Article    26 Aug 2022
Stephen K. Wegren
Although Russia’s grain growing regions have experienced episodic droughts, the financial impact of climate change has to date been modest when measured in terms of value of production lost. As industrial agriculture continues to emit greenhouse Although Russia’s grain growing regions have experienced episodic droughts, the financial impact of climate change has to date been modest when measured in terms of value of production lost. As industrial agriculture continues to emit greenhouse gases, the impact of climate change will intensify, making Russia’s southern regions drier and hotter, and potentially forcing a structural shift in production northward, an event that will lead to lower yields and grain output. The sustainable sector in Russia’s agricultural system is not able to compensate for lower grain output in the south, nor is it able to feed the nation or ensure food security across the full spectrum of commodities that consumers expect. The prospect of Russia as a declining grain power impacts the dozens of nations that import Russian grain, most notably authoritarian regimes in the Middle East. or Access Full Article
Highlights of Sustainability
Volume 1 (2022), Issue 3, pp. 188–201
6432 Views7246 Downloads3 Citations
Article    17 May 2022
Alfred Söderberg
Highlights of Sustainability
Volume 1 (2022), Issue 2, pp. 88–104
5638 Views1689 Downloads2 Citations
Review    8 Mar 2022
Hwang Yi and Abhishek Mehrotra
Highlights of Sustainability
Volume 1 (2022), Issue 1, pp. 12–40
3760 Views1362 Downloads1 Citations
Review    8 Mar 2022
Hwang Yi and Abhishek Mehrotra
Sustainable buildings tend to maximize power and information rather than efficiency. The multidimensional concepts and tools provided by systems ecology and thermodynamics aid the understanding of building performance and sustainability as part of the global and Sustainable buildings tend to maximize power and information rather than efficiency. The multidimensional concepts and tools provided by systems ecology and thermodynamics aid the understanding of building performance and sustainability as part of the global and complex thermodynamic phenomena in living systems—energy is not concentrated, but it flows, increasing the flow rate of useful energy. From such an extended macroscopic perspective, this paper addresses holistic eco-systemic criteria of building performance evaluation, focusing on emergy (spelled with an “m”) and information—the two critical indices of extensive and intensive analysis. Emergy aggregates the utmost and upstream energetic impacts, whereas information evaluates the structural pattern of the energy-flow distribution. These indices are theoretically correlated under the principles of ecological energy transformation and are often practically compatible. To clarify the definitions and appropriate scientific contexts of the new indices for environmental building studies, we review information theory, ecological theorems, and a few pioneering studies. Emergy and information have a great potential for advanced environmental building analysis, but building-scale implementation of emergy, information, and system principles remains a scientific challenge. The findings call for further research into the improvement of building-specific emergy/information data and reliable evidence of the analogy between building and open living systems. or Access Full Article
Highlights of Sustainability
Volume 1 (2022), Issue 1, pp. 12–40
3760 Views1362 Downloads1 Citations
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