Our Future Chronicles column explores an imagined history of inventions and developments yet to come. We journey to 2055, ...

Some of this flow is simply due to sunlight heating up the thin air at that altitude, giving the atoms enough energy to escape Earth's gravity. We see this same sort of thing occurring on a much ...

Between 60% and 90% of the launch weight of any space mission is the fuel that enables it to escape Earth's gravity and enter space. Once the spacecraft arrives in orbit, it needs to use as little ...

Mm-hm. So to launch a rocket into space,you would need a huge upward force to overcomethe downward force of Earth's gravity, is that right?Yes, spot-on. Yes! Getting high enough to escape Earth's ...