Air quality on Mars, Dieselgate and solving the school run all feature in latest issue of Air Quality News Magazine
‘Whether it’s a trip to orbit or beyond, to the Moon or Mars, your spacecraft is a sealed, pressurised container with a given quantity of air,’ says spaceflight historian Giles Sparrow, interviewed in issue 29 of Air Quality News Magazine, released free, online today to coincide with Clean Air Day.
‘You need enough air for the time you’re up there,’ Giles continues. ‘You need to compensate for your own affect on the chemical mix, which is the result of breathing in oxygen and then exhaling carbon dioxide. And you need the air to stay clean, avoiding a build up microbes and dust.’
Over the years, ingenious science and technology have been employed to solve these challenges – which Giles details for us in the free magazine. That includes the issues facing the next generation of astronauts, set to visit the Moon and Mars…
- Read the full interview for free online in Air Quality News Magazine 29
Elsewhere in the same packed issue, Emily Kearsey, a lawyer at environmental law charity ClientEarth, charts the ongoing impact of ‘Dieselgate’ 10 years ago. You probably remember the scandal in 2015, when it was found that millions of diesel-powered Volkswagen vehicles were fitted with ‘defeat devices’ that hid how much they polluted the air.
‘Despite the outrage,’ concludes Emily, ‘little has been done to tackle the problem in the EU and UK.’
We also look at the energy benefits of new flexible solar cells. Emily Whitehouse speaks to Dr Jim McQuaid from the University of Leeds about this year’s Royal Society Pairing Scheme which teams up leading scientists with MPs, peers and civil servants to ensure policymakers make decisions based on the best available evidence.
And editor Paul Day reports from one of the UK’s three urban background air quality monitoring supersites – in this case, at Fallowfield in South Manchester.
All this and more can be found in the new issue of Air Quality News Magazine, available to read online for free.
In related news:
Universities face ‘urgent challenge’ from tech savvy Gen Alpha
Scottish Technology Council announced as public-private sector bridge
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