When it comes to creating modern machines that can get into the sky, or even further – into space, there are many challenges that engineers face in order to make sure that the machines are safe, and can withstand the difficult conditions that they will endure.

When the Wright brothers first achieved their flight way back at the start of the 20th Century, it seems that we have come a really long way in terms of human flight. From then, advances were made rapidly, and the first as well as the second world war, saw countries working hard to improve their own flight technology to outdo the enemy.

In the 1950s, a different type of war was being fought between east and west – the cold war. The battlefield had changed and propaganda and the one upmanship of each side led to a different kind of race altogether – the space race. Within a few years, something that many scientists have questioned as even being a possibility, became the new fighting ground of the United States and the Soviet Union as it was known then.

Nowadays, due to these advances that were made, we take for granted the fact that we can get these huge machines off the ground and fly them into the sky and beyond the atmosphere of the Earth. Whether heading off on holiday on modern jet planes, or seeing the work done on the International Space Station, this is all now a part of the modern world.

However, engineers and scientists are always pushing what can be done, and there are lots of types of technologies that are used in order to improve these machines. Electroless Nickel plating like this www.poeton.co.uk/standard-treatments/electroless-nickel-plating/ is an example of a type of technology used in the aerospace industry. Preventing corrosion and making the surface of a metal harder means that not only will the machine be safer for those using it but will also last longer.

Over in NASA, cutting edge technology is always being tried out and this is clear currently as NASA recently embarked on its first mission to the moon since the end of the Apollo missions. Artemis (aptly named, as the sister of Apollo) blasted off in November 2022 and is the first of a series of missions that NASA will eventually use to send humans to Mars for the first time in history.