The ESA thread

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Since the general sci&tech thread sticky was removed, i'll be posting all ESA related news in here. this will be a thread of hi-tec and great images. All sources will be from ESA website unless otherwise specified.

LIRIS test on ATV 5

ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle Georges Lemaître seen from the International Space Station as it approaches for docking in August 2014. To the right of the ESA logo, three cameras around the front cone form part of the Laser Infrared Imaging Sensors, or LIRIS, experiment that demonstrated new rendezvous and docking technology. The lidar optical head and its box of electronics sit just above the ESA logo and form the second element of the tracking system.

LIRIS is a test of European sensors technology in space to improve the autonomous rendezvous and docking that ATVs have performed five times since 2008. ESA’s goal is to be able to perform an automated rendezvous far from home, perhaps in Mars orbit or with an uncooperative target such as an inert object.

The image on the left shows how far each element of the Space Station is from ATV-5 with arbitrarily chosen colours corresponding to their distance from LIRIS. The Russian service module to whichGeorges Lemaîtredocked shows up in green at a distance of 30 m, while the Soyuz was 15 m away and shows in yellow. The main truss of the Station is represented in purple at 40 m. The image on the right was created from the same data but shows how much light was reflected at each point. The Station’s retroreflector used for ATV’s normal laser docking sensors shows up brightly, just as the designers intended.

Source: ESA

 

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3D printer set to fly to ISS in early 2015

Europe’s very first 3D printer in space is scheduled for installation aboard the ISS next year.

Designed and built in Italy, it will be put to the test as part as ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti’s Futura mission, and is set to reach orbit in the first half of next year. Samantha herself will be launched on her six-month Station assignment on 23 November.

“The POP3D Portable On-Board Printer is a small 3D printer that requires very limited power and crew involvement to operate,” explained Luca Enrietti of Altran, prime contractor for the compact printer.

The unit is a cube with 25 cm sides and prints with biodegradable and harmless plastic using a heat-based process.

3D-printed prototype version of the support structure for ESA's Sentinel-1's upper S-band antenna, produced by RUAG Space Switzerland, with Altair and EOS. Produced in metal using selective laser melting, the redesigned part has a mass of 0.94 kg compared to the original part's mass of 1.4 kg, and also boasts improved stability. It was designed using 'topology optimisation', where software decides where material needs to go in order to best meet the part's function, constrained by its stress load and interface points with the rest of the satellite.

"There is big potential all along the value chain, to save cost and mass,” noted Reinhard Schlitt, heading OHB’s Engineering Services.

“But right now the way parts are being produced in various different ways. As a satellite manufacturer, we need common standards in place so we can compare competing supplier parts on a like-for-like basis.

“Europe does have a lead in this technology – the latest laser machines are coming from here for export to the US and China – so we should build on that.”

While this might look like a postmodern sculpture, this weirdly organic design is actually a 3D-printed deployment mechanism for satellite solar panels. This prototype titanium version, by Thales Alenia Space, is called the Adel’Light, being a lightweight version of their existing Adele mechanism.

The 3D-printed version slashes the number of separate parts needed and reduces its mass by 80%. The spiral hinges in the foreground cannot be produced as a single part in any other way.

The device was on show this week during ESA’s Additive Manufacturing for Space Applications workshop at its ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. More than 350 experts from across Europe came together to discuss the potential of 3D printing to transform the space industry and begin preparing common standards for its use.

Ariane 6 get's green light at ESA council meeting

Decided in Luxemburg by the European Space Agency council meeting at Ministerial level, Ariane 6 is a modular three-stage launcher (solid–cryogenic–cryogenic) with two configurations using: four boosters (A64) or two boosters (A62).

Successful conclusion of ESA Council at Ministerial level / Ministerial Council 2014 / About Us / ESA

The development of it and Vega C will help retain and raise Arianespace commercial launch market share. Speaking of which:

During World Satellite Business Week in Paris, from September 8 to 12, 2014, Arianespace is announcing four new contracts for satellites to be launched by Ariane 5 ECA. These latest orders bring the number of commercial and governmental launch contracts signed to date this year to 11, including six satellites to be launched by Ariane 5 ECA and three dedicated Ariane launches. Arianespace's dynamic business performance clearly confirms its global leadership, with a 60%market share for commercial satellite launches.

Arianespace now has a backlog of orders worth more than €4.5 billion, and holds 60% of the commercial launch market.

Building on its complementary family of three launch vehicles (Ariane 5, Soyuz, Vega), Arianespace has a record backlog of orders from 29 different customers: 38 satellites to be launched by Ariane 5 into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), plus four dedicated Ariane 5 launches, seven Soyuz launches, and nine Vega launches.

Arianespace - Press Release - World Satellite Business Week 2014: A rich harvest of contracts for Arianespace

The current workhorse of the fleet, Ariane 5 recently had it's 63rd consecutive successful launch.

European Data Relay System

28 November 2014
Marking a first in space, Sentinel-1A and Alphasat have linked up by laser stretching almost 36 000 km across space to deliver images of Earth just moments after they were captured.

This important step demonstrates the potential of Europe’s new space data highway to relay large volumes of data very quickly so that information from Earth-observing missions can be even more readily available.

Having timely access to imagery from the Sentinel-1 mission, for example, is essential for numerous applications such as maritime safety and helping to respond to natural disasters.

Orbiting from pole to pole about 700 km up, Sentinel-1A transmits data to Earth routinely, but only when it passes over its ground stations in Europe. However, geostationary satellites, hovering 36 000 km above Earth, have their ground stations in permanent view so they can stream data to Earth all the time.

The European Data Relay System (EDRS), being developed under ARTES 7, will be an independent, European satellite system designed to reduce time delays in the transmission of large quantities of data.

Data relay satellites are placed in geostationary orbit to relay information to and from non-geostationary satellites, spacecraft, other vehicles and fixed Earth stations, which otherwise are not able to be in touch permanently with each other.

To add to Europe’s independence, EDRS will fill the gap of a European telecom network that is fast, reliable and seamless. It will make on-demand data available at the right place and at the right time.

Magali Vaissiere, ESA’s Director of Telecommunications and Integrated Applications, said, “Today, space systems have become part of the global Big Data challenge.

“You can visualise the link of today as an optical fibre in the sky that can connect the Sentinels back home to Europe, from wherever they are on their orbit around Earth.

“The link is operated at 1.8 Gbit/s, with a design that could scale up to 7.2 Gbit/s in the future. Never has so much data travelled in space.”

Laser link offers high-speed delivery / Sentinel-1 / Copernicus / Observing the Earth / Our Activities / ESA

EDRS / Telecommunications & Integrated Applications / Our Activities / ESA

Vega launcher work shares:

(AGI) Rome, Dec 3 - The prime contractor for the Vega rocket launcher, Italy's Avio S.p.A., will develop a more powerful Vega-C launcher and new space engines for the Ariane 6, the successor to the highly successful European Ariane 5 rocket.
Ministers from European Space Agency (ESA) member states approved plans for the Vega-C launcher and Ariane 6 at a ministerial conference in Luxembourg on Wednesday. The plans include the development of innovative 120-tonne (P120) solid fuel boosters in carbon fibre. Ariane 6 is a three-stage modular launcher with two configurations - either two or four solid fuel engines - allowing maximum flexibility for commercial necessities. It can be used for single launches or for launches to various satellites. Vega-C will be the new, improved, and more versatile launcher developed by Avio through its group member company ELV, 70 percent of which is owned by Avio and 30 percent by ASI. Vega-C will increase the cargo threshold by up to two tonnes in low orbit, including in multiple satellite missions. Avio's carbon fibre boosters have already been used in the 88-tonne (P80) version of the Vega launcher, for which Avio has recently secured contracts for 10 more launchers over the next three years. The solid fuel boosters will be built by the Avio Group's establishments in Colleferro and French Guyana, ensuring continuity for development and production. Avio's CEO Pier Giuliano Lasagni commented: "Applying composite materials technology to carrier rockets provides great advantages in terms of reducing weight and costs. For this reason, on top of design and construction, we have researched a resin to develop imbued carbon fibre textiles that are necessary for such engines. This technology allows us to maintain our leadership among the world's solid fuel booster constructors. The approval by the Conference of Ministers of the development phase of our new Vega-C launcher and the Ariane 6 confirms the high technological quality and competence reached by our teams in Italy, France, and French Guyana. Avio holds a central role in the international aeropsace industry, and with Vega it has allowed Italy to be among the few nations to have their own space launcher". (AGI) .

Europe's new Ariane space rocket will have Italian engine

28 October 2014
The Vega launch of ESA’s Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle, due on 18 November from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, has been postponed to allow for additional analyses of the Vega flight trajectory.

Vega launch of ESA spaceplane postponed / Launchers / Our Activities / ESA

Unofficial rumours are that launch will be sometime in January or February 2015.

 

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Orion Service Module

Multi Purpose Crew Vehicle – European Service Module for NASA’s Orion programme

Airbus Defence and Space's experience in the field of human spaceflight will benefit NASA’s next-generation space exploration mission.

Under an agreement between NASA and ESA, ratified in December 2012, the new American Orion vehicle for manned space exploration missions will be powered by a European service module based on the design and experience of the ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle), the supply craft for the International Space Station (ISS) developed and built by Airbus Defence and Space.

The Orion MPCV (Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle) will be capable of carrying astronauts beyond low Earth orbit (LEO), enabling manned missions to the moon, asteroids – and, it is hoped, even further. The driving force that will power the Orion capsule and its crew of four or more astronauts deeper into space than ever before is the ATV-derived service module (MPCV-ESM).

This will be the first time that NASA has permitted a European module to power a craft crewed by US astronauts, and as such is a testimony to the outstanding technologies and engineering expertise demonstrated by the ATV under Airbus Defence and Space’s prime contractorship.

NASA’s decision to entrust such a critical element of the Orion programme to Europe is a firm statement of the trustworthiness of European capabilities – the ATV is a versatile showcase of European technology, capable of completely autonomous docking – and of the strength of the transatlantic partnership.

A cylinder of around four metres in height and diameter, and featuring the ATV’s distinctive four-wing solar array (19 metres across unfurled), the European service module MPCV-ESM, is attached below the crew capsule. In addition to the propulsion capability for the Orion spacecraft, it will perform orbit manoeuvring and attitude control functions, and also supply water and oxygen to the crew and provide power and thermal control while it is docked to the crew module. The unpressurised service module can also be used to carry additional cargo.

The first integrated Orion mission, Exploration Mission-1, will be an uncrewed lunar fly-by in 2017, to demonstrate the performance of the spacecraft prior to a crewed flight and NASA’s new Space Launch System rocket which is planned as the launch vehicle. The European industrial team led by Airbus Defence and Space will develop and build the service module for Exploration Mission-1 drawing on the extensive experience from the current ATV. Exploration Mission-2 aims to launch Orion with a crew of four astronauts into space.

Airbus Defence and Space and its partners are currently in the preliminary design phase. The Preliminary Design Review will take place at the end of 2013.

MPCV-ESM (Multi Purpose Crew Vehicle – European Service Module) for NASA’s Orion programme - Programmes | Airbus Defence and Space

NASA’s Orion spacecraft will carry astronauts further into space than ever before using a module based on Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATV).

ATV’s distinctive four-wing solar array is recognisable in this concept. The ATV-derived service module, sitting directly below Orion’s crew capsule, will provide propulsion, power, thermal control, as well as supplying water and gas to the astronauts in the habitable module.

The first Orion mission will be an uncrewed lunar flyby in 2017, returning to Earth’s atmosphere at 11 km/s – the fastest reentry ever.

Orion / Highlights / Human Spaceflight / Our Activities / ESA

Venus Express mission coming to an end!

The end may be near for Europe's venerable Venus probe.

On Nov. 28, mission controllers lost contact with the European Space Agency's (ESA) Venus Express spacecraft, which has been circling Earth's hellishly hot "sister planet" for more than eight years. Over the past few days, the team was able to re-establish limited contact and also downlink some data, confirming that Venus Express' solar arrays are pointed at the sun as desired, mission officials said.

The reasons for the communications blackout remain unclear at the moment, but one possibility is that the probe has finally run out of fuel.
"It is possible that the remaining fuel on board VEX was exhausted during the recent periapsis-raising maneuvers … and that the spacecraft is no longer in a stable attitude (the spacecraft’s high-gain antenna must be kept pointed toward Earth to ensure reliable radio contact)," ESA officials wrote in a blog post Friday (Dec. 5. ).

Those maneuvers began on Nov. 23 and were intended to raise Venus Express' orbit, which was lowered during a dramatic "aerobraking" campaign this past summer.

The aerobraking moves took Venus Express deep into Venus' thick atmosphere, often getting the probe within 81 to 84 miles (131 to 135 kilometers) of the planet's surface. The goals were twofold, mission officials said — to sample regions of the Venusian atmosphere that weren't well known, and to test out aerobraking for use on future missions as a trajectory- and orbit-altering strategy.

Venus Express arrived in orbit around Venus in April 2006, with plans calling for a two-year primary mission life and then perhaps two more years of extended operations. The probe has outlasted expectations significantly, but it cannot keep going forever; sooner or later, its fuel will run out, and Venus Express will make one final dive into the Venusian atmosphere.

European Venus Express Spacecraft May Be Out of Fuel


ExoMars mission candidate sites for landing in 2018, orbiter for 2016 mission already handed over!

Some 60 scientists and engineers came together 26–28 March for the first ExoMars 2018 Landing Site Selection Workshop, held at ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre near Madrid. Their task was to begin the process of drawing up a shortlist of the most suitable landing locations for ESA's first Mars rover.

ExoMars, a joint endeavour between ESA and Russia's Roscosmos space agency, comprises two missions for launch to Mars: the Trace Gas Orbiter and an entry, descent and landing demonstrator module, Schiaparelli, to be launched in 2016; and the ExoMars Rover and Surface Platform scheduled for launch in May 2018, with touchdown on Mars expected in January 2019. The key driver behind the choice of landing site for the 2018 mission is the rover's search for evidence of Martian life, past or present.

ESA - Robotic Exploration of Mars: Scientists favour four ExoMars landing sites

The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter module consisting of the spacecraft structure, thermal control and propulsion systems was handed over by OHB System to Thales Alenia Space France at a ceremony held in Bremen, Germany, today.

The delivery marks an important step in the ExoMars programme, a joint endeavour between ESA and Russia's Roscosmos space agency.

Comprising two missions that will be launched to Mars in 2016 and 2018, respectively, ExoMars will address the outstanding scientific question of whether life has ever existed on Mars by drilling the surface of the planet and analysing in situ the samples. The ExoMars programme will also demonstrate key technologies for entry, descent, landing, drilling and roving on the martian surface.

The Trace Gas Orbiter, or TGO, will be launched in 2016 along with Schiaparelli – the entry, descent and landing demonstrator module.

ESA - Robotic Exploration of Mars: ExoMars orbiter core module completed

Several rover prototypes, tech.demonstrators are currently in testing

Robotics experiments aboard ISS

Body-mounted astronaut joystick for the Haptics-1 experiment, developed by ESA's Telerobotics and Haptics Laboratory as part of the multi-agency Meteron (Multi-Purpose End-to-End Robotic Operation Network) initiative, investigating telerobotics for space. The Haptics-1 experiment is being flown to the ISS by ATV-5 in summer 2014.

Used for the "Interact" experiment which uses the above instrument to guide a rover back down on Earth.

Picking up an apple is one of those jobs requiring the delicate touch of the human hand – or its robotic counterpart.

ESA is developing technologies for advanced human–machine interaction to transfer the human sense of touch to space.

The aim is that remote operators will feel as though they are right there with whatever they are controlling, such as planetary rovers.

Among the specialised equipment is this UK-supplied Shadow Hand, which incorporates a force-feedback sense of touch and pressure to allow high-precision, high-manipulability gripping, with the robot hand reproducing the motion of its human operator.

Based at ESA’s ESTEC technical heart, in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, the Telerobotics and Haptics Laboratoryalready has an experiment flying in orbit: the Haptics-1 payload aboard the International Space Station. The next step is next year’s Interact experiment, with a wheeled rover down on Earth being steered from the Station.

Space in Images - 2014 - 12 - Robot 'Shadow Hand'

 

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The EU’s Galileo satellite navigation system now has eight satellites in orbit following the launch of the latest pair.
Galileo 7 & 8 lifted off at 21:46 GMT (22:46 CET, 18:46 local time) on 27 March from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on top of a Soyuz rocket.

All the Soyuz stages performed as planned, with the Fregat upper stage releasing the satellites into their target orbit close to 23 500 km altitude, around 3 hours 48 minutes after liftoff.

Two new satellites join the Galileo constellation / Launching Galileo / The future - Galileo / Navigation / Our Activities / ESA

This month marked the start of preliminary design work on ESA’s Asteroid Impact Mission, or AIM. Intended to demonstrate technologies for future deep-space missions, AIM will also be the Agency’s very first investigation of planetary defence techniques.

Launched in October 2020, AIM will travel to a binary asteroid system – the paired Didymos asteroids, which will come a comparatively close 11 million km to Earth in 2022. The 800 m-diameter main body is orbited by a 170 m moon, informally called ‘Didymoon’.

This smaller body is AIM’s focus: the spacecraft will perform high-resolution visual, thermal and radar mapping of the moon to build detailed maps of its surface and interior structure.

ESA’s planetary defence test set for 2020 / Space Engineering & Technology / Our Activities / ESA

An experimental vehicle to develop an autonomous European reentry capability for future reusable space transportation has completed its mission. ESA’s Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle flew a flawless reentry and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean just west of the Galapagos islands.

The IXV spaceplane lifted off at 13:40 GMT (14:40 CET, 10:40 local time) on 11 February from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana atop a Vega rocket. It separated from Vega at an altitude of 340 km and continued up to 412 km. Reentering from this suborbital path, it recorded a vast amount of data from more than 300 advanced and conventional sensors.

As it descended, the five-metre-long, two-tonne craft manoeuvred to decelerate from hypersonic to supersonic speed. The entry speed of 7.5 km/s at an altitude of 120 km created the same conditions as those for a vehicle returning from low Earth orbit.

ESA experimental spaceplane completes research flight / Launchers / Our Activities / ESA

 

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Proba-V maps world air traffic from space / Proba Missions / Space Engineering & Technology / Our Activities / ESA

 

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Rosetta possible landing sites. Personally i thought it dropped into space a long time ago.

The quest to find Philae | Rosetta - ESA's comet chaser

 

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The world’s first spacecraft thruster with a platinum combustion chamber and nozzle made by 3D printing has passed its baptism of fire with a series of firings lasting more than an hour and 618 ignitions.
“This is a world first,” explains Steffen Beyer of Airbus Defence & Space, managing the project. “The firings included a single burn of 32 minutes, during which a maximum throat temperature of 1253°C was attained.

“It demonstrates that performance comparable to a conventional thruster can be obtained through 3D printing.”

“Our to-do list ‘roadmap’, prepared with the active participation of industry and the Member States, summarises and coordinates the work European industry needs to perform to routinely employ 3D-printed parts for space, including all necessary qualification and verification processes.”

Hot firing of world’s first 3D-printed platinum thruster chamber / Space Engineering & Technology / Our Activities / ESA
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Saturn’s moon Titan is home to seas and lakes filled with liquid hydrocarbons, but what makes the depressions they lie in? A new study suggests that the moon’s surface dissolves in a similar process that creates sinkholes on Earth.
Apart from Earth, Titan is the only body in the Solar System known to possess surface lakes and seas, as seen by the international Cassini mission. But at roughly –180°C, the surface of Titan is very cold and liquid methane and ethane, rather than water, dominate the ‘hydrological’ cycle.

More at Dissolving Titan / Space Science / Our Activities / ESA
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The February flight of ESA’s Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle is yielding invaluable insights and results for future reentry craft.

The spaceplane, being displayed this week at the Paris Air and Space Show, looks in remarkably good condition and shows only moderate damage from its blazing journey through the atmosphere.

All of the flight hardware and data were recovered: telemetry and onboard recordings are complete and consistent from the various sensors.

ESA project manager Giorgio Tumino discussed the first results in a briefing today/yesterday at the show: “Europe has solid expertise in getting to space and operating in space, and now also in returning from space. IXV is helping to fill the gaps in our knowledge.”

IXV results will help the Programme for Reusable In-orbit Demonstrator for Europe – Pride – take the next step with limited risk and financial effort for Europe.

Now that the results from IXV’s flight are becoming available, Pride’s mission and system definition is ready to begin, along with early readiness of critical technologies. Those results will be submitted for approval at ESA’s next Council Meeting at Ministerial level in 2016.

With a payload capacity of 300 kg, Pride will serve as an orbital platform to test technologies for multiple applications. These include not only future European space transportation, such as future reusable launcher stages, but also Earth observation and science, robotic exploration, servicing of orbital infrastructures, and microgravity experiments.

Pride will focus on verifying system and technology performance under all flight conditions: hypersonic, supersonic, transonic and subsonic.

Participating states include Italy, France, United Kingdom, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Romania, Portugal, and Ireland.

ESA spaceplane on display / Launchers / Our Activities / ESA

 

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<iframe src="ExoMars - 454928 - ESA embed video" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0"></iframe>

The ExoMars spacecraft is almost complete. A joint mission between ESA and Roscosmos, it begins with the launch of the ExoMars orbiter in 2016 and carries an aerodynamically designed capsule containing a robotic lander. Getting to Mars, landing there safely and searching for life is a huge scientific and technical challenge. ExoMars 2016 will send back information about the Martian atmosphere and the lander’s findings. These will inform the second part of the mission, in 2018, when a European rover will drill into the Martian surface, up to two metres down. The rover will be trying to detect traces of organic molecules that indicate the presence of past or present life on Mars. Both A-roll and B-roll contain interview clips from Jorge Vago, ExoMars Project Scientist, ESA (English) and Pietro Baglioni, ExoMars Rover Manager, ESA (English). It shows ExoMars 2016 nearing construction in its clean room at Thales Alenia Space in France and a prototype ExoMars rover in the ExoMars test yard at ESA’s ESTEC facility in the Netherlands.

Space in Videos - 2015 - 06 - ExoMars

@WebMaster

yo, yo....why can't i embed these videos properly? Anything on your end that you can advise me with? Thanks for any help.

 

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The agency’s Industrial Policy Committee approved the award of the €350.8 million contract yesterday. Pending the negotiation of contractual details, this should allow work to start by the end of this month. The formal contract signing will take place after the summer break.

The contract covers the industrial activities for the design, development, integration, test, launch campaign, and in-space commissioning of the spacecraft. The Ariane 5 launch is not included and will be procured later from Arianespace.
For three and a half years, Juice will sweep around the giant planet, exploring its turbulent atmosphere, enormous magnetosphere, and tenuous set of dark rings, as well as studying the icy moons Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto. All three of these planet-sized satellites are thought to have oceans of liquid water beneath their icy crusts and should provide key clues on the potential for such icy moons to harbour habitable environments.

Gravity assists with Callisto and Ganymede will be used to modify the spacecraft’s trajectory, and two targeted Europa flybys will focus on the composition of non-water-ice material on its frozen surface, and the first subsurface sounding of an icy moon.
The mission will culminate in a dedicated, eight-month tour around Ganymede, the first time any icy moon has been orbited by a spacecraft. During this period, Juice will perform detailed investigations of the moon and its interaction with the environment.

Juice will be equipped with 10 state-of-the-art instruments, including cameras, spectrometers, an ice-penetrating radar, an altimeter, radio-science experiments, and sensors to monitor the magnetic fields and charged particles in the Jovian system. One further experiment will combine data from the spacecraft telecommunication system and ground-based instruments.

Preparing to build ESA’s Jupiter mission / Space Science / Our Activities / ESA

 

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Swiss Space Systems-S3

http://www.satellitetoday.com/launch/2014/09/26/swiss-space-systems-evaluates-nk-39-engine-for-soar-smallsat-vehicle/

Swiss Space Systems Opens Croatia Subsidiary, Plans Spaceport - Via Satellite

Wind tunnel tests are on the way, some drop tests were also already conducted:

S3 concludes 1st phase drop-test flight campaign in North Bay

Shuttle assembly to start next year:

Partnerships with various space flight centers and airports that would function in future as space ports also signed:

S3 INAUGURATES NEW SUBSIDIARY LOCATED AT KSC
Swiss Space Systems S3 develops its activities in Spain and strengthens its network of Spanish partners
Partnership of S3 with RKK Energia and JSC Kusnetsov

Company is funding itself with zero-g flights, plus ofcourse some capital from Swiss government and industrial partners:

S3 provides a customized ZeroG feeling for all

Three categories of S3 ZeroG experiences are on offer:

Party Zone
In this zone, which caters for up to 40 passengers, ZeroG is available for under 2'000 Euros per head. This is the world’s most affordable ZeroG experience.

Premium Zone
This luxurious section offers more room for each of a maximum of 28 passengers. Premium Zone tickets cost 5'000 Euros and include special activities such as playing with liquids and balloons. Passengers will receive an exclusive Breitling S3 ZeroG personalized watch, which will serve as the passenger's boarding pass.

VIP Room
This very exclusive part of the plane welcomes up to 12 passengers at a cost of 50'000 Euros for the whole zone, with a range of extra options available for a tailor-made experience. VIP passengers will also receive an exclusive Breitling S3 ZeroG personalized watch.

Switzerland will be the first to experience weightlessness during the 2nd half of 2015

 

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A New Mission Will Search for Ripples in Spacetime

In the distant reaches of the Universe, exploding stars and supermassive black holes are bending the very fabric of spacetime. It’s hard to wrap our brains around such tremendous forces, but we may be able to quantify them, in the form of gravitational waves. A new European Space Agency mission marks humanity’s first bold attempt to do so in outer space.

This fall, the ESA’s LISA Pathfinder will be blasted into space on a course for the L1 Lagrange point. Situated nearly a million miles from Earth, it’ll begin pilot-testing fundamental technologies for the detection of elusive gravitational waves. The miniature science observatory bid farewell to the public this week, on display at a test centre in Ottobrunn, Germany for the last time before its long journey.

“This is an extremely challenging mission that will pave the way for future space-based projects to observe gravitational waves, opening a new window to explore the cosmos,” LISA Pathfinder project scientist Paul McNamara told ESA News.

LISA Pathfinder launch composite at IABG’s test centre in Ottobrunn, near Munich, Germany, on 31 August 2015

Gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of spacetime caused by such cataclysmic events as the merging of supermassive black holes, were first predicted by Albert Einstein in 1915. Unlike electromagnetic radiation, which can scatter off stuff as it travels through space, gravitational waves penetrate through all matter, allowing physicists to “see” back to the beginning of the Universe with minimal interference.

If only we could detect them. It takes prodigious energy to give rise to gravitational waves, yet these spacetime ripples are extraordinarily faint. To find them, we need instruments capable of making precise measurements of small distance changes between faraway objects. Ground-based observatories may soon have enough sensitivity to detect them, but these instruments have some inherent limitations. A falling tree or freight train rumbling past will show up on their detectors and make it difficult to see a faint gravitational wave signal. And ground-based observatories are limited to a smaller range of wavelengths.

To space, then, researchers are now going. Outside Earth’s gravity well, we can cast a wider net; positioning two objects much further apart than we can on Earth. This will allow physicists to search for gravitational waves over a greater range of wavelengths, increasing our odds of finding them.

Ideally, physicists would like a space-based gravitational wave observatory that can watch the distance between two objects a million kilometers (621,000 miles) apart fluctuate by about a millionth of a millionth of a meter. As you might imagine, this is going to be an insanely difficult experiment to set up. So we’re starting small.

Artist’s impression of the LISA Pathfinder Technology package, which will perform the first high-precision tracking of two objects in free-fall.

The LISA pathfinder mission will be our dry run, testing fundamental technologies for gravitational wave detection in a small, confined space. The experiment will drop a pair of 4.6 centimeter (1.8 inch) solid gold–platinum cubes separated by only 38 centimeters (15 inches) inside two electrode housing boxes (which shield the cubes from the effects of the solar wind). The pathfinder will be monitoring the positions of the two cubes as they enter free fall, using a high-precision laser interferometer. It’ll attempt to maintain their relative positions to the level of precision required by a full-blown gravitational wave observatory.

If we can do that, we might just get our first little whiff of the spacetime ripples physicists have been chasing for a century.

The LISA Pathfinder launches this November from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. We’ll be keeping a close eye on it, so check back for updates!

 

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Watch an Astronaut In Orbit Control a Robot On Earth Using Haptic Feedback

One day, astronauts on deep space missions may explore the surface of unknown planets remotely—using a rover while they remain in orbit. That concept, though it sounds radically far-off, just got an important dry run.

As we wrote last week, the European Space Agency’s robotics team is testing a new rover design that uses force feedback to let astronauts hundreds of miles away control its arms and wheels with extreme precision. The haptic interface allows the astronaut to “feel” what the robot is touching, without actually exposing his or her fragile human body to the conditions on the ground.

The rover, called the Interact Centaur, got its first live test from orbit late yesterday, when a Danish astronaut named Andreas Mogensen fired up the interface from on board the ISS and performed a series of tasks using the Centaur, located in a lab in the Netherlands. Crucially, Mogensen had never even used the joystick-based UI before, which helped researchers understand how intuitive their design would really be.

Mogensen had to use Centaur’s robotic arms to pick up a metal rod into a very small hole on a board, which the ESA says had just 1/6th of a millimeter of clearance. The task was designed to replicate the kind of detail-oriented work that traditional robotic arms—those without force feedback—are very bad at.

So how did it go? The ESA called the experiment a “slam dunk,” which is a funny choice of words considering that the task was carried out very, very slowly. Mogensen reached the board and plugged in the metal pin within 45 minutes on his first try, but the same process took only ten minutes the second time, the ESA says. Considering how far the signals had to travel, that’s pretty damn impressive:

The real challenge was achieving meaningful force feedback despite the distance the signals had to travel: from the Station, hurtling around Earth at 8 km/s, up to satellites almost 36 000 km high and then down to a US ground station in New Mexico, via NASA Houston and then through a transatlantic cable to ESTEC – and back. It added up to a round-trip of more than 144 000 km.

So from the Centaur’s fingers to Mogensen’s, the signals traveled 89,477.5 miles. You can watch the ESA’s video of the test below.

 

[TechnoFox]

Catch up on the Rosetta Mission with an Adorable Claymation Clip

Haven’t stayed on top of the Rosetta mission? Learn about the spacecraft, lander, and what we’ve learned from the comet so far in under 3 minutes of charming stop motion.

The Royal Observatory is back with another claymation-style animation, this time running through why we launched the Rosetta spacecraft, what happened to the bouncy little Philae lander, and their surprising comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

The Philae lander briefly woke up this summer before lapsing back out of communication, but the Rosetta orbiter is still circling the lump of slowly-heating iceball that is Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

 

[Audio]

So, to expand on EDRS mentioned in one of the first posts:

Imagine beaming a light across millions of kilometres of empty space, all the way back to Earth. ESA’s proposed Asteroid Impact Mission is intended to do just that: demonstrate laser communications across an unprecedented void.

The Asteroid Impact Mission, or AIM, undergoing detailed design ahead of a final go/no-go decision by ESA’s Ministerial Council in December 2016, is a deep-space technology-demonstration mission that would also be humanity’s first probe to a double asteroid.
“Optical communications in general is not yet a well-established technology for space and ESA’s European Data Relay System (EDRS) will be the first commercial application,” explains ESA optics engineer Zoran Sodnik.
“In principle it works something like Morse code, with encoded rapid flashes on and off. ERDS with satellites in high orbits will use laser links to return environmental data from Europe’s low-orbiting Sentinel satellites on a realtime basis, a technique previously demonstrated using ESA’s Alphasat and Artemis telecom missions.

“At 39.3 kg, AIM’s laser system will be one of the single largest payload items,” explains Andres Galvez, heading ESA’s Science Analysis and System Support Unit.

“We intend to gain maximum utility from it, by also using it for scientific purposes: the laser can also serve as an altimeter to chart the asteroid.”

The system design is led by RUAG Space in Switzerland, building on its existing family of Optel laser communication terminals, the latest of which is tailored for direct-to-Earth downlinks from minisatellites.

More at AIMing a light across millions of kilometres / Asteroid Impact Mission / Space Engineering & Technology / Our Activities / ESA

Galileo fleet keeps growing:

25 September 2015
Europe’s latest pair of Galileo satellites has passed its initial check out in space, allowing control to be handed over to the main control centre and join the growing fleet.
Galileos 9 and 10 were launched on the morning of 11 September. Their individual lives began within four hours, as they separated from their rocket’s final stage, overseen from ESA’s ESOC operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany.

#11&#12 are flying in December....

Galileo satellites handed over to operator / Launching Galileo / The future - Galileo / Navigation / Our Activities / ESA

Also, during the summer, contracts for Ariane 6 and new Vega version were signed

12 August 2015
Today, ESA signed contracts for the development of the Ariane 6 new‑generation launcher, its launch base and the Vega C evolution of the current small launcher.

The contracts, signed at ESA’s Paris Head Office with Airbus Safran Launchers (ASL), France’s CNES space agency and ELV, respectively, cover all development work on Ariane 6 and its launch base for a maiden flight in 2020, and on Vega C for its 2018 debut.

Ariane 6 and Vega C begin development / Launchers / Our Activities / ESA

And a half billion €'s mission to the Jovian system, one of best candidates for finding suitable locations that could harbor life.......however, it's quite a few years away..

17 July 2015
Airbus Defence & Space in France has been selected as the prime industrial contractor for ESA’s Juice mission to Jupiter and its icy moons.

The agency’s Industrial Policy Committee approved the award of the €350.8 million contract yesterday. Pending the negotiation of contractual details, this should allow work to start by the end of this month. The formal contract signing will take place after the summer break.

The contract covers the industrial activities for the design, development, integration, test, launch campaign, and in-space commissioning of the spacecraft. The Ariane 5 launch is not included and will be procured later from Arianespace.

Preparing to build ESA’s Jupiter mission / Space Science / Our Activities / ESA

And lastly, joint double mission with Russian space agency to Mars is also proceeding along, aparently smoothly and unhindered by sanctions and a bit of frost in relations:

ExoMars represents an unprecedented interdependence of technical interfaces between the two partners. Russia will deliver the Proton launchers for the 2016 and the 2018 missions. For the 2016 Trace Gas Orbiter, Russia has already delivered two out of four science instruments. For the 2018 mission, Russia will develop, manufacture and test the Descent Module, which contains hardware and software provided by ESA. Science instruments for the surface platform (the remaining part of the Descent Module) have also been selected through a joint Announcement of Opportunity.

ESA at MAKS 2015 / Exhibitions / About Us / ESA