Ariane 5 ready for Arianespace’s upcoming heavy-lift mission

Dear reader and followers,

Arianespace has delivered another Ariane 5 to the launch zone at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, positioning this workhorse heavy-lift vehicle for tomorrow’s flight with a pair of telecommunications satellites: THOR 7 and SICRAL 2.

The Ariane 5 rolled out yesterday from the Spaceport’s Final Assembly Building to the ELA-3 launch zone, where it is scheduled for liftoff during a launch window that opens on April 24th at 4:38 p.m. local time in French Guiana, or 9:38 Paris time.

Credit image: Ariane Space

For this 78th overall flight of an Ariane 5, the payload lift performance is estimated at 9,850 kg. – which includes a combined total of some 9,000 kg for the two satellites, plus the launcher’s dual-passenger dispenser system and integration hardware.

Riding as the upper passenger in Ariane 5’s payload arrangement is THOR 7, which will be released at approximately 28 minutes into the mission. The spacecraft was built by SSL (Space Systems/Loral) for Telenor Satellite Broadcasting, and will operate from an orbital position of .8 deg. West.

THOR 7 is to serve the maritime sector, delivering high-powered coverage over the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea, the Red Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean. Also incorporated in this relay platform is a Ku-band payload for broadcast and television services in Central and Eastern Europe.

SICRAL 2 is a military telecommunications satellite developed in the framework of a turnkey contract that the Italian Defense Ministry and the French DGA armament agency (Direction Générale de l’Armement) have with Thales Alenia Space Italy; while Telespazio is responsible for the launch service. It will be deployed from Ariane 5’s lower passenger position at approximately 34 minutes after liftoff – completing the mission.

After the deployment by Ariane 5, SICRAL 2 – offering a design life of 15 years – will provide strategic and tactical telecommunications links for French and Italian military forces, as well as reserve capacity for other NATO nations.

Tomorrow’s Ariane 5 launch is designated VA222, signifying the 222nd liftoff of an Ariane-series vehicle since 1979. It also will mark Arianespace’s third flight in 2015 with a launcher from its three-member family – following the medium-lift Soyuz mission on March 27 that orbited two European Galileo FOC (Full Operational Capability) navigation satellites, and February 11’s lightweight Vega suborbital flight with Europe’s Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) spaceplane.

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Asteroid size of Statue of Liberty 'on collision course with Earth

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an astronomer has claimed an asteroid the size of the Statue of Liberty is on a collision course with earth. Dr Judit Györgyey-Ries, astronomer at the University of Texas' McDonald Observatory, believes the giant rock could create a huge impact when it reaches earth in around October 2017.

Scientists estimate Asteroid 2012 TC4 is around 40 meters wide and could cause even more chaos than the one which hospitalised more than 1,200 people when it exploded over Russia in February 2013 .

Dr Györgyey-Ries told astronomy website astrowatch.net: "We could see an airburst maybe broken windows, depending on where it hits.

The giant asteroid narrowly missed earth in October 2012 when it passed 94,800 km away. Detlef Koschny, head of the near-earth object segment at the +European Space Agency, ESA , said: "There is a one in a million chance that it could hit us.

"The size was estimated from the brightness, but we don't know the reflectivity. So it could be smaller or larger, assume from 10 to 40 metres.

"A 40m iron object would go through the atmosphere and make a crater; a 10m rocky object would hardly be noticed."

Shock waves from the Russia airburst smashed windows, rattled buildings, and knocked people off their feet, more than 1,200 of whom attended hospital.

Researchers visiting villages in the area found a region of shock-wave damage extending some 50 miles on either side of the meteor's trajectory path.

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SpaceX just released some gorgeous 4K rocket launch footage

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As if watching rockets going to space wasn't already awesome, +SpaceX  just released a two-minute supercut of 4K footage of its Falcon 9 rocket launches. It's got some slow-motion footage, some HDR-style footage, and lots of different angles of a vehicle that is capable of producing a million pounds of thrust. All of it is beautiful, even if it's accompanied by an unnecessarily loud techno track that covers up the thrilling sound of a rocket taking off.

  Credit video: +SpaceX

Coincidentally, SpaceX has another Falcon 9 launch scheduled for today. After the rocket helps deliver cargo to the +International Space Station, the company will once again attempt to land its reusable Falcon 9 on an autonomous drone ship at sea; something it has unsuccessfully tried twice. No pressure. 

Credit image: +SpaceX 

SpaceX intends to build a vertical launch area and control center to support 12 commercial launches per year.

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March 20th Eclipse from Warwickshire in UK

Dear reader and follower,

I hope you enjoyed the eclipse this morning, please find this picture taken this morning from Warwickshire, UK, even with the bad weather. 

The eclipse has been also from space by +European Space Agency, ESA using the Proba2 satellite

Credit image: ESA

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Military weather spy satellite apparently exploded in orbit

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A 20-year-old military weather satellite apparently exploded in orbit February. 3rd 2015 following what the U.S. Air Force described as a sudden temperature spike. The “catastrophic event” produced 43 pieces of space debris, according to Air Force Space Command, which disclosed the loss of the satellite on February 27th 2015. 

Credit image: US air force

The satellite, Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 13, was the oldest continuously operational satellite in the DMSP weather constellation. Launched in 1995, DMSP-F13 provided thousands of hours of weather imagery to Air Force and Navy forecasters before transitioning to a backup role in 2006. The Air Force said its sudden loss would have minimal impact. DMSP-F13 flew in a 800 kilometers sun-synchronous polar orbit popular for weather and spy satellites.

“Because this satellite was no longer used by the National Weather Service or the Air Force Weather Agency, the impact of the loss of this satellite is minimal,” the Air Force said. “We anticipate real-time weather data for tactical users will be slightly reduced without this satellite, but its data was not being used for weather forecast modeling.”

The Air Force still has six DMSP satellites in service following the launch last April of DMSP-F19. A seventh satellite, DMSP-F20, was under consideration for a 2016 launch as recently as November.

Air Force Space Command said DMSP-F13’s power subsystem experienced “a sudden spike in temperature” followed by “an unrecoverable loss of attitude control.” As DMSP operators were deciding to “render the vehicle safe” the Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, identified a debris field near the satellite. The Air Force said it is continuing to track the debris and will issue conjunction warnings if necessary.

“While the initial response is complete, JSpOC personnel will continue to assess this event to learn more about what happened and what it will mean for users within this orbit,” said Air Force Col. John Giles, the Joint Space Operations Center’s director.

The first public indication of a problem with DMSP-F13 came from T.S. Kelso, a senior research astrodynamicist for Analytical Graphics’ Center for Space Standards and Innovation in Colorado Springs, Colorado, who noted Feb. 25 that there had been “another debris event with 26 new pieces” in addition to five previously cataloged DMSP-F13 objects.

Source: Space news

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Mystery haze found on Mars surprises scientists

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Enormous cloud-like plumes reaching 260 kilometers above the surface of Mars have left scientists baffled. This is way beyond Mars’ normal weather, reaching into the exosphere where the atmosphere merges with interplanetary space. None of the conventional explanations for such clouds make sense, neither water or carbon dioxide ice nor dust storms nor auroral light emissions usually hit such heights.

These “mystery clouds” came as a surprise, in particular when considering they were first spotted by a string of amateur astronomers in 2012. After all, an international fleet of five orbiters and two rovers is currently operating on and around Mars, and one may be excused thinking the red planet has little left to hide and its exploration has become routine.

A survey of images from the +Hubble Space Telescope and amateur astronomers revealed massive clouds had been seen on Mars before, but none as prominent as the 2012 observations.

Perhaps these clouds could be aurorae, similar to the northern lights (aurora borealis) here on Earth, or their southern counterpart aurora australis. These displays happen when the Earth’s magnetic field channels charged particles emitted by the Sun towards the poles, where they interact with the atmosphere and emit light.

Mars does not have a global magnetic field, only pockets of magnetization. The mystery clouds were spotted over one of these so-called magnetic anomalies, and auroral lights have been observed there previously.

However, to explain the 2012 observations, an aurora would have had to be 1,000 times brighter than the northern lights. This would require an increased flow of charged particles from the sun, but its activity was not unusually high during the time. Could dust be the culprit? A volcanic eruption or an asteroid impact were among the earliest theories about these clouds’ origin. New eruptions on Mars are plausible, though we’re yet to observe any active volcanoes on the planet. The youngest lava flows reported are a few million to tens of million years old, which is recent in geological terms.

Mars’ thin atmosphere offers little protection against asteroids, and its surface is pockmarked with impact craters. Cameras on board NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have documented the appearance of hundreds of new craters in the nine years since the spacecraft arrived at Mars.

However, both theories were quickly discarded because they were inconsistent with the behavior of the clouds. Continued observations showed that they disappeared during the Martian daytime, were not visible in the evening, and reappeared each morning for at least ten consecutive days.

This also rules out dust storms, which frequently engulf large areas of the planet’s surface. Furthermore, the wavelength profile of the light reflected by the mystery clouds is a poor match for Martian dust particles. That leaves water or carbon dioxide ice particles, which fit the wavelength profile of the reflected light. Both water and carbon dioxide molecules also occur naturally in the atmosphere at these heights.

However, to form these clouds both substances would need to condense into ice particles. This would require the atmospheric temperature at these heights to drop suddenly by up to 100˚C. We’ve no idea what would cause such a drop, and we’re yet to spot such a massive, localized cold snap.

Sánchez-Lavega and colleagues thus declare that their “explanations defy our current understanding of Mars’ upper atmosphere” and their investigation only partially lifts the shroud surrounding these mysterious clouds.

High altitude clouds are not the only Martian mysteries keeping researchers on their toes. One question driving the exploration of the red planet is whether there has ever been life on Mars. Latest results by NASA’s Curiosity rover reaffirm that the planet provided habitable conditions in its past.

Water is the most important prerequisite for life. One explanation for the ongoing formation of gullies and related features, for example, is liquid water at or near the Martian surface even during the currently prevailing extreme dry and cold conditions. And while there are many possible explanations for the enigmatic whiffs of methane observed on Mars, one of the most exciting is the production by microorganisms living just below the surface.

Part of the fascination of Mars exploration is that it is very much about understanding our own origins and future. As the example of the mystery cloud observations shows, everybody has a chance to participate in unraveling the red planet’s mysteries.

Source

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An ancient earth inside Earth? Harvard scientists say YES

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a study presented at the Goldschmidt conference in Sacramento, California, claims that the previously inexplicable isotope ratio from the depths of the Earth may be an “echo” of the ancient Earth that existed before the collision with another celestial body, which is estimated to have led to the formation of the Moon around 4,5 billion years ago.

According to the authors of the study, the ratio may represent a signal from a material that existed prior to the moment of the collision.

Scientists of the +Harvard University led by Associate Professor Sujoy Mukhopadhyay believe that only a portion of the Earth melted as a result of the collision, and that in the depths of our planet’s mantle there still exists a part of the ancient Earth.

Scientists have studied the isotope ratio of noble gases from the depths of the Earth’s mantle and compared it to the isotope ratio of the gases found closer to the surface. They found that the ratio of 3He to 22Ne from the surface layers of the mantle is much higher than the one of its deeper layers.

The analysis of the 129-Xenon and 130-Xenon ratio also confirms the hypothesis suggested by the researchers. Material which has been rendered to the surface from the deep mantle has a lower ratio than the one which is typically located near the surface.

Since the 129-Xenon is produced by the radioactive decay of 129-Iodine, these isotopes indicate thatthe ancient part of mantle was formed during the first 100 million years of the Earth’s evolution. Scientists believe that this theory explains the differences between the isotope ratios of noble gases in different parts of the Earth.

As Professor Mukhopadhyay said: “The geochemistry indicates that there are differences between the noble gas isotope ratios in different parts of the Earth, and these need to be explained. The idea that a very disruptive collision of the Earth with another planet-sized body, the biggest event in Earth’s geological history, did not completely melt and homogenize the Earth challenges some of our notions on planet formation and the energetics of giant impacts. If the theory is proven correct, then we may be seeing echoes of the ancient Earth, from a time before the collision“.

Source

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NASA launched a rocket into Northern Lights

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The interaction of the solar wind (issue from the Sun ) and Earth’s atmosphere produces auroras. These northern and southern lights dance across the night sky and have mesmerized and inspired observers for centuries. For scientists, this dance of light also leads to many questions about how space weather affects Earth’s atmosphere. In late January 2015, scientists, in collaboration with NASA, launched a rocket with probes into the northern lights in order to learn more about how they heat the planet’s atmosphere.  

Credit image: +NASA 

The Auroral Spatial Structures Probe (ASSP) was launched at 5:41 a.m. on January 28th 2015, from the Poker Flat Research Range about 50 kilometers north of Fairbanks, Alaska. 

The ASSP carried seven instruments to study the electromagnetic energy that can heat the thermosphere, the second highest layer of the atmosphere, during auroral events. The interaction of waves and particles from the solar wind, Earth’s magnetosphere, and the upper atmosphere can cause “Joule heating.” Essentially, the electrical currents on the edge of space run into a resistant media (the air in the atmosphere) and generate heat in a process similar to that of a toaster coil or electric stove. This heating can expand the atmosphere upward and increase the friction, or drag, on spacecraft and satellites.

The AASP launch occurred just two days after the successful launches of the Mesosphere-Lower Thermosphere Turbulence Experiment (M-TeX) and the Mesospheric Inversion-layer Stratified Turbulence (MIST) experiment. Two pairs of instrumented rockets were launched about 30 minutes apart to study how turbulence is formed in the presence of inversion layers in the upper atmosphere. This turbulence causes particles to diffuse between atmospheric layers. The MIST launches included the release of harmless trimethyl aluminum vapor to help researchers trace diffusion at high altitude

“Recent solar storms have resulted in major changes to the composition of the upper atmosphere above 80 kilometers, where enhancements in nitrogen compounds have been found,” said Richard Collins, upper atmospheric researcher from the University of Alaska. “These compounds can be transported into the middle atmosphere where they can contribute to ozone destruction. However, the meteorological conditions do not always allow such transport to occur. Thus, the impact of solar activity on the Earth is not just about how the Sun is a source of energetic particles, but also how the Earth’s meteorological conditions determine the fate of these particles in the atmosphere.”

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Life of stars in pictures

Credit images: +NASA / +European Space Agency, ESA / +Hubble Space Telescope

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Google makes a major investment in SpaceX

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last year, we told you, that Web companies such as Google and Facebook from the Silicon Valley ramp up efforts to connect the world to their services, they are increasingly looking to the skies and higher: to the space.

Today, Google is close to investing in rocket maker SpaceX, according to several people familiar with the talks, creating a formidable alliance in Silicon Valley’s accelerating Internet space race.

This way, is not news, At Google, several signs point to satellites. Actually, Previously Google bought drone-maker Titan Aerospace last year and now it's in talks to buy Skybox Imaging, a startup that creates high-resolution satellite images, for $1 billion. 

Moreover, in 2014, Google hired Brian Holz, who was chief technology officer at O3b Networks, which has launched special satellites to try to broadcast signals that would power new Internet service in developing countries around the world. Google had previously made a financial investment in O3b and one of its employees sits on O3b’s board. The startup’s recently-launched satellites faced technical setbacks this year.

Google also recently hired Dave Bettinger, who had spent 18 years at satellite firm VT iDirect, which supplies high speed broadband and other communications to military services and the oil and gas industry, according to people at Google. VT iDirect also suffered some product delays recently.

The purpose of the today deal, which is still in the works, is to support the development of SpaceX satellites that could beam low-cost Internet around the globe to billions who don’t have it.

The price and terms Google and SpaceX are discussing couldn’t be learned although one person familiar with them said Google has agreed to value SpaceX north of $10 billion and that the size of the total round, which includes other investors, is very large.

SpaceX’s investors include Founders Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Valor Equity Partners. The company, which has been developing rockets to lower the cost of space travel, hasn’t raised a primary round of funding in several years.

Source: Forbes

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Space launches from planes

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Space launches are used to be captured in picture from the ground, but sometimes, the space launch are immortalized from planes. Enjoy these amazing pictures:

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Orion is on its way to Florida after its successful launch and re-entry

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After its successful launch last week , and its splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, the Orion spacecraft has been loaded on the USS Anchorage. The spacecraft is nestled inside the well deck of the amphibious ship during the trek from its splashdown point about 970 kilometers southwest of San Diego. Orion’s flight tested many of the systems most critical to crew safety, including key separation events, parachutes and its heat shield. During Orion’s re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft endured speeds of 8400 meters per second and temperatures near 2200°C.

Credit images: +NASA 

President Obama, spoke to Julie Kramer White, the Orion’s chief engineer, for the successful Orion flight test. He also noted the spacecraft’s mission, saying that “when a human is the first to set foot (on Mars), they will have Julie and her team to thank and at that point, I’ll be out of the presidency and I might hitch a ride.” 

The Orion spacecraft was off-loaded from the well deck of the USS Anchorage on Monday December 8th. The ship’s crew along with NASA and Lockheed Martin teams retrieved the spacecraft from the Pacific Ocean at the end of the highly successful Orion flight test that saw the Orion fly about 5800 km above Earth in a 4.5-hour evaluation of critical systems. Now Orion spacecraft , will perform a trip cross-country back to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Credit image: +NASA 

Source: +NASA

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ISRO released pictures of comet Siding Spring taken by Mars Orbiter Mangalyaan

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While the +European Space Agency, ESA  had placed a robot Philae on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) released images of Comet Siding Spring, taken by its Mars Orbiter 'Mangalyaan' on October 2014. ISRO's Mars Orbiter had the opportunity to witness the Comet Siding Spring approach Mars on October 19th, for which the spacecraft repositioned itself for its safety.

The Mars Colour Camera on board ISRO's Mars Orbiter has captured the Coma (top bright portion) of the comet partly, as it approached MOM during last 40 minutes of the imaging session before Mars-Comet close encounter, ISRO said in its social networking site along with the pictures.

Credit image: ISRO

The India's Mars Orbiter Mission, the Mangalyaan probe is a spacecraft powered by solar arrays and packed with five instruments to study the surface and atmosphere of Mars. The 1350 kg of the spacecraft has been launched with success from a pad at the agency's Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on November 5th 2013. India was particularly proud that MOM was developed with homegrown technology and for a bargain price of about $75 million, a cost that Modi quipped was lower than many Hollywood film budgets. By comparison, NASA's much larger Maven mission cost nearly 10 times as much at $671 million.

Credit image: ISRO

It also will search Mars for methane, a key chemical in life processes on Earth that could also come from geological processes. None of the instruments will send back enough data to answer these questions definitively, but experts say the data will help them better understand how planets form, what conditions might make life possible and where else in the universe it might exist India wanted the spacecraft, also called Mangalyaan, meaning "Mars craft" in Hindi, to show the world its ability to design, plan, manage and operate a difficult, deep-space mission. India has already conducted dozens of successful satellite launches, including sending up the Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter, which discovered key evidence of water on the Moon in 2008 and validated few month ago.

The country's space scientists are already planning new missions, including putting a rover on the Moon. But space agency chief K. Radhakrishnan said their main focus would be to continue developing technologies for commercial and navigational satellite applications.

Source: ISRO

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Live streaming of Orion space launch

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Earlier this morning, the United Launch Alliance tower used to prepare the Orion spacecraft for liftoff was moved away. You can watch the rollback below: 


Mobile Service Tower rollback from NASA Orion Spacecraft on Vimeo.


The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket with NASA’s Orion spacecraft mounted atop is seen here at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 37, Florida. 

Update in pictures there:

The second stage issue and boat in the range. Delay possible, but 2 hours launch window gives flexibility. This delay is not due to technical or weather problems for launch. It's on a hold due to a boat in range of launch

- New launch time set for 7:17 a.m EST, but it has been delayed again because of wind, as shown in the picture below which show the 1-minute peak wind speed measured at 230-ft above pad 41.

- 7: 46 am EST: New T-0 of 7:55 am EST has been decided

- 7: 43 am EST: Hold hold hold again ... launch delayed

- 8: 16 am EST: New T-0 8:26 am EST, the launch will be for today

- 8: 24 am EST: HOLD AGAIN . Launch team reports the rocket's fill and drain valve did not close.

- 8:39 am EST: The technical problem seems to come from the valves. Fill-&-drain valves on 3 core boosters will be cycled open and closed to see if that solves the problem.

- 9:44 am EST: Launch of the Orion mission scrubbed for today,if the valve issue can be fixed today, NASA will try again tomorrow.

Live launch coverage of Orion begins on NASA TV at 4:30 a.m. EST with the link below: 

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/#.VIBKKjGG_so

Source: +NASA

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Successful launch of H-IIA with Hayabusa2 Onboard for its asteroid mission

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H-IIA F26 (the Japan space launch vehicle) with the Asteroid Explorer Hayabusa2 onboard launched at 1:22:04 p.m. on Dec 3, 2014 (JST) from the Tanegashima Space Center, Japan. The rocket flew smoothly, and, at about approximately one hour, 47 minutes and 21 seconds after liftoff, "Hayabusa2" was separated from the space vehicle H-IIA F26.

Credit image: +JAXA | 宇宙航空研究開発機構 

H-IIA (H2A) is an active expendable launch system operated by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ( +JAXA | 宇宙航空研究開発機構 ). The several step occurring after the liftoff has been done with success:

1. Liftoff : 0 min. 0 sec.

2. SRB-A burnout *2 : 1 min. 33 sec.

3. SRB-A jettison *3 : 1 min. 47 sec.

4. Payload fairing jettison : 4 min. 11 sec.

5. First stage main engine cutoff (MECO) : 6 min. 36 sec.

6. 1st and 2nd stages separation : 6 min. 44 sec.

7. Second stage engine lock-in (SELI1) : 6 min. 54 sec.

8. Second stage engine cutoff (SECO1) : 11 min. 20 sec.

9. Second stage engine lock-in (SELI2) : 1 hour 39 min. 26 sec.

10. Second stage engine cutoff (SECO2) : 1 hour 43 min. 31 sec.

11. Hayabusa2 separation : 1 hour 47 min. 21 sec.

12. SHINEN2 separation : 1 hour 54 min. 1 sec.

13. ARTSAT2-DESPATCH separation :1 hour 58 min. 11 sec.

14. PROCYON separation : 2 hour 2 min. 21 sec.

While Philae sleeps on the comet 67P, the spacecraft MASCOT (Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout) is planned explore asteroid and land on it. The asteroid lander developed by +DLR, German Aerospace Center, the Japan space agency +JAXA | 宇宙航空研究開発機構 and the French space agency, +CNES. 

In 2018 the Japanese Hayabusa 2 Mission will feature an asteroid landing and will, for the first time, allow for data acquisition at various points of this kind of celestial body, assisted by MASCOT , the hopping landing craft developed by the German Aerospace Center. 

Credit image: +JAXA | 宇宙航空研究開発機構 

The plan is to send the orbiter to its destination in 2014. Upon arrival in 2018, the spacecraft will initially remain in orbit to scout the unknown terrain. A stable, yet extremely light cover will protect the shoe box-sized lander as it falls to the asteroid’s surface. The four instruments designed to conduct in situ measurements on the asteroid are located inside the DLR landing craft: the infrared spectrometer that will analyse the surface composition magnetometer to investigate the magnetic field a wide-angle camera to record the landing site and the fine structure of the soil a radiometer that will measure surface temperatures, among other things.

Once the initial measurements are complete, MASCOT will hop to the next measurement site, providing scientists with data from different positions on asteroid on 1999 JU 3, gathered over two asteroid days and nights. During its mission, the landing craft will be monitored from the DLR Microgravity User Support Center (MUSC).

1999 JU3 is an Apollo asteroid. The asteroid was discovered in 1999 by the LINEAR project. The Apollo asteroids are a group of near-Earth asteroids named after 1862 Apollo, the first asteroid of this group which was discovered by Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth. 

Source: +JAXA | 宇宙航空研究開発機構

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MASCOT the asteroid lander is ready for its launch on November 30th

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While Philae sleeps on the comet 67P, the spacecraft MASCOT (Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout) is ready for its launch on 30 November 2014. MASCOT is an asteroid lander developed by +DLR, German Aerospace Center, the Japan space agency +JAXA | 宇宙航空研究開発機構 and the French space agency, +CNES. 

In 2018 the Japanese Hayabusa 2 Mission will feature an asteroid landing and will, for the first time, allow for data acquisition at various points of this kind of celestial body, assisted by MASCOT , the hopping landing craft developed by the German Aerospace Center.  

Credit image: +DLR, German Aerospace Center

The plan is to send the orbiter to its destination in 2014. Upon arrival in 2018, the spacecraft will initially remain in orbit to scout the unknown terrain. A stable, yet extremely light cover will protect the shoe box-sized lander as it falls to the asteroid’s surface. The four instruments designed to conduct in situ measurements on the asteroid are located inside the DLR landing craft:

• the infrared spectrometer that will analyse the surface composition
• magnetometer to investigate the magnetic field
• a wide-angle camera to record the landing site and the fine structure of the soil
• a radiometer that will measure surface temperatures, among other things.

Once the initial measurements are complete, MASCOT will hop to the next measurement site, providing scientists with data from different positions on asteroid on 1999 JU 3, gathered over two asteroid days and nights. During its mission, the landing craft will be monitored from the DLR Microgravity User Support Center (MUSC).

Credit image: +JAXA | 宇宙航空研究開発機構 

1999 JU3 is an Apollo asteroid. The asteroid was discovered in 1999 by the LINEAR project. The Apollo asteroids are a group of near-Earth asteroids named after 1862 Apollo, the first asteroid of this group which was discovered by Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth. 

Source: +CNES

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Airbus will develop and built service module of NASA's Orion human space capsule

Dear readers and followers,

The contract for Airbus of about 390 million euros is for the development and construction of the service module for Orion, the future American human space capsule. The service module will provide propulsion, power supply, thermal control and the central elements of the life support system of the American capsule.

Credit image: +NASA 

It is the first time that Europe has been involved in providing system-critical elements for an American space project. In December 2012, US space agency +NASA  and +European Space Agency, ESA had agreed to certify the new US Orion spacecraft in conjunction with the European service module.

This module is based on the design of and the experience gained from the Automated Transfer Vehicle developed and constructed by Airbus Defence and Space on behalf of ESA as a supply craft for the International Space Station.

Francois Auque, Head of Space Systems, told BOB fm: "This follow-on contract is a mark of confidence in our expertise as well as in our ability to deliver reliable state-of-the-art space systems on time and within budget. Thanks to this programme and the continuous investments we make, we are able to maintain our technological lead.

Credit image: +European Space Agency, ESA 

In the wake of the ATV's outstanding five flawless missions to the ISS, this programme is yet another example of the important role that Europe plays globally in the field of human space flight".

The intention is to use the Orion space capsule for human missions to the Moon, to asteroids and into the depths of space. It comes after the success of Stevenage-built spaceship Rosetta, that was able to carry probe Philae close enough to land it on a comet last week. With him was the UK's first astronaut, Tim Peake - who told BOB fm at the Exo-Mars test yard that he was fascinated by flying when working as a test-pilot. 

He added: "It's great to see the Mars Yard at Stevenage Airbus has expanded. It's amazing to see the Mars programme progressing towards its launch in 2016".

Source: +NASA 

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