Russia’s Space Ambitions

Moon, Mars and Beyond Exploration.


10.02.2011

After the International space station stops its activities, Russian researchers suggest using it as a basis for a high-latitude orbital space station.

Alan Chinchar's 1991 rendition of the Space Station Freedom in orbit, a step for Moon and Mars Exploration

Authors of the concept believe that such a station could be built between 2020 and 2030. New station will be located at a specific orbit, which provides more intensive research and experiments for Russia’s scientific and industrial benefit. When such station would appear in space, it can be used as a basis for an orbital assembly and experiment complex, which primary, but not the only one mission will be providing space and facilities for scientific research. Another possible application of this complex can be commercial facilities for prolonging lifetime of satellites on their orbits, as well as assembly of spaceships, heading for the Moon and Mars.

Moon Base, painting  by Phil Smith

As for the Moon, Russian researchers suggest starting a 12-year-long moon exploration programme (2025-2036), which will have several stages with first being a placement of an orbital station on a near-moon orbit, and the last – construction of a permanent base on the surface of the Earth’s natural satellite.

Lunar orbital station can be built within two years of 2025 and 2026. The facility can shelter a crew of four cosmonauts. Later on a first-stage base will be built at the Moon’s surface, which is aimed at hosting two-week-long manned missions to the satellite. A second-stage lunar base is scheduled to appear in 2035-2036 – this facility will help start using lunar resources and prepare for industrial use of natural treasures of Earth’s natural satellite.

A variety of lunar orbital stations (Credit: NASA)

MarsIn order to realize abovementioned ambitious plans, Russian researcher will need to develop and build manned space vehicles, cargo spaceships, a module of a lunar orbital station, a module for a lunar base, and an interorbital tug. Elements of a lunar exploration network will be orbited by means of Russian “Angara” and “Rus-M” carrier rockets, as well as a new multiuse space rocket, which are expected to be built by 2025. All launches will be performed from a new launching site Vostochniy, located in the Amur Region.

Scientists from Khrunichev centre, the major Russian enterprise of space and rocket industry, have developed preliminary suggestions on composition, technical appearance, main characteristics, and development order of launching facilities for the manned Lunar and Martian exploration missions.

Mars exploration, first step (Artist's view by ESA)

The concept, developed by Russian researchers, also provides unification of space facilities, used for manned Lunar and Martian exploration missions. In other words, habitable module of lunar and Martian missions, as well as components of a living module of a Moon-orbiting station and an interplanetary habitable module of the Martian programme will be reused. Researchers also plan to build a take-off and landing spaceship for 4 crewmembers, able to carry 40 tons of useful load, a cargo landing spaceship, and a return vehicle.

 VASIMR-powered mission concepts could get crews from Earth to Mars in 39 days (credit: Ad Astra Rocket Company)

A manned space vehicle, built after 2037, will deliver cosmonauts to the orbit of the Red planet.

Related Link: http://www.russia-ic.com/education_science/science_overview/1280/

Images, Text, Credits: Roscosmos / ESA / NASA / Ad Astra Rocket Company / Alan Chinchar / Phil Smith.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Giant Ring of Black Holes

NASA - Chandra X-Ray Observatory logo.

02.09.11

Just in time for Valentine's Day comes a new image (above) of a ring -- not of jewels -- but of black holes. This composite image of Arp 147, a pair of interacting galaxies located about 430 million light years from Earth, shows X-rays from the NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (pink) and optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope (red, green, blue) produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md.

Arp 147 contains the remnant of a spiral galaxy (right) that collided with the elliptical galaxy on the left. This collision has produced an expanding wave of star formation that shows up as a blue ring containing in abundance of massive young stars. These stars race through their evolution in a few million years or less and explode as supernovas, leaving behind neutron stars and black holes.

A fraction of the neutron stars and black holes will have companion stars, and may become bright X-ray sources as they pull in matter from their companions. The nine X-ray sources scattered around the ring in Arp 147 are so bright that they must be black holes, with masses that are likely ten to twenty times that of the Sun.

An X-ray source is also detected in the nucleus of the red galaxy on the left and may be powered by a poorly-fed supermassive black hole. This source is not obvious in the composite image but can easily be seen in the X-ray image. Other objects unrelated to Arp 147 are also visible: a foreground star in the lower left of the image and a background quasar as the pink source above and to the left of the red galaxy.

Infrared observations with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and ultraviolet observations with NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) have allowed estimates of the rate of star formation in the ring. These estimates, combined with the use of models for the evolution of binary stars have allowed the authors to conclude that the most intense star formation may have ended some 15 million years ago, in Earth's time frame. These results were published in the October 1st, 2010 issue of The Astrophysical Journal. The authors were Saul Rappaport and Alan Levine from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, David Pooley from Eureka Scientific and Benjamin Steinhorn, also from MIT.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.

More information, including images and other multimedia, can be found at: http://chandra.harvard.edu

> Read more / access larger images: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2011/arp147/

Images, Text, Credits: X-ray: NASA / CXC / MIT / S .Rappaport et al. Optical: NASA / STScI.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

CaNoRock: Canadian Students Learn to Launch Rockets - CaNoRock : des étudiants canadiens apprennent à lancer des fusées

CaNoRock Student Sounding Rocket Collaboration patch.

(Article bilingue -Bilingual article)

February 9, 2011

Following a weeklong intensive learning program during which they participated in a daily series of lectures, hands on design and technology development and rocket or balloon launch simulations at Andøya Rocket Range in Norway, 11 Canadian students joined their peers from Norway to successfully launch the third sounding rocket of the CaNoRock project - a partnership between the Universities of Alberta, Calgary and Saskatchewan, the University of Oslo and the Andoya Rocket Range in Norway.

The CaNoRock Student Sounding Rocket Collaboration delivers an exceptional discovery and learning experience to Canadian undergraduate students using practical, hands-on instruction in experimental space science using student-built experiments on sounding rockets.

As a result of contributions from the Canadian Space Agency and the University of Alberta, infrastructure to support the development of a dedicated lab for undergraduate students, such that they will learn to develop their own payloads, is underway at the University of Alberta. The lab will be made available to students at the three participating Canadian institutions. Moreover, the participating professors from each institution have committed to integrate a CaNoRock component into a relevant course.

Over the next two years of the program, CaNoRock participants will have attended credited courses relevant to the program, designed and tested their respective payloads and will have the opportunity to learn how to integrate, launch, monitor and analyze both rocket launch data as well as data from their experiments.

The objective of this program is to use rocket activities as a highly visible talent magnet to attract students, to enhance space related discovery learning through practical hands-on instruction, and to create an exceptional learning experience and environment. Ultimately, CaNoRock will attract undergraduate students and bridge them into space related graduate study or the aerospace industry.

Video is available at this address: ftp://ftp.asc-csa.gc.ca/users/Medias/pub/canorock/ and on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNTxpSt_o3g

Related links:

http://www.isset.ualberta.ca/index.php/outreach/canorock
http://www.ucalgary.ca/
http://www.usask.ca/
For more informations about CSA, visit: http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/default.asp

“CaNoRock 1″ Proposed Launch Program - "CaNoRock 1" Programme de lancements

CaNoRock : des étudiants canadiens apprennent à lancer des fusées

Pendant une semaine d'apprentissage intensif, 11 étudiants canadiens ont participé à une série de conférences, d’ateliers de conception et de développement technologiques, d’essais et de simulations de lancement de fusées et de ballons-sondes au centre de lancement d’Andøya en Norvège. Au terme du programme, ils ont réussi, de concert avec leurs pairs de la Norvège, à lancer la troisième fusée-sonde du projet CaNoRock entrepris en partenariat entre les universités de l'Alberta, de Calgary et de la Saskatchewan, l'Université d'Oslo et le centre de lancement d’Andøya en Norvège.

Le projet CaNoRock (CaNoRock Student Sounding Rocket Collaboration) offre à des étudiants canadiens de premier cycle une excellente occasion d’enrichir leurs connaissances par le biais d’ateliers pratiques en sciences spatiales expérimentales qui les amènent à construire leurs propres fusées-sondes.

Norway-Canada exchange program students launch experimental rockets in Norway. Norvège-Cannada, des étudiants Canadiens-Norvègiens apprennent à lancer des fusées en Norvège. Photo: Robyn Reist

Grâce à des contributions de l'Agence Spatiale Canadienne et de l'Université de l'Alberta, on mettra en place dans cette université une infrastructure qui permettra d’aménager un laboratoire spécialisé où les étudiants pourront élaborer leurs propres charges utiles. Ce laboratoire sera mis à la disposition des étudiants des trois établissements canadiens participants. De plus, les professeurs de ces établissements se sont engagés à intégrer une composante CaNoRock dans leurs cours.

Pendant les deux prochaines années, les participants du programme CaNoRock pourront suivre des cours crédités, concevoir et tester leurs charges respectives, et auront l’occasion d’intégrer, de surveiller et d’analyser les données de lancement des fusées ainsi que les données de leurs expériences.

Le programme mise sur l’attrait qu’exerce sur les étudiants de premier cycle ce type d’activités à grande visibilité de manière à favoriser l’acquisition de nouvelles connaissances liées à l’espace par le biais de cours pratiques donnés dans un environnement exceptionnel. Au final, le projet CaNoRock servira de tremplin vers des études supérieures dans le domaine spatial ou des emplois dans l’industrie aérospatiale.

Des séquences vidéo sont disponibles à l’adresse suivante : ftp://ftp.asc-csa.gc.ca/users/Medias/pub/canorock/ et sur You tube (anglais seulement): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNTxpSt_o3g

Liens relatif, en anglais seulement :

http://www.isset.ualberta.ca/index.php/outreach/canorock
http://www.ucalgary.ca/
http://www.usask.ca/

Pour plus d'informations sur l'ASC (en français), visitez: http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/fra/default.asp

Images, Text, Credits: CSA-ASC / CaNoRock / Univ. of Alberta / Univ. of Calgary / Univ. of Saskatchewan / Univ. of Oslo / Andoya Rocket Range in Norway / Robyn Reist.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

NASA Hosting Events For Valentine's Night Comet Encounter

NASA - Stardust-NExT Mission patch.


Feb. 8, 2011

NASA will host several live media activities for the Stardust-NExT mission's close encounter with comet Tempel 1. The closest approach is expected at approximately 8:37 p.m. PST, with confirmation received on Earth at about 8:56 p.m. PST on Monday, Feb. 14.

Stardust-NExT Spacecraft & Comet Tempel 1

Live coverage of the Tempel 1 encounter will begin at 8:30 p.m. Feb. 14 on NASA Television and the agency's website. The coverage will include live commentary from mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., and video from Lockheed Martin Space System's mission support area in Denver.

A news briefing is planned for 10 a.m. on Feb. 15. Scheduled participants are:

-Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate
-Joe Veverka, Stardust-NExT principal investigator, Cornell University
-Tim Larson, Stardust-NExT project manager, JPL
-Don Brownlee, Stardust-NExT co-investigator, University of Washington, Seattle

Stardust-NExT Spacecraft & Comet Tempel 1 encounter

Mission coverage schedule (all times PST and subject to change):

8:30 to 10 p.m., Feb. 14: Live NASA TV commentary begins from mission control; includes coverage of closest approach and the re-establishment of contact with the spacecraft following the encounter.

Midnight to 1:30 a.m., Feb. 15: NASA TV commentary will chronicle the arrival and processing of the first five of 72 close-approach images expected to be down linked after the encounter. The images are expected to include a close-up view of the comet's surface.

Tempel-1 mapping

This image above shows the composite ITS image of the nucleus with a grid or coordinate system laid over it. The grid helps the science team reference features on the surface. The positive pole is over the horizon at upper right and the longitudes increase according to the right hand rule as defined by the IAU convention. The prime meridian was defined to go through the center of the well-defined crater above the impact site.

10 a.m., Feb. 15: News briefing

Starting on Feb. 9, NASA TV will air Stardust-NExT mission animation and b-roll during its Video File segments. For NASA TV streaming video, scheduling and downlink information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

Live commentary and the news conference also will be carried live on one of JPL's Ustream channels. Viewers during events can engage in a real-time chat and submit questions to the Stardust-NExT team at: http://www.ustream.tv/user/NASAJPL2

The public can watch a real-time animation of the Stardust-NExT comet flyby using NASA's new "Eyes on the Solar System" Web tool. JPL created this 3-D environment, which allows people to explore the solar system directly from their computers. It is available at: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/eyes

This flyby of Tempel 1 will give scientists an opportunity to look for changes on the comet's surface since it was visited by NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft in July 2005. Since then, Tempel 1 has completed one orbit of the sun, and scientists are looking forward to monitoring any differences in the comet.

During its 12 years in space, Stardust became the first spacecraft to collect samples of a comet (Wild 2) in 2004, which were sent in 2006 to Earth for study. The mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft and manages day-to-day mission operations.

A press kit and other detailed information about Stardust-NExT is available at: http://stardustnext.jpl.nasa.gov

Images, Text, Credits: NASA / UM / Cornell / Peter Thomas and Tony Farnham.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Azorean station to track Ariane launch

ESA logo / ESA - ATV2 "Johannes Kepler Mission patch.

8 February 2011

When ATV Johannes Kepler is lofted into space on 15 February, an ESA tracking station on Portugal's Santa Maria island will watch closely, gathering crucial data as Ariane 5 streaks overhead.

In 2008, the Santa Maria station, located five kilometres from the town of Vila do Porto on the Portuguese island of Santa Maria, in the Azores, became the latest station to join ESA's global ESTRACK tracking network. Santa Maria's 5.5 m-diameter antenna provides crucial tracking services for Ariane 5 rockets as they boost Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATVs) into orbit.

 Santa Maria station

With a total launch mass of some 20 tonnes, including fuel, food and cargo for the International Space station, the ATV vessels are the largest and most sophisticated spacecraft ever built in Europe. The next one, ATV Johannes Kepler, is due for launch on 15 February. It will dock automatically with the ISS eight days later, on 23 February, and remain attached to the Station until June, providing critical orbit reboosts.

Santa Maria: geostrategic location

In order to place ATVs into the correct orbit, Ariane launchers must follow a special flight path that takes them almost directly over Santa Maria island just a few minutes after launch from Europe's Spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana.

Artist's view of ATV Johannes Kepler under Ariane fairing

This particular trajectory made it necessary to set up a specific network of tracking stations to receive real-time data during all critical launch events. For ATV launches, ESA stations provide launcher tracking services to CNES, the French space agency, which oversees the Ariane tracking network.

Santa Maria is one of the first ESA stations that can track a launcher during powered flight, and the geography of the Azores provides an ideal location to acquire signals from launchers climbing northeast from Kourou.

Santa Maria station - view of island landscape

Next week, during the first powered phase, Ariane V200 with ATV on board will pass 130 km above the island and sweep into view of the station's tracking antenna for about eight minutes. During this pass, the station will receive crucial telemetry data via radio containing up-to-the-second information on the status of Ariane's systems such as propulsion, guidance and navigation.

Station is ready for Ariane launch

"We performed a series of technical tests with the Santa Maria station in August and September 2010, followed by a full operational test in January. We are fully qualified for next week's Ariane flight and are looking forward to an intense day with excellent results," said Gerhard Billig, ESA's lead engineer responsible for launcher tracking.

After passing over the Azores, Europe and South-East Asia, Ariane will pass over Australia, where it will be similarly tracked by ESA's 15-m station at Perth and by a station at Awarura, New Zealand.

ATV-2's Ariane 5 flight, lasting about 160 minutes, consists of five consecutive phases:

    * First propulsion phase, over the North Atlantic, from Kourou to the Azores
    * First ballistic phase, over Europe, Central and Eastern Asia, and then Indonesia
    * Second propulsion phase, over Australia and New Zealand to achieve a circular orbit before the ATV separates
    * Second ballistic phase, accounting for one complete orbit around the Earth
    * Third propulsion phase, to the North of Australia, for de-orbiting the launch vehicle upper stage

Note that in 2008, for ATV-1, Ariane tracking made use of a station at Dongarra, Asutralia, whereas ATV-2's ride on Ariane will use ESA's station at Perth instead.

Ariane 5 with ATV-2 launch trajectory

Ariane will loop around Earth, gaining altitude, and make a second pass near Santa Maria, this time at an altitude of 250 km. By this time, ATV will have separated from Ariane, and the launcher will subsequently head toward its planned destructive reentry, which will take place later in its second orbit.

"The Santa Maria station takes advantage of the geostrategic position of the Azorean islands, an important resource for ESA and Portugal – as an ESA Member State – for the implementation of European space projects," said Mario Amaral, coordinator of the Portuguese Space Office.

"We trust the station continues to contribute significantly to ESA and to EU Earth observation programmes, particularly for the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security initiative."

Related Link:

EDISOFT S.A.: http://www.edisoft.pt/

More information:

ATV: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ATV/index.html

Launch vehicles: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Launchers_Access_to_Space/index.html

Europe's Spaceport: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Launchers_Europe_s_Spaceport/index.html

Images, Text, Credits: ESA / D. Ducros / Arianespace.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Kedr to Begin its Space Mission on Feb. 16

ISS - Expedition 26 Mission patch.

08.02.2011

Russian cosmonauts Dmitry Kondratiev and Oleg Skripochka are preparing to conduct another spacewalk scheduled for Feb.16.

The cosmonauts prepare EVA equipment, test control panels in Zvezda and Pirs modules. This week they will go on with consultations and preparations.

Dmitry Kondratiev posing between two Orlan spacesuits

This is to be second joint EVA for Kondratiev and Skripochka. During the first EVA of 2011, on Jan. 21, they completed the program successfully 30 min ahead the schedule.

In the foreground of the image: Kedr Small Spacecraft To Be Launched From ISS (in demonstration at Baikonur)

This time, Russian cosmonauts are to launch small spacecraft Kedr developed under the RadioSkaf experiment. The satellite’s name was adopted by Yuri A. Gagarin call sign in his historical flight, namely Kedr. The satellite’s signal will be transmitted at radio amateur frequency of 145.95 MHz. Kedr has radio amateur call sign RS1S.

ARISS logo

RadioSkaf is implemented in the framework of UNESCO’s student space education program.

Images, Text, Credits: Roscosmos PAO / NASA.

Cheers, Orbiter.ch

An Explosion of Infrared Color

NASA - WISE Mission logo.

Feb. 7, 2011

This oddly colorful nebula is the supernova remnant IC 443 as seen by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. Also known as the Jellyfish Nebula, IC 443 is particularly interesting because it provides a look into how stellar explosions interact with their environment.

Like other living creatures, stars have a life cycle -- they are born, mature and eventually die. The manner in which stars die depends on their mass. Stars with mass similar to the sun typically become planetary nebulae at the end of their lives, whereas stars with many times the sun's mass explode as supernovae. IC 443 is the remains of a star that went supernova between 5,000 and 10,000 years ago. The blast from the supernova sent out shock waves that traveled through space, sweeping up and heating the surrounding gas and dust in the interstellar medium, and creating the supernova remnant seen in this image.

What is unusual about the IC 443 is that its shell-like form has two halves that have different radii, structures and emissions. The larger northeastern shell, seen here as the violet-colored semi-circle on the top left of the supernova remnant, is composed of sheet-like filaments that are emitting light from iron, neon, silicon and oxygen gas atoms, in addition to dust particles, all heated by the blast from the supernova. The smaller southern shell, seen here in a bright cyan color on the bottom half of the image, is constructed of denser clumps and knots primarily emitting light from hydrogen gas and heated dust. These clumps are part of a molecular cloud, which can be seen in this image as the greenish cloud cutting across IC 443 from the northwest to southeast. The color differences seen in this image represent different wavelengths of infrared emission.

The differences in color are also the result of differences in the energies of the shock waves hitting the interstellar medium. The northeastern shell was probably created by a fast shock wave (223,700 miles per hour), whereas the southern shell was probably created by a slow shock wave (67,100 miles per hour).

Images, Text,  Credits: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch