A new episode of active volcanism on Venus?

ESA - Venus Express Mission patch.

03 Dec 2012

For decades, planetary scientists have debated whether Venus possesses active volcanoes. The latest twist to the tale is provided by data sent back from ESA's Venus Express orbiter, revealing unexplained major changes in the amount of sulphur dioxide gas above the planet's dense cloud layer.

Since Earth and Venus are similar in size and mass, and both planets formed around the same time and in the same region of the Solar System, one might expect them to virtual twins. However, Venus is enveloped by a thick blanket of clouds, composed mainly of sulphuric acid droplets. Hurricane force winds at the cloud tops sweep around the planet in only four days – a phenomenon known as super-rotation.

Is Venus volcanically active? Credit: ESA/AOES Medialab

Beneath the clouds, the carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere has a density 90 times greater than on Earth. This suffocating atmosphere acts like a greenhouse, trapping solar heat and causing the surface temperature to soar to around 460 degrees Celsius.

Although it is the closest planet to Earth and it has been visited by numerous spacecraft, Venus retains many mysteries. One enduring question is whether there are any active volcanoes.

Radar imagery has revealed more than 1000 volcanic structures and evidence of possible periodic resurfacing of the planet by floods of lava. By studying emission of infrared radiation from lava flows around a volcanic mountain, Venus Express has also found indirect evidence that volcanism has taken place within the last 2.5 million years. However, no definitive proof of current volcanic eruptions has yet been found, and the debate continues to rage.

 Surface warmth on a volcano on Venus. Credit: ESA/NASA/JPL

The latest contribution to the investigation into active Venusian volcanism comes from the SPICAV-UV spectrometer on board Venus Express, which has been in orbit around the planet since 2006. By studying the SPICAV data, a team of scientists from France and Russia has discovered an unusual change in the amount of sulphur dioxide (SO₂) gas in the upper atmosphere.

The SPICAV data show that the concentration of SO₂ above the main cloud deck increased slightly to about 1000 parts per billion by volume (ppbv) between 2006 and 2007, but then steadily decreased over the next five years, reaching only 100 ppbv by 2012. This is very reminiscent of a pattern observed by Pioneer Venus during the 1980s, the only other multi-year dataset of SO₂ measurements.

Image above: Rise and fall of sulphur dioxide. Credits: Data: E. Marcq et al. (Venus Express); L. Esposito et al. (earlier data); background image: ESA/AOES Medialab.

Since Venus does not experience any seasons, the authors of the paper in Nature Geoscience suggest two possible explanations: periods of active volcanism, or long-term variability in the general circulation of the atmosphere.

"Sulphur dioxide is a key indicator of the processes taking place in the upper atmosphere of Venus," said Emmanuel Marcq, of LATMOS, Université de Versailles-Saint-Quentin, France, the lead author of the paper.

"SO₂ is known to be an important, and constant, constituent of the lower atmosphere of Venus. A steady supply of SO₂ to high levels is provided by air rising from the hot, lower atmosphere. When it gets above the clouds, SO₂ is rapidly destroyed by solar UV light, so it has a very short life, less than half a day, in the upper atmosphere of Venus."

"This means that the only explanation for a marked rise and fall in SO₂ concentration at an altitude of 70 km is an enhanced injection of enriched gas from lower levels, beneath the clouds."

Although SO₂ is an important constituent of volcanic outgassing, the authors of the paper suggest that the increase observed by Venus Express may be the result of a plume of heated gases rising to high altitudes, rather than a direct injection of SO₂.

"An explosive volcanic eruption, rather like a more powerful version of the 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption on Earth, could act like a piston, blasting a column of gas up to these levels," said co-author Jean-Loup Bertaux, Principal Investigator for Venus Express SPICAV instrument that made the detections. "This extra convection could carry SO₂ above the clouds and temporarily increase its concentration."

 Venus Express. Credit: ESA/AOES Medialab

On the other hand, the amount of SO₂ in the lower atmosphere has remained remarkably stable at very high levels over more than a decade, and there has been no evidence of an increase in thermal emission from the planet's surface to coincide with the changes observed by SPICAV. This opens up the possibility that the increased levels of SO₂ above the clouds could have been caused by a change in the global atmospheric circulation which increased the movement of gases from the lower to upper atmosphere.

"During periods of scarce SO₂, there is usually a greater amount above the poles of Venus than near the equator," said Emmanuel Marcq. "However, this distribution pattern was reversed in our 2006-2007 data when SO₂ was abundant. This suggests that there may have been stronger advection (upwelling) near the equator of air from the lower, SO₂ -enriched regions of the atmosphere until 2007. Over the same period of time, the mean UV brightness of the cloud tops also declined.
 
"It is possible that long-term variations occur in the atmospheric circulation, resulting in injections of SO₂ from lower levels and changes in cloud chemistry, revealed by observations of UV absorption."

"The atmospheric circulation of the planet is not yet fully understood," said Jean-Loup Bertaux, "but we believe there may be two simple Hadley cells in which air rises at the equator, spreads out at cloud level towards the poles, then sinks toward the surface, before flowing back to the equator.
"Whichever explanation is correct, it seems that the shift in SO₂ concentrations between the poles and equator, as well as the periodic rise and fall at high altitudes, are consistent with fluctuations in the SO₂ supply from the lower atmosphere at low latitudes."

"There are very few opportunities to search for evidence of active volcanism on Venus," said Håkan Svedhem, ESA's project scientist for Venus Express. "Since there are no other spacecraft studying Venus at the present time, Venus Express is the only means to find evidence for such activity. Although it is not yet possible to explain the results, the SPICAV data are very intriguing and show once again the similarities in the physical processes that occur on the terrestrial planets."

Notes for editors

The results presented in this article are reported in "Variations of sulphur dioxide at the cloud top of Venus's dynamic atmosphere" by Emmanuel Marcq, Jean-Loup Bertaux, Franck Montmessin and Denis Belyaev, published in the 3 December issue of Nature Geoscience.

Europe's first mission to Venus, Venus Express was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 9 November 2005 on a Soyuz-Fregat launcher. It was inserted into Venus orbit on 11 April 2006. Venus Express orbits the planet in a 24 h period polar orbit. Its payload includes a combination of spectrometers, spectro-imagers, and imagers covering a wavelength range from ultraviolet to thermal infrared, a plasma analyser and a magnetometer.

Venus Express was designed to be the first spacecraft to perform a global investigation of the Venusian atmosphere and of the plasma environment. Venus Express reused designs from Mars Express and also employed spare instruments from Mars Express and Rosetta. The "Express" in its name denotes the accelerated pace with which it went through the process from design to launch, taking less than four years.

For more information about Venus Express, visit: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/

Images (mentioned), Text, Credit: ESA / Håkan Svedhem / Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (LATMOS) Université de Versailles-Saint-Quentin, France / Emmanuel Marcq / Jean-Loup Bertaux.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Glitter galaxy

ESA - Hubble Space Telescope logo.

3 December 2012

The brilliant cascade of stars through the middle of this image is the galaxy ESO 318-13 as seen by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

Despite being millions of light-years from Earth, the stars captured in this image are so bright and clear you could almost attempt to count them.

Although ESO 318-13 is the main event in this image, it is sandwiched between a vast collection of bright celestial objects. Several stars near and far dazzle in comparison to the neat dusting contained within the galaxy.

One that particularly stands out is near the centre of the image, and looks like an extremely bright star located within the galaxy. This is, however, a trick of perspective. The star is actually in the Milky Way, our own Galaxy, and it shines so brightly because it is so much closer to us than ESO 318-13.

There are also a number of tiny glowing discs scattered throughout the frame that are more distant galaxies. In the top right corner, an elliptical galaxy can be clearly seen, a galaxy which is much larger but more distant than ESO 318-13.

More interestingly, peeking through ESO 318-13, near the right-hand edge of the image, is a distant spiral galaxy.

Galaxies are largely empty space – the stars within them only take up a small volume. Providing a galaxy is not too dusty, it can be largely transparent to light coming from the background. This makes overlapping galaxies like these quite common. 

More about:

Hubble's Universe: http://spacetelescope.org/

Hubble overview: http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEM106WO4HD_index_0_m.html

Hubble portrays a dusty spiral galaxy: http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEM1I5GYD7H_index_0.html

Where is Hubble now?

Track Hubble: http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMK8E2PL7F_index_0.html

Image, Text, Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Arianespace's Soyuz 2-1a medium-lift launcher orbits Pléiades 1B

Arianespace / ESA - Pleiades 1B / Soyuz Flight VS04 poster.


December  2, 2012

Soyuz rocket with Pleiades 1B "aboard" ready for launch

The maturity of Arianespace’s Soyuz launch system at French Guiana – and its confirmed role as a full-fledged member of the company’s launcher family – were demonstrated once again tonight’s successful orbiting of the Pléiades 1B satellite from the Spaceport.

 Launch of Pleiades 1B on Soyuz-STA from French Guiana

The fourth Soyuz rocket from Kourou in French Guiana launched today, December 2nd 2012 at 02:02 UTC carrying the EADS built Pleiades 1B satellite into orbit. Pleiades 1B for French CNES will provide very high resolution (50cm) imagery for French and Spanish defense ministries. The trip was onboard a Russian Soyuz-STA rocket with Fregat upperstage.

Separation of Pleiades 1B from Fregat upperstage

During a flight duration of 55 minutes, the Soyuz vehicle deployed its 970-kg. passenger into a targeted circular orbit of 695 km., inclined 98.2 deg., marking the medium-lift vehicle’s fourth mission from French Guiana since its introduction at this near-equatorial launch site in October 2011.

Pléiades 1B is a very-high-resolution dual-use satellite designed to provide optical imaging coverage for French and European defense ministries, institutions and civil users.  It joins the twin Pléiades 1A spacecraft that was launched in December 2011 on Arianespace’s second Soyuz mission from the Spaceport. 

Arianespace Chairman & CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall noted tonight’s launch was the ninth at French Guiana in 2012 for the company’s launcher family; following the lightweight Vega’s maiden flight in February; medium-lift  missions with Soyuz in October and today; along with heavy-lift Ariane 5 flights in March, May, July, August, September and November.

Le Gall thanked all involved in these successes, including the teams who work at the Spaceport for such an “impressive” year – during which a total of 23 primary and secondary payloads were placed into orbit from French Guiana.

Pleiades 1B satellite

The Pléiades 1A and 1B satellites launched by Arianespace create an optical observation system with great agility, a quick-response ground segment and daily revisit capability – offering a new generation of “real-world” satellite Earth imagery at a resolution of 70 cm.  Both Pléiades spacecraft are based on smaller, less expensive and more agile platforms than their predecessors – the highly-successful Spot satellite series that was lofted by Arianespace on its Ariane family launchers beginning in 1986.

France’s CNES space agency is prime contractor and architect for the Pléiades system, which is organized as part of a joint effort with Italy – whose Cosmo-Skymed satellite series delivers radar imaging coverage of the Earth.

Pléiades program participants are the space agencies of France, Austria, Belgium, Spain and Sweden; along with the defense ministries of France, Italy and Spain.

The Pléiades 1A and 1B spacecraft were built by EADS’ Astrium division.

Arianespace will wrap-up its 2012 launch activity at the Spaceport with a year-ending Ariane 5 mission on December 19 to orbit the Mexsat Bicentenario and Skynet 5D satellites.

For more information about Arianespace, visit: http://www.arianespace.com/index/index.asp

Images, Video, Text, Credits: Arianespace / Arianespace TV / CNES / Orbiter.ch Aerospace.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Even Brown Dwarfs May Grow Rocky Planets

ESO - European Southern Observatory logo.

30 November 2012

ALMA sizes up grains of cosmic dust around failed star

Artist’s impression of the disc of dust and gas around a brown dwarf

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have for the first time found that the outer region of a dusty disc encircling a brown dwarf contains millimetre-sized solid grains like those found in denser discs around newborn stars. The surprising finding challenges theories of how rocky, Earth-scale planets form, and suggests that rocky planets may be even more common in the Universe than expected.

Rocky planets are thought to form through the random collision and sticking together of what are initially microscopic particles in the disc of material around a star. These tiny grains, known as cosmic dust, are similar to very fine soot or sand. However, in the outer regions around a brown dwarf — a star-like object, but one too small to shine brightly like a star — astronomers expected that grains could not grow because the discs were too sparse, and particles would be moving too fast to stick together after colliding. Also, prevailing theories say that any grains that manage to form should move quickly towards the central brown dwarf, disappearing from the outer parts of the disc where they could be detected.

Artist’s impression of grains in the disc around a brown dwarf

“We were completely surprised to find millimetre-sized grains in this thin little disc,” said Luca Ricci of the California Institute of Technology, USA, who led a team of astronomers based in the United States, Europe and Chile. “Solid grains of that size shouldn’t be able to form in the cold outer regions of a disc around a brown dwarf, but it appears that they do. We can’t be sure if a whole rocky planet could develop there, or already has, but we’re seeing the first steps, so we’re going to have to change our assumptions about conditions required for solids to grow,” he said.

The brown dwarf ISO-Oph 102

ALMA’s increased resolution compared to previous telescopes also allowed the team to pinpoint carbon monoxide gas around the brown dwarf — the first time that cold molecular gas has been detected in such a disc. This discovery, and that of the millimetre-size grains, suggest that the disc is much more similar to the ones around young stars than previously expected.

Location of the brown dwarf ISO-Oph 102 in the constellation of Ophiuchus

Ricci and his colleagues made their finding using the partially completed ALMA telescope in the high-altitude Chilean desert. ALMA is a growing collection of high precision, dish-shaped antennas that work together as one large telescope to observe the Universe with groundbreaking detail and sensitivity. ALMA “sees” the Universe in millimetre-wavelength light, which is invisible to human eyes. Construction of ALMA is scheduled to finish in 2013, but astronomers began observing with a partial array of ALMA dishes in 2011.

Wide-field view of the Rho Ophiuchi star-forming region in visible light

The astronomers pointed ALMA at the young brown dwarf ISO-Oph 102, also known as Rho-Oph 102, in the Rho Ophiuchi star-forming region in the constellation of Ophiuchus (The Serpent Bearer). With about 60 times the mass of Jupiter but only 0.06 times that of the Sun, the brown dwarf has too little mass to ignite the thermonuclear reactions by which ordinary stars shine. However, it emits heat released by its slow gravitational contraction and shines with a reddish colour, albeit much less brightly than a star.

The growth of cosmic dust grains in the disc around the brown dwarf ISO-Oph 102

ALMA collected light with wavelengths around a millimetre, emitted by disc material warmed by the brown dwarf. The grains in the disc do not emit much radiation at wavelengths longer than their own size, so a characteristic drop-off in the brightness can be measured at longer wavelengths. ALMA is an ideal instrument for measuring this drop-off and thus for sizing up the grains. The astronomers compared the brightness of the disc at wavelengths of 0.89 mm and 3.2 mm. The drop-off in brightness from 0.89 mm to 3.2 mm was not as steep as expected, showing that at least some of the grains are a millimetre or more in size.

Artist’s impression of grains in the disc around a brown dwarf

“ALMA is a powerful new tool for solving mysteries of planetary system formation,” commented Leonardo Testi from ESO, a member of the research team. “Trying this with previous generation telescopes would have needed almost a month of observing — impossibly long in practice. But, using just a quarter of ALMA's final complement of antennas, we were able to do it in less than one hour!” he said.

The Brown Dwarf ISO-Oph 102

In the near future, the completed ALMA telescope will be powerful enough to make detailed images of the discs around Rho-Oph 102 and other objects. Ricci explained, “We will soon be able to not only detect the presence of small particles in discs, but to map how they are spread across the circumstellar disc and how they interact with the gas that we’ve also detected in the disc. This will help us better understand how planets come to be.”

More information:

This research is presented in a paper in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Ricci and Testi worked with Antonella Natta of the INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico de Arcetri, Aleks Scholz of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, and Itziar de Gregorio-Monsalvo of the Joint ALMA Observatory.

ALMA, an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA construction and operations are led on behalf of Europe by ESO, on behalf of North America by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), and on behalf of East Asia by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

The year 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 15 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world’s most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world’s largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is the European partner of a revolutionary astronomical telescope ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. ESO is currently planning the 39-metre European Extremely Large optical/near-infrared Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.

Links:

    Research paper: http://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1248/eso1248a.pdf

    More about ALMA at ESO: http://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/alma.html

    The Joint ALMA Observatory: http://www.almaobservatory.org/

Images, Text, Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/M. Kornmesser (ESO)/L. Calçada (ESO)/Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin/IAU and Sky & Telescope/Videos: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/L. Calçada (ESO)/M. Kornmesser (ESO)/Nick Risinger (skysurvey.org)/Digitized Sky Survey 2 Music: movetwo.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

MESSENGER Finds New Evidence for Water Ice at Mercury's Poles

NASA - MESSENGER Mission to Mercury patch.

Nov. 29, 2012

New observations by the MESSENGER spacecraft provide compelling support for the long-held hypothesis that Mercury harbors abundant water ice and other frozen volatile materials in its permanently shadowed polar craters.

Three independent lines of evidence support this conclusion: the first measurements of excess hydrogen at Mercury's north pole with MESSENGER's Neutron Spectrometer, the first measurements of the reflectance of Mercury's polar deposits at near-infrared wavelengths with the Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA), and the first detailed models of the surface and near-surface temperatures of Mercury's north polar regions that utilize the actual topography of Mercury's surface measured by the MLA. These findings are presented in three papers published online today in Science Express.

Mercury's North Polar Region Acquired By The Arecibo Observatory

Given its proximity to the Sun, Mercury would seem to be an unlikely place to find ice. But the tilt of Mercury's rotational axis is almost zero — less than one degree — so there are pockets at the planet's poles that never see sunlight. Scientists suggested decades ago that there might be water ice and other frozen volatiles trapped at Mercury's poles.

The idea received a boost in 1991, when the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico detected unusually radar-bright patches at Mercury's poles, spots that reflected radio waves in the way one would expect if there were water ice. Many of these patches corresponded to the location of large impact craters mapped by the Mariner 10 spacecraft in the 1970s. But because Mariner saw less than 50 percent of the planet, planetary scientists lacked a complete diagram of the poles to compare with the images.

A Mosaic of MESSENGER Images of Mercury's North Polar Region

MESSENGER's arrival at Mercury last year changed that. Images from the spacecraft's Mercury Dual Imaging System taken in 2011 and earlier this year confirmed that radar-bright features at Mercury's north and south poles are within shadowed regions on Mercury's surface, findings that are consistent with the water-ice hypothesis.

Now the newest data from MESSENGER strongly indicate that water ice is the major constituent of Mercury's north polar deposits, that ice is exposed at the surface in the coldest of those deposits, but that the ice is buried beneath an unusually dark material across most of the deposits, areas where temperatures are a bit too warm for ice to be stable at the surface itself.

Permanently Shadowed Polar Craters

MESSENGER uses neutron spectroscopy to measure average hydrogen concentrations within Mercury's radar-bright regions. Water-ice concentrations are derived from the hydrogen measurements. "The neutron data indicate that Mercury's radar-bright polar deposits contain, on average, a hydrogen-rich layer more than tens of centimeters thick beneath a surficial layer 10 to 20 centimeters thick that is less rich in hydrogen," writes David Lawrence, a MESSENGER Participating Scientist based at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and the lead author of one of the papers. "The buried layer has a hydrogen content consistent with nearly pure water ice."

MESSENGER Laser Altimeter

Data from MESSENGER's Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) — which has fired more than 10 million laser pulses at Mercury to make detailed maps of the planet's topography — corroborate the radar results and Neutron Spectrometer measurements of Mercury's polar region, writes Gregory Neumann of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. In a second paper, Neumann and his colleagues report that the first MLA measurements of the shadowed north polar regions reveal irregular dark and bright deposits at near-infrared wavelength near Mercury's north pole.

"These reflectance anomalies are concentrated on poleward-facing slopes and are spatially collocated with areas of high radar backscatter postulated to be the result of near-surface water ice," Neumann writes. "Correlation of observed reflectance with modeled temperatures indicates that the optically bright regions are consistent with surface water ice."

The MLA also recorded dark patches with diminished reflectance, consistent with the theory that the ice in those areas is covered by a thermally insulating layer. Neumann suggests that impacts of comets or volatile-rich asteroids could have provided both the dark and bright deposits, a finding corroborated in a third paper led by David Paige of the University of California, Los Angeles.

MESSENGER Spacecraft

Paige and his colleagues provided the first detailed models of the surface and near-surface temperatures of Mercury's north polar regions that utilize the actual topography of Mercury's surface measured by the MLA. The measurements "show that the spatial distribution of regions of high radar backscatter is well matched by the predicted distribution of thermally stable water ice," he writes.

According to Paige, the dark material is likely a mix of complex organic compounds delivered to Mercury by the impacts of comets and volatile-rich asteroids, the same objects that likely delivered water to the innermost planet.The organic material may have been darkened further by exposure to the harsh radiation at Mercury's surface, even in permanently shadowed areas.

Time-Lapsed Animation of a Mercury Day

This dark insulating material is a new wrinkle to the story, says Sean Solomon of the Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, principal investigator of the MESSENGER mission. "For more than 20 years the jury has been deliberating on whether the planet closest to the Sun hosts abundant water ice in its permanently shadowed polar regions. MESSENGER has now supplied a unanimous affirmative verdict."

"But the new observations have also raised new questions," adds Solomon. "Do the dark materials in the polar deposits consist mostly of organic compounds? What kind of chemical reactions has that material experienced? Are there any regions on or within Mercury that might have both liquid water and organic compounds? Only with the continued exploration of Mercury can we hope to make progress on these new questions."

For more information about the MESSENGER mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/main/index.html and http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/

Related link:

Science Express: http://www.sciencexpress.org/

Images, Videos, Text, Credits: NASA  / Goddard Space Flight Center / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Carnegie Institution of Washington / National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, Arecibo Observatory.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Rocket Launch KSLV-1 postponed

KARI - Korea Space Launch Vehicle (KSLV-1) logo.

29/11/2012

November 29 at the Naro Space Center (South Korea) during prelaunch identified remarks on the second stage of the launch vehicle (LV) KSLV-1 (the developer - Korea Aerospace Research Institute). At the request of the Korean administration,  preparations for launch was canceled.

According to preliminary data necessary to replace the device of the second stage, and therefore the KSLV-1 is removed from the launch-pad and is transported to the technical position to make a repair.

Korea Space Launch Vehicle (KSLV-1)

The first stage of the launch vehicle KSLV-1 is the prototype of the first stage of the launch vehicle "Angara" (designer and manufacturer - Khrunichev).

Time and date of the start of the launch vehicle KSLV-1 will be announced later.

Original text in Russian: http://www.federalspace.ru/main.php?id=2&nid=19727

For more information about KARI, visit: http://www.kari.re.kr/eng/index.asp

Images, Text, Credits: Press Service of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos PAO) / KARI / Translation: Orbiter.ch.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Space debris hazards spotlighted at conference

Space junk around the Earth.


29 November 2012

In 2013, ESA will host a gathering of international specialists to study space debris hazards. The four-day event will spotlight the risks posed to space exploration by the growing number of debris objects in near-Earth space.

ESA will host the 6th European Conference on Space Debris at its European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, 22–25 April.

Space debris in orbit

The conference is expected to attract more than 300 leading experts from worldwide. It is co-sponsored by the British, French, German and Italian space agencies (UKSA, CNES, DLR and ASI), the UN Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) and the International Academy of Astronautics. 

How space debris affect everyone

Today, citizens worldwide rely on space assets to enable a wide and growing range of economically vital activities.

Just some of the space-based benefits on which all of us rely include TV, weather forecasting, Internet, daily banking, monitoring of crops and optimisation of farming, disaster relief and door-to-door navigation.

Space debris stem from man-made objects such as defunct satellites, upper stages, discarded rocket components and even dropped astronaut gloves.

Many of these objects that orbit our planet have the potential to break up or explode, proliferating the problem.

It is estimated that the levels of debris in orbit is of the order of 29 000 pieces larger than 10 cm (with 23 000 of them regularly tracked), 670 000 larger than 1 cm and more than 170 million larger than 1 mm. Some debris travels at up to 56 000 km/hr.

Dr Heiner Klinkrad, Head of ESA's Space Debris Office, ESOC

“Any of these objects can cause harm to an operational spacecraft,” says Heiner Klinkrad, Head of ESA’s Space Debris Office.

“A collision with a 10 cm object would cause a catastrophic fragmentation, a 1 cm object could disable a normal-size spacecraft or penetrate the shields of the specially protected ISS, and a 1 mm object could destroy sensitive satellite sensors.”

Debris in the spotlight

ESA’s 2013 conference will provide a forum for scientists, engineers and managers from all major spacefaring nations, including space operators, industry, academia and policy bodies, to present the latest findings, discuss policy and technical options and help define future directions for research on all aspects of space debris.

Topics will include measurement techniques, environment modelling theories, risk analysis, protection designs, mitigation and remediation concepts, and policy and legal issues.

Special sessions will be devoted to active debris removal, in support of space debris environment remediation, with the aim to ensure the long-term sustainability of activities in space.

The conference will also promote the regular discussions taking place in a number of organisations, including the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) and the working group on Long-term Sustainability of Space Activities (LTSSA) of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS).

Details on the conference, the abstract submission process, and the registration procedure via Congrex: http://congrexprojects.com/13a09

Conference brochure (PDF): http://www.slideshare.net/esaops/6th-european-conference-on-space-debris

About space debris: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ESOC/SEME79EQZ9H_0.html

Images, Text, Credits: ESA / J. Mai.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch