NASA's Successful Robotic Refueling Demo Points To a Bright Satellite - Servicing Future

ISS - International Space Station patch.

Feb. 09, 2013

Following six historic days of operations aboard the International Space Station, NASA's Robotic Refueling Mission, or RRM, demonstrated remotely controlled robots using current-day technology could refuel satellites not designed to be serviced.

RRM tests from January 14-25 culminated in a first-of-its-kind robotic fluid transfer, a demonstration that could be a catalyst to expanded robotic satellite-servicing capabilities and lead to a greener, more sustainable space. NASA also hopes that RRM technologies may help boost the commercial satellite-servicing industry.

Image above: The Robotic Refueling Mission, or RRM, investigation (center, on platform) uses the International Space Station's Canadarm2 and the Canadian Dextre robot (right) to demonstrate satellite-servicing tasks. (NASA).

"RRM gives NASA and the emerging commercial satellite servicing industry the confidence to robotically refuel, repair and maintain satellites in both near and distant orbits -- well beyond the reach of where humans can go today," said Frank Cepollina, associate director of the Satellite Servicing Capabilities Office, or SSCO at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

New Technologies for a New Industry

Since 2009, SSCO has aggressively advanced robotic technologies for a notional, free-flying, servicer spacecraft that could access, repair and refuel satellites in geosynchronous Earth orbit, or GEO. RRM is a critical part of this technology development campaign.

"RRM allows us to take a major step into the future -- a future where humans and machines can together take on greatly expanded roles in space capability, research and exploration," Cepollina said.

Image above: Stray drops of ethanol remain on the RRM Nozzle Tool after it withdraws from the fuel valve and the newly attached "quick disconnect" fitting. (NASA).

Veterans of five manned servicing missions to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, Cepollina and the SSCO team conceived the idea of RRM and saw it through its rapid 18-month development to its July 2011 launch on STS-135, the last space shuttle mission. A joint effort with the Canadian Space Agency, RRM uses the space station as test bed for the research and development of robotic satellite-servicing capabilities.

The cutting-edge technologies RRM demonstrates could extend the lives of many of the hundreds of satellites currently in GEO. These assets deliver such essential services as weather reports, cell phone communications, television broadcasts, government communications and air traffic management.

Image above: Stephen Roderick supports an autonomous rendezvous and capture test in Goddard's Satellite Servicing Center, an incubator for cutting-edge satellite-servicing technologies. (NASA).

Servicing capabilities could greatly expand options for government and commercial fleet operators in the future, potentially delivering stakeholders significant savings in spacecraft replacement and launch costs.

RRM: A First-of-Its-Kind Refueling

The January RRM activities employed the teleoperated Canadian Dextre robot, four sophisticated RRM tools and the washing-machine-sized RRM module to execute an end-to-end refueling demonstration on orbit. Unlike other demos, RRM is the first to test the robotic refueling of satellite interfaces not designed to be accessed or serviced.

This artist's concept shows a servicing spacecraft, left, approaching a client satellite. NASA is developing technology needed to bring a high-technology "gas pump, robotic mechanic and tow truck" to satellites in orbit. (NASA).

Robot controllers at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston first commanded an RRM tool -- working at the end of more than 70 feet (21.34 meters) of combined Dextre and Canadarm2 robotics -- to cut a pair of twisted wires each 0.02 inches in diameter, the thickness of four sheets of paper. Additional exacting tasks followed, with RRM tools cutting more wire -- used to secure satellite parts during launch -- and unscrewing and stowing two protective caps before finally exposing the representative fuel valve.

After the Johnson team threaded the RRM Nozzle tool with its attached hose onto the valve, operators at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., sent a precise sequence of commands to activate the RRM Fluid Transfer System. Liquid ethanol flowed from the Fluid Transfer System into the Nozzle Tool and through the attached fuel valve, ultimately pulsing back into the module's reservoir. Once the fluid transfer was complete, the Nozzle Tool used a novel technique to withdraw from the valve, leaving behind a clever "quick disconnect" fitting that would allow for a simpler and more efficient future refueling connection.

Future RRM tasks scheduled for 2013 include thermal blanket cutting, and fastener and electronic termination cap removals: all firsts of their kinds. A new round of servicing task boards, tools and activities are slated to continue its investigations through 2015.

RRM: Mission to the Future Delivers

Results Straight from Space

Results of RRM operations show that current-day robotic technology can refuel the common, triple-sealed satellite fuel valves of orbiting satellites. "The RRM tools, technologies and techniques passed their tests with flying colors," said SSCO deputy project manager Benjamin Reed. "We are immensely pleased with its success and very grateful to our partner the Canadian Space Agency."

The team's excitement in completing the task was heightened by the treasury of experience and insight gained from the exercise.

"Nothing compares to seeing how your hardware and procedures work in a real space environment," said Reed. "This is the beauty of being able to test new, game-changing technologies on the International Space Station."

"We were very excited to see the RRM refueling task validated the ground development work that our dedicated SSCO team performs every day," Reed said. "It is direct evidence that we are not working blindly in the proverbial vacuum, but rather that our carefully planned work at Goddard accurately simulates the real environment of space."

SSCO plans to present RRM results to date at the upcoming Satellite 2013 conference, as well as during space station panels and other events.

What's Next?

NASA continues to test capabilities for a new robotic servicing frontier. In conjunction with RRM, the SSCO team has been studying a conceptual servicing mission and building technologies to address uncharted territory. They include an autonomous rendezvous and capture system, a propellant transfer system for zero gravity and specialized algorithms to orchestrate and synchronize satellite-servicing operations.

On Jan. 15, NASA released a Request for Information to seek input on a potential public-private partnership to effect the full utilization of NASA-developed technology through an end-to-end technology demonstration of a satellite-servicing capability for client satellites located in GEO. The conceptual Restore Mission would potentially perform servicing operations in orbit in the 2018-2023 timeframe. RRM is proving the technology to achieve such a future mission.

"RRM is a harbinger of the next era in satellite fleet operations," Reed said. "It disrupts the accepted paradigm that a GEO satellite must be decommissioned at the end of its propellant reserves. Nearly 50 years of common practice is challenged with the options that RRM proves and foreshadows."

For information, updates and videos about RRM and NASA's satellite servicing activities, visit: http://ssco.gsfc.nasa.gov

For more information about the International Space Station and its crew, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station

Related links:

Canadian Space Agency (CSA-ASC): http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/default.asp

Satellite Servicing Capabilities Office (SSCO): http://ssco.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html

Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM): http://ssco.gsfc.nasa.gov/rrm_refueling_task.html

Images (mentioned), Video, Text, Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center / Adrienne Alessandro.

Best regards; Orbiter.ch

Is the ozone layer on the road to recovery??

ESA - MetOp weather satellite logo.

8 February 2013

 Antarctic ozone hole 2011 and 2012

Satellites show that the recent ozone hole over Antarctica was the smallest seen in the past decade. Long-term observations also reveal that Earth’s ozone has been strengthening following international agreements to protect this vital layer of the atmosphere.

According to the ozone sensor on Europe’s MetOp weather satellite, the hole over Antarctica in 2012 was the smallest in the last 10 years.

The instrument continues the long-term monitoring of atmospheric ozone started by its predecessors on the ERS-2 and Envisat satellites.

Since the beginning of the 1980s, an ozone hole has developed over Antarctica during the southern spring – September to November – resulting in a decrease in ozone concentration of up to 70%.

South Pole ozone

Ozone depletion is more extreme in Antarctica than at the North Pole because high wind speeds cause a fast-rotating vortex of cold air, leading to extremely low temperatures. Under these conditions, human-made chlorofluorocarbons – CFCs – have a stronger effect on the ozone, depleting it and creating the infamous hole.

Over the Arctic, the effect is far less pronounced because the northern hemisphere’s irregular landmasses and mountains normally prevent the build-up of strong circumpolar winds.

Reduced ozone over the southern hemisphere means that people living there are more exposed to cancer-causing ultraviolet radiation.

International agreements on protecting the ozone layer – particularly the Montreal Protocol – have stopped the increase of CFC concentrations, and a drastic fall has been observed since the mid-1990s.

However, the long lifetimes of CFCs in the atmosphere mean it may take until the middle of this century for the stratosphere’s chlorine content to go back to values like those of the 1960s.

The evolution of the ozone layer is affected by the interplay between atmospheric chemistry and dynamics like wind and temperature.

If weather and atmospheric conditions show unusual behaviour, it can result in extreme ozone conditions – such as the record low observed in spring 2011 in the Arctic – or last year’s unusually small Antarctic ozone hole.

Total ozone

To understand these complex processes better, scientists rely on a long time series of data derived from observations and on results from numerical simulations based on complex atmospheric models.

Although ozone has been observed over several decades with multiple instruments, combining the existing observations from many different sensors to produce consistent and homogeneous data suitable for scientific analysis is a difficult task.

Within the ESA Climate Change Initiative, harmonised ozone climate data records are generated to document the variability of ozone changes better at different scales in space and time.

With this information, scientists can better estimate the timing of the ozone layer recovery, and in particular the closure of the ozone hole.

MetOp weather satellite

Chemistry climate models show that the ozone layer may be building up, and the hole over Antarctica will close in the next decades.

Related links:

ESA's CCI ozone project: http://www.esa-ozone-cci.org/

BIRA/IASB: http://www.aeronomie.be/

KNMI: http://www.knmi.nl/index_en.html

DLR: http://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10002/

RT Solutions Inc.: http://www.rtslidort.com/

WMO ozone bulletin: http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/arep/gaw/ozone/index.html

Graphics, Video, Text, Credits:  ESA / DLR / Eumetsat / NASA / WMO / GAW / KNMI / BIRA / IASB.

Cheers, Orbiter.ch

Hubble captures strobe flashes from a young star

ESA - Hubble Space Telescope logo.

Feb. 8, 2013

 Hubble image of LRLL 54361 and its surroundings

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced a time-lapse movie of a mysterious protostar that behaves like a flashing light. Every 25.34 days, the object, designated LRLL 54361, unleashes a burst of light which propagates through the surrounding dust and gas. This is only the third time this phenomenon has been observed, and it is the most powerful such beacon seen to date. It is also the first to be seen associated with a light echo.

Hubble image of LRLL 54361

The cause of the fireworks seen in this Hubble image and video is hidden behind a dense disc and envelope of dust. However, astronomers think that the strobe effect is due to periodic interactions between two newly-formed stars that are gravitationally bound to each other.

These two stars drag material inwards from a surrounding disc of gas and dust. Astronomers propose that the light flashes seen in this video are due to this material suddenly being dumped onto the growing stars as they near one another in their orbits, unleashing a blast of radiation.

Light echo around LRLL 54361

“The protostar has such large brightness variations with a precise period that it is very difficult to explain,” says James Muzerolle of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, USA, who has recently studied this fascinating object using Hubble and NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Spitzer made repeated observations over seven years, before Hubble was pointed towards the object to make detailed observations over the period of one pulse event.

How LRLL 54361 flashes like a strobe light

The Hubble observations uncover a spectacular movement of light away from the centre of the system, an optical illusion known as a light echo. While it might look like eruptions of gas are coming out of the protostar, these pulses are actually flashes of light propagating through the surrounding dust and gas and reflecting towards the observer: there is no substantial physical motion within the cloud over these timescales.

Light echoes from LRLL 54361 (non-annotated)

Flashing double star systems like this one are rare, because close binaries account for only a few percent of our galaxy’s stellar population. Moreover, the pulsing light is likely to be a brief phenomenon in the early life of a star.

Light echoes from LRLL 54361 (annotated)

Notes:

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.

Links:

Images of Hubble: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/archive/category/spacecraft/

A press release from NASA, with more information about scientific research into LRLL 54361 is available here: http://hubblesite.org/news/2013/04

Images, Videos, Text,  Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Muzerolle (STScI) / E. Furlan (NOAO, Caltech), and R. Hurt (Caltech).

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Arianespace orbits Amazonas-3 and Azerspace / Africasat-1a satellites

ARIANESPACE / ESA - Flight VA-212 poster.


Feb. 7, 2013

Arianespace orbits Amazonas-3 and Azerspace/Africasat-1a satellites; First Ariane 5 ECA mission in 2013 a success

Ariane 5 ECA Flight VA212 lift-off

Thursday, February 7, 2013,  the launch occurred at 21:36 GMT (4:36 p.m. EST) Arianespace successfully carried out the 54th Ariane 5 launch in a row, orbiting two telecommunications satellites: Amazonas-3 for Spanish operator Hispasat, and Azerspace/Africasat-1a for the Azerbaijani operator Azercosmos 0JSC and the Azerbaijan Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies.

Launch of first 2013 Ariane 5 with Amazonas-3 / Azerspace-1

First Ariane 5 launch of 2013 and a new record

Today's successful mission, the 54th in a row for the European launcher, once again proves the reliability and availability of the Ariane 5 launch system. It also confirms that Arianespace continues to set the standard for independent access to space for all operators, including national and international space agencies, private industry and governments.

The 68th launch of Ariane 5 set a new record for weight injected into geostationary transfer orbit: the launcher on this mission carried a total payload of 10,317 kg, including 9,503 kg for the two satellites, Amazonas-3 and Azerspace/Africasat-1a.

This was the first Ariane 5 launch in 2013. Its success once again illustrated the operational capability of this launcher, the only one now on the market capable of simultaneously launching two payloads.

Processing Highlights of the Ariane 5, Amazonas-3 / Azerspace

Launching satellites for a long-standing customer and a new operator
Arianespace provides the launch services most clearly matches the requirements of all operators.

Amazonas-3 is the seventh Spanish satellite launched by Arianespace. The company first launched the Hispasat 1A and 1B satellites in 1992 and 1993, respectively, followed in 2005 and 2006 by the XTAR-Eur and Spainsat satellites for Hispasat and its subsidiary Hisdesat. Amazonas-2 was launched in 2009, followed by Hispasat 1E in 2010.

The Azerspace/Africasat-1a satellite is the first national satellite to be launched by Arianespace for the Azerbaijan Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies.

Azerspace/Africasat-1a satellite separation from Ariane 5 second stage

Arianespace has already launched the first satellites for 31 operators to date. 

Amazonas-3 – Azerspace/Africasat-1a mission at a glance

The mission was carried out by an Ariane 5 ECA launcher from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Liftoff was on Thursday, February 7, 2013 at 6:36 pm local time in Kourou (4:36 pm in Washington, D.C., 21:36 UT, 10:36 pm in Paris, and 1:36 am on Friday, February 8 in Baku).

Amazonas-3 was built by Space Systems/Loral using the SSL 1300 platform and  weighed 6,265 kg at launch. It has 33 Ku-band transponders, 19 C-band transponders, and 9 Ka-band spot beams. This high-power satellite provides a wide range of telecommunications and broadband connectivity services in Europe, the Americas and North Africa. It offers a design life of 15 years. Amazonas-3 is the 43rd satellite built by Space Systems/Loral to be launched by Arianespace.

Amazonas-3 separation from Ariane 5 second stage

The Azerspace/Africasat-1a satellite was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation using a Star-2 platform. Weighing 3,000 kg at launch, the satellite is equipped with 24 C-band transponders and 12 Ku-band transponders. It will provide a wide range of telecommunications services for Azerbaijan, Central Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Amazonas-3 satellite

Azerspace/Africasat-1a is the 24th satellite built by Orbital Sciences Corporation to be launched by Arianespace.

 Azerspace/Africasat-1a satellite

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

Images, Text, Videos, Credits: ARIANESPACE / ARIANESPA TV / Space Systems / Loral / Orbital Sciences Corporation / Orbiter.ch Aerospace.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Curiosity Completes "Drill-On-Rock Checkout"

NASA - Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) logo.

Feb. 6, 2013

Image above: The bit in the rotary-percussion drill of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity left its mark in a target patch of rock called "John Klein" during a test on the rover's 176th Martian day, or sol (Feb. 2, 2013), in preparation for the first drilling of a rock by the rover. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

The bit of the rock-sampling drill on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity left its mark on a Martian rock this weekend during brief testing of the tool's percussive action.

The successful activity, called a "drill-on-rock checkout" by the rover team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, is part of a series of tests to prepare for the first drilling in history to collect a sample of rock material on Mars.

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity (MSL). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

An image of the bit mark on the rock target called "John Klein" is available online at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/pia16717.html .

Another preparatory test, called "mini drill," will precede the full drilling. The mini drill test will use both the rotary and percussive actions of the drill to generate a ring of rock powder around a hole. This will allow for evaluation of the material to see if it behaves as a dry powder suitable for processing by the rover's sample handling mechanisms.

During a two-year prime mission, researchers are using Curiosity's 10 science instruments to assess whether the study area in Gale Crater on Mars ever has offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.

More information about Curiosity is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ .

You can follow the mission on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA / JPL / Guy Webster.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Kepler Data Suggest Earth-size Planets May Be Next Door

NASA - Kepler "Search for Earth-Size Planets" patch.

Feb. 6, 2013

Red Dwarf Planet: The artist's conception shows a hypothetical planet with two moons orbiting in the habitable zone of a red dwarf star. Click image for full caption and larger size. Credit: D. Aguilar/Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Using publicly available data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope, astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) estimate that six percent of red dwarf stars in the galaxy have Earth-size planets in the "habitable zone," the range of distances from a star where the surface temperature of an orbiting planet might be suitable for liquid water.

The majority of the sun's closest stellar neighbors are red dwarfs. Researchers now believe that an Earth-size planet with a moderate temperature may be just 13 light-years away.

"We don't know if life could exist on a planet orbiting a red dwarf, but the findings pique my curiosity and leave me wondering if the cosmic cradles of life are more diverse than we humans have imagined," said Natalie Batalha, Kepler mission scientist, NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.

The research team analyzed 95 planet candidates in the Kepler catalog orbiting 64 red dwarf stars. Most of these candidates aren't the right size or temperature to be considered Earth-like, as defined by the size relative to Earth and the distance from the host star. However, three candidates are both temperate and smaller than twice the size of Earth.

Red dwarf stars are smaller, cooler, and fainter than the sun. An average red dwarf is only one-third as large and one-thousandth as bright as the sun. Consequently, the not too hot or not too cold habitable zone would be much closer to a cooler star than it is to the sun.

NASA’s Kepler space telescope, for Search for Earth-Size Planets. Image Credit: NASA.

"This close-in habitable zone around cooler stars makes planets more vulnerable to the effects of stellar flares and gravitational interactions, complicating our understanding of their likely habitability,” said Victoria Meadows, professor at the University of Washington and principal investigator with the NASA Astrobiology Institute. "But, if the planets predicted by this study are indeed found very nearby, then it will make it easier for us to make the challenging observations needed to learn more about them, including whether or not they can or do support life."

The three planetary candidates highlighted in this study are Kepler Object of Interest (KOI) 1422.02, which is 90 percent the size of Earth in a 20-day orbit; KOI-2626.01, 1.4 times the size of Earth in a 38-day orbit; and KOI-854.01, 1.7 times the size of Earth in a 56-day orbit.

Located between 300 to 600 light-years away, the three candidates orbit stars with temperatures ranging from 3,400 to 3,500 degrees Kelvin. By comparison, the temperature of the sun is nearly 5,800 degrees Kelvin.

Kepler is the first NASA mission capable of finding Earth-size planets in or near the habitable zone. Kepler is detecting planets and possible candidates with a wide range of sizes and orbital distances to help scientists better understand our place in the galaxy.

Ames manages Kepler's ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo., developed the Kepler flight system and supports mission operations with JPL at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore archives, hosts and distributes the Kepler science data. Kepler is NASA's 10th Discovery Mission and is funded by NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters.

For more information about the discovery, see the CfA press release: http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2013/pr201305.html

For information about the Kepler Mission: http://www.nasa.gov/kepler

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA / Ames Research Center / Michele Johnson.

Cheers, Orbiter.ch

Performed from Baikonur launch vehicle Soyuz-2.1a with the spacecraft Globalstar-2

ROSCOSMOS & ARIANESPACE logos.

02/06/2013

 Soyuz on ST-26 with Globalstar-2 launch

February 6 in 20 hours 04 minutes MSK (16:04 GMT - 11:04 a.m. EST) from Launch Complex 31 area Baikonur calculations of rocket-space industry Russia produced launch space (ILV) Soyuz-2.1a Arianespace-Starsem Flight ST-26 with the upper stage (RB) Frigate designed to the orbit of a cluster of six spacecraft systems mobile telecommunications services Globalstar-2.

Launch of Soyuz on ST-26 with Globalstar-2 Satellites Onboard

After the regular flight head unit from the third stage of the launch vehicle RB Frigate the mission ends with deployment of the payloads into a 572-mile-high orbit.

 Globalstar-2 spacecrafts constellation in orbit

Original text in Russian: http://www.federalspace.ru/main.php?id=2&nid=19870

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

Images, Video, Text, Credits: Press Service of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos PAO) / Arianespace / Arianespace TV / Starsem / Globalstar / Translation: Orbiter.ch Aerospace.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch