Arrival of Expedition 40 Trio Expands Station Crew to Six

ISS - Expedition 40 Mission patch.

May 29, 2014

Three new Expedition 40 crew members were welcomed aboard the International Space Station when the hatches between their Soyuz spacecraft and the station were opened at 11:52 p.m. EDT Wednesday.

Welcome Aboard! New Crew Arrives on Space Station

NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, Soyuz Commander and cosmonaut Max Suraev of Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency and European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst are slated to spend 166 days aboard the orbiting complex.

Commander Steve Swanson of NASA and Flight Engineers Oleg Artemyev and Alexander Skvortsov of Roscosmos, who have been aboard the orbiting complex since March 27, warmly greeted the newly arrived flight engineers. Afterward, all six crew members moved into the Zvezda service module so the station’s three newest residents could receive congratulatory calls from family members and VIPs gathered at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Wiseman, Suraev and Gerst launched from Baikonur at 3:57 p.m. (1:57 a.m. Thursday, Kazakh time) to begin a four-orbit chase to catch up with the station.  At the time of launch the station was soaring at an altitude of 260 statute miles, just south of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, having passed directly over the Baikonur launch site just two minutes and one second earlier.

The Soyuz docked automatically to the Earth-facing port of the station’s Rassvet Mini-Research Module-1 at 9:44 p.m. as the complex was flying at an altitude of  262 miles and off the coast of northern Peru.

Some of the cargo flown aboard this Soyuz TMA-13M will be used in research investigations that are either ongoing or planned aboard the station.

Image above: The Expedition 40 crew gathers in the International Space Station's Zvezda service module to receive congratulatory calls for the three newest crew members. Image Credit: NASA TV.

The crew will team up for a safety review to discuss emergency roles and responsibilities before wrapping up the day’s activities aboard the station. The entire Expedition 40 crew will have an off-duty day Thursday to shift its sleep schedules back to the usual 2 a.m. reveille beginning Friday.

The tenure of Expedition 40 will include a variety of research projects focusing on human research, biology and biotechnology, Earth and space science, physical science investigations, technology demonstrations and educational activities.  Results from these activities will help advance the body of scientific knowledge, leading to potential Earth benefits such as improved weather forecasts and human medical advancements.

The hardware and samples for many of these experiments – along with crew supplies and other cargo – will arrive on four different resupply vehicles scheduled to visit the station during Expedition 40: Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus, a Russian Progress resupply ship, the European Space Agency’s fifth and final Automated Transfer Vehicle and the SpaceX Dragon.

Expedition 40 Crew Portrait

Image above: The six Expedition 40 crew members take a break from training to pose for their crew portrait. From left are cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov of Roscosmos, NASA astronaut Steve Swanson and cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev; ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst, cosmonaut Maxim Suraev and NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman. The 38S crew is composed of Swanson, Skvortsov and Artemyev. The 39S crew includes Suraev, Gerst and Wiseman. Photo credit: NASA.

There are also two Russian and three U.S. spacewalks planned during Expedition 40.

When Swanson, Skvortsov and Artemyev head back to Earth on Sept. 10, it will mark the end of Expedition 40 and the beginning of Expedition 41 under the command of Suraev. Three additional Expedition 41 crewmates will arrive later that month.

Wiseman, a U.S. Navy commander, is making his first spaceflight.  He reported to the Johnson Space Center in Houston in August 2009 and completed astronaut candidate training in May 2011.

Suraev is making his second long-duration visit to the station, having logged more than 169 days in space as an Expedition 21/22 flight engineer from Sept. 30, 2009 through March 18, 2010. He completed a 5-hour, 44-minute spacewalk on Jan. 14, 2010, to prepare the Poisk Mini-Research Module-2 for vehicle dockings and inaugurated that same port when he relocated his Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft there a week later.

Gerst, who was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009, is making his first trip into space.

For more information about the International Space Station (ISS), visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Images (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: NASA / NASA TV.

Cheers, Orbiter.ch

Soyuz TMA-13M Docks to Space Station

ROSCOSMOS - Soyuz TMA-13M Mission patch.

May 28, 2014

Image above: The Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft closes in on the International Space Station for docking. Image Credit: NASA TV.

The Soyuz spacecraft carrying three new Expedition 40 flight engineers docked to the International Space Station at 9:44 p.m. EDT Wednesday, less than six hours after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

New Crew Docks to ISS

Soyuz Commander and cosmonaut Max Suraev of Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Alexander Gerst docked their Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft to the Earth-facing port of the station’s Rassvet Mini-Research Module-1 as the complex was flying at an altitude of about 260 statute miles over the Pacific Ocean, west of Peru.

The three men launched from Baikonur at 3:57 p.m. (1:57 a.m. Thursday, Kazakh time) to begin the four-orbit chase to catch up with the station.  At the time of launch the station was soaring at an altitude of 260 statute miles, just south of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, having passed directly over the Baikonur launch site just two minutes and one second earlier.

Image above: The Soyuz TMA-13M rocket is launched, as seen in this 30-second exposure at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Image Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky.

Commander Steve Swanson of NASA and Flight Engineers Oleg Artemyev and Alexander Skvortsov of Roscosmos, who have been aboard the orbiting complex since March 27, will welcome the new trio of Expedition 40 flight engineers aboard when the hatches open at 11:25 p.m.

Afterward, the six-person crew will move into the Zvezda service module so the station’s three newest residents can receive congratulatory calls from family members and VIPs gathered in Baikonur.

Coverage of the hatch opening and welcome ceremony begins on NASA TV at 11 p.m.

Watch NASA TV: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

The crew will team up for a safety review to discuss roles and responsibilities before wrapping up the day’s activities aboard the station. The entire Expedition 40 crew will have an off-duty day Thursday to shift its sleep schedules back to the usual 2 a.m. reveille beginning Friday.

Soyuz TMA-13M docked to ISS. Image Credit: NASA TV

Some of the cargo flown aboard this Soyuz TMA-13M will be used in research investigations that are either ongoing or planned aboard the space station.

Wiseman, Suraev and Gerst are scheduled to spend 166 days aboard the station.  When Swanson, Skvortsov and Artemyev head back to Earth on Sept. 10, it will mark the end of Expedition 40 and the beginning of Expedition 41 under the command of Suraev. Three additional Expedition 41 crewmates will arrive later that month.

Suraev is making his second long-duration visit to the station, having logged more than 169 days in space as an Expedition 21/22 flight engineer from Sept. 30, 2009 through March 18, 2010. He completed a 5-hour, 44-minute spacewalk on Jan. 14, 2010, to prepare the Poisk Mini-Research Module-2 for vehicle dockings and inaugurated that same port when he relocated his Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft there a week later.

Gerst, who was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009, is making his first trip into space.

For more information about the International Space Station (ISS), Visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Images (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: NASA / NASA TV.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Three New Crew Members En Route to Space Station

ROSCOSMOS - Soyuz TMA-13M Mission patch.

May 28, 2014

Image above: The Soyuz TMA-13M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:57 p.m. EDT Wednesday (1:57 a.m. Thursday, Kazakh time). Image Credit: NASA TV.

Three new Expedition 40 flight engineers are on their way to the International Space Station following the successful launch of their Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:57 p.m. EDT Wednesday (1:57 a.m. Thursday, Kazakh time).

The liftoff of the Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft marked the start of a six-hour, four-orbit trek to the station for NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, cosmonaut and Soyuz Commander Max Suraev of Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency, and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Alexander Gerst. At the time of launch the station was soaring at an altitude of 260 statute miles, just south of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, having passed directly over the Baikonur launch site just two minutes and one second earlier.

New Crew Launches to the ISS

The Soyuz is scheduled to dock automatically to the Earth-facing port of the station’s Rassvet Mini-Research Module-1 at 9:48 p.m.  Live NASA Television coverage of the Soyuz approach and docking begins at 9 p.m.

Commander Steve Swanson of NASA and Flight Engineers Oleg Artemyev and Alexander Skvortsov of Roscosmos, who have been aboard the orbiting complex since March 27, will welcome the new trio of Expedition 40 flight engineers aboard when the hatches open at 11:25 p.m.

Afterward, the restored six-person crew will move into the Zvezda service module so the station’s three newest residents can receive congratulatory calls from family members and VIPs gathered in Baikonur.

Coverage of the hatch opening and welcome ceremony begins on NASA TV at 11 p.m.

NASA TV: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

The crew will team up for a safety review to discuss roles and responsibilities before wrapping up the day’s activities aboard the station. The entire Expedition 40 crew will have an off-duty day Thursday to shift its sleep schedules back to the usual 2 a.m. reveille beginning Friday.

Some of the cargo flown aboard this Soyuz TMA-13M will be used in research investigations that are either ongoing or planned aboard the station.

The In-flight Demonstration of Portable Load Monitoring Devices-Phase I: XSENS ForceShoe (Force Shoes) investigation is an evaluation of the XSENS ForceShoe system as a potential method to measure exercise loads on the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) during crew member exercise sessions on the space station. The XSENS ForceShoe is commercial, off-the-shelf hardware used to measure forces and torques under the foot. Up to four astronauts will collect a series of static and dynamic load measurements using ARED.

Researchers will use the measurements made by the XSENS ForceShoe system to quantify exercise load data needed for support of current and future human research investigations. This data also will be applied to populations on Earth restricted from exercise by injury, age, lifestyle or confined work and living space.

Image above: Expedition 40 Soyuz Commander Maxim Suraev of the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, bottom, Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman of NASA, center, and Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency, ESA, top, wave farewell prior to boarding the Soyuz TMA-13M rocket. Image Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky.

Questionnaires for the Space Headaches investigation also will be delivered on the Soyuz to obtain in-flight data about the prevalence and characteristics of crew members' headaches in microgravity. Space Headaches researchers use this data to assess crew member headache episodes and provide the basis for developing future countermeasures. The effect of the medication that the crew takes to counteract space headaches helps determine what medication could be effective in treating intracranial pressure change related symptoms on Earth.

Equipment also will be transported for the Multipurpose End-To-End Robotic Operations Network Quick Start a / Delay Tolerant Network (METERON) investigation. This European Space Agency technology demonstration examines the operational and technical capability to remotely control robots on Earth by astronauts on the space station. The study’s goal is to validate technology for future human exploration missions where an astronaut in orbit will control a robot as it explores its target, such as an asteroid or Mars. The remote operation techniques developed for METERON can be used on Earth for telemedicine and for operating robots in hazardous environments, such as in handling radioactive material or working in a nuclear power plant after a leak.

Wiseman, Suraev and Gerst are scheduled to spend 166 days aboard the station.  When Swanson, Skvortsov and Artemyev head back to Earth on Sept. 10, it will mark the end of Expedition 40 and the beginning of Expedition 41 under the command of Suraev. Three additional Expedition 41 crewmates will arrive later that month.

The tenure of Expedition 40 will include a variety of research projects focusing on human research, biology and biotechnology, Earth and space science, physical science investigations, technology demonstrations and educational activities.  Results from these activities will help advance the body of scientific knowledge, leading to potential Earth benefits such as improved weather forecasts and human medical advancements.

The hardware and samples for many of these experiments – along with crew supplies and other cargo – will arrive on four different resupply vehicles scheduled to visit the station during Expedition 40: Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus, a Russian Progress resupply ship, ESA’s fifth and final Automated Transfer Vehicle and the SpaceX Dragon.

There are also two Russian and three U.S. spacewalks planned during Expedition 40.

Wiseman, a U.S. Navy commander, is making his first spaceflight.  He reported to the Johnson Space Center in Houston in August 2009 and completed astronaut candidate training in May 2011.

Suraev is making his second long-duration visit to the station, having logged more than 169 days in space as an Expedition 21/22 flight engineer from Sept. 30, 2009 through March 18, 2010. He completed a 5-hour, 44-minute spacewalk on Jan. 14, 2010, to prepare the Poisk Mini-Research Module-2 for vehicle dockings and inaugurated that same port when he relocated his Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft there a week later.

Gerst, who was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009, is making his first trip into space.

Related links:

XSENS ForceShoe (Force Shoes) - evaluation of the XSENS ForceShoe system: http://www.nasa.gov/content/may-the-force-shoes-be-with-you/#.U4Y0ZPldU1I

Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED): http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1001.html

Multipurpose End-To-End Robotic Operations Network Quick Start a / Delay Tolerant Network (METERON): http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1002.html

For more information about the International Space Station (ISS), visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Images (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: NASA / NASA TV / ROSCOSMOS.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Dying sea

ESA - Proba-V Mission logo.

28 May 2014

Aral Sea

Central Asia’s receding Aral Sea, viewed by ESA’s Proba-V minisatellite, which is about to take up the continuing operational task of tracking global vegetation.

For the last 16 years the Vegetation cameras on France’s full-sized Spot-4 and Spot-5 satellites have been tracking vegetation change on a global basis.

But on 1 June the torch will be passed to Proba-V, ensuring that the Vegetation dataset will remain available to environmental scientists across the world.

Proba-V satellite

The Aral Sea is a striking example of the kind of changes the satellite series has been tracking. Once the world’s fourth-largest inland water body, it has lost around 90% of its water volume since 1960 because of Soviet-era irrigation schemes.

The lake is located on the borders of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The World Bank and Kazakhstan worked together to build the Kok-Aral dike to stabilise the northern section of the Aral Sea.

The Aral Sea’s southern section was beyond saving, however, and is projected to dry out completely by the end of this decade.

Acquired on 13 May 2014, the 300 m-resolution Proba-V image depicts the white salt terrain left behind by the southern Aral Sea receding, now called the Aral Karakum Desert. The greenery to the south is cultivated land irrigated by the Amu Darya river.

For more information about Proba-V mission, visit: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Technology/Proba_Missions/Overview2 and http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Proba-V

Images, Text, Credits: ESA / P. Carril / VITO.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Sunsets on Titan Reveal the Complexity of Hazy Exoplanets

NASA / ESA - Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn & Titan patch.

May 28, 2014

Scientists working with data from NASA's Cassini mission have developed a new way to understand the atmospheres of exoplanets by using Saturn's smog-enshrouded moon Titan as a stand-in. The new technique shows the dramatic influence that hazy skies could have on our ability to learn about these alien worlds orbiting distant stars.

The work was performed by a team of researchers led by Tyler Robinson, a NASA Postdoctoral Research Fellow at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. The findings were published May 26 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"It turns out there's a lot you can learn from looking at a sunset," Robinson said.

Light from sunsets, stars and planets can be separated into its component colors to create spectra, as prisms do with sunlight, in order to obtain hidden information. Despite the staggering distances to other planetary systems, in recent years researchers have begun to develop techniques for collecting spectra of exoplanets. When one of these worlds transits, or passes in front of its host star as seen from Earth, some of the star's light travels through the exoplanet's atmosphere, where it is changed in subtle, but measurable, ways. This process imprints information about the planet that can be collected by telescopes. The resulting spectra are a record of that imprint.

Spectra enable scientists to tease out details about what exoplanets are like, such as aspects of the temperature, composition and structure of their atmospheres.

Robinson and his colleagues exploited a similarity between exoplanet transits and sunsets witnessed by the Cassini spacecraft at Titan. These observations, called solar occultations, effectively allowed the scientists to observe Titan as a transiting exoplanet without having to leave the solar system. In the process, Titan's sunsets revealed just how dramatic the effects of hazes can be.

Image above: Artist's rendering of NASA's Cassini spacecraft observing a sunset through Titan's hazy atmosphere. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Multiple worlds in our own solar system, including Titan, are blanketed by clouds and high-altitude hazes. Scientists expect that many exoplanets would be similarly obscured. Clouds and hazes create a variety of complicated effects that researchers must work to disentangle from the signature of these alien atmospheres, and thus present a major obstacle for understanding transit observations. Due to the complexity and computing power required to address hazes, models used to understand exoplanet spectra usually simplify their effects.

"Previously, it was unclear exactly how hazes were affecting observations of transiting exoplanets," said Robinson. "So we turned to Titan, a hazy world in our own solar system that has been extensively studied by Cassini."

The team used four observations of Titan made between 2006 and 2011 by Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer instrument. Their analysis provided results that include the complex effects due to hazes, which can now be compared to exoplanet models and observations.

With Titan as their example, Robinson and colleagues found that hazes high above some transiting exoplanets might strictly limit what their spectra can reveal to planet transit observers. The observations might be able to glean information only from a planet's upper atmosphere. On Titan, that corresponds to about 90 to 190 miles (150 to 300 kilometers) above the moon's surface, high above the bulk of its dense and complex atmosphere.

An additional finding from the study is that Titan's hazes more strongly affect shorter wavelengths, or bluer, colors of light. Studies of exoplanet spectra have commonly assumed that hazes would affect all colors of light in similar ways. Studying sunsets through Titan's hazes has revealed that this is not the case.

"People had dreamed up rules for how planets would behave when seen in transit, but Titan didn't get the memo," said Mark Marley, a co-author of the study at NASA Ames. "It looks nothing like some of the previous suggestions, and it's because of the haze."

The team's technique applies equally well to similar observations taken from orbit around any world, not just Titan. This means that researchers could study the atmospheres of planets like Mars and Saturn in the context of exoplanet atmospheres as well.

"It's rewarding to see that Cassini's study of the solar system is helping us to better understand other solar systems as well," said Curt Niebur, Cassini program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The VIMS team is based at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

More information about Cassini is available at the following sites:

http://www.nasa.gov/cassini

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cassini-Huygens

Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA / JPL / Preston Dyches.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Sentinel-1 aids Balkan flood relief

ESA - Sentinel-1 Mission logo.

28 May 2014

Although not yet operational, the new Sentinel-1A satellite has provided radar data for mapping the floods in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Heavy rainfall leading to widespread flooding and landslides has hit large parts of the Balkans, killing dozens of people and leaving hundreds of thousands displaced.

Jan Kucera of the Europan Commission’s Joint Research Centre is supervising the technical aspect of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (EMS). While mapping the flooding in northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, ESA delivered a radar scan from Sentinel-1A: “I had a first look and discovered that we were missing an important flooded area visible in the middle of the image.”

Flood map

Although the radar on Sentinel-1A is still being calibrated, the new information could be integrated into the Copernicus EMS flood maps of the Sava river in the Balatun area in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“In emergency situations like these, it is important that we optimise all the available data to produce better maps for disaster relief efforts.”

The radar on Sentinel-1 is able to ‘see’ through clouds, rain and in darkness, making it particularly useful for monitoring floods. Images acquired before and after a flood offer immediate information on the extent of inundation and support assessments of property and environmental damage.

Sentinel-1A was launched on 3 April, and is the first in a fleet of Sentinel satellites developed for Europe’s Copernicus environment monitoring programme.

Although the satellite is still being commissioned, this Balkan coverage is an early example of the kind of operational data the mission will provide for emergency response.

Sentinel-1A scan

Once operational, Sentinel-1 will revolutionise the use of satellites in risk assessment management and emergency response with its provision of large amounts of radar data in a systematic fashion.

The new scans are also being used by the International Charter Space and Major Disasters, which was activated by the Russian risk management authorities involved in flood response in Serbia.

The Charter is an international collaboration between the owners and operators of Earth observation missions to provide rapid access to satellite data to help disaster management authorities. 

Related links:

Copernicus Emergency Management Service: http://emergency.copernicus.eu/mapping/copernicus-emergency-management-service

EMS: Floods in Bosnia & Herzegovina: http://emergency.copernicus.eu/mapping/list-of-components/EMSR087/ALL/EMSR087_07BALATUN

International Charter Space and Major Disasters: http://www.disasterscharter.org/

Sentinel-1: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-1

Images, Text, Credits: ESA / European Commission.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

CERN inspires entrepreneurs for email encryption

CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research logo.

May 27, 2014

Three young entrepreneurs inspired by their time at CERN have launched ProtonMail External Links icon, a secure email service with a sophisticated encryption system to deter would-be spies.

Computer scientist Andy Yen has been working at CERN since 2009 through his home institutes CalTech and Harvard University in the US. Along with two of his CERN colleagues he recently co-founded a startup company called ProtonMail.

ProtonMail is a new service that provides encrypted email. "The technology means that our email system does not allow us (or anyone else) to read user emails," says Yen. "Access to user data is technically impossible because of the way we have implemented encryption."

The end-to-end encryption means that when you send an email with ProtonMail, your data is already encrypted by the time it reaches the their servers. So the team has no access to your messages, and as they cannot decrypt them, they cannot read them or share them with third parties.

ProtonMail portal

The idea for the company was born last summer in a CERN cafeteria where CERN physicists and engineers regularly share ideas over lunch or coffee.

"Our team met at CERN and early ProtonMail hackathons were held at the famous CERN Restaurant One," says Yen. "We would not be where we are today without the assistance of the over 300 CERN students and staff who offered to test our service, and the informal advice and feedback given to us by members of the CERN computer security team."

"CERN is a true hub for technological collaboration and it's an environment fostering entrepreneurship," says Giovanni Anelli, head of CERN's Knowledge Transfer group. "Over 10,000 scientists from more than 100 different countries and 600 universities and institutes collaborate today with CERN. Knowledge sharing among this large academic community is essential in the scientific discourse and inspires many additional new ideas. ProtonMail is one such example."

ProtonMail was launched last week to the general public. Their Threat Model
External Links icon describes both the threats ProtonMail is designed to guard against, and also the threats it is not designed to counter.

Editor's Note:

CERN is the inventor and creator of the World Wide Web (www.).

The future

CERN is also working on new technologies for quantum computers, we make several teleportation (like Star Trek) experiment data encapsulation on photons (ultimate distance records: 200 meters), quantum computer systems will not be hackable by the current hackers (perhaps by a physicist as Einstein...).

  Quantum computers

A quantum computer would be able to store more bits of information in its memory than there are particles in the universe.

Note:

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research. Its business is fundamental physics, finding out what the Universe is made of and how it works. At CERN, the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments are used to study the basic constituents of matter — the fundamental particles. By studying what happens when these particles collide, physicists learn about the laws of Nature.

The instruments used at CERN are particle accelerators and detectors. Accelerators boost beams of particles to high energies before they are made to collide with each other or with stationary targets. Detectors observe and record the results of these collisions.

Founded in 1954, the CERN Laboratory sits astride the Franco–Swiss border near Geneva. It was one of Europe’s first joint ventures and now has 20 Member States.

Related links:

ProtonMail: http://protonmail.ch/

CERN's Knowledge Transfer group: http://knowledgetransfer.web.cern.ch/

ProtonMail Threat Model: http://protonmail.ch/blog/protonmail-threat-model

For more information about the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), visit: http://home.web.cern.ch/

Images, Text, Credits: CERN / Cian O'Luanaigh / Alengo / IstockPhoto / Orbiter.ch Aerospace.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch