S3 - The first zero gravity flights will begin in 2015

S3 - Swiss Space System logo.

November 25, 2014

Some 400 people have booked their place to make a weightless flight

The aerospace company Swiss Space System (S3) will offer flights in zero gravity in the second half of 2015 in Switzerland. About 400 seats have been reserved since May.

The company will then offer this technology in the United States, Canada, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. And new destinations will still be able to appear in the program of this round the S3 zero gravity world, says Tuesday the company based in Payerne (VD) in a statement.

Parabolic flight. Image Credit: ESA/CNES (Illustration)

These flights "make possible the weightless body and allowing objects to float free of Earth's gravity," she continues. They last less than two hours during which 15 parabolas are performed. Each offers a weightless experience of 20 to 25 seconds.

As early as 2400 Swiss francs

Pricewise, three categories are available to adventurers. In the "party zone", which can accommodate up to 40 passengers, the experience is offered at less than 2000 euros (2400 Swiss francs). In the "premium area", which can accommodate up to 28 passengers, and where fun activities are included, it takes 5,000 euros (6,000 francs).

Parabolic flight. Image Credit: ESA/CNES

For the wealthy, it will be possible to rent the "VIP room" that can hold 12 passengers and wants to offer a "tailored experience." For rent, it will cost 50,000 euros (60,000 francs). In the last two categories, participants will receive a watch brand.

Many requests

"At this stage, we have 400 pre-bookings in Switzerland," said the ats Gregory Loretan, responsible for communication. The demand is such that the company had to increase the number of flights. In Switzerland, "the number of experiments was tripled it," she wrote.

For more information about Swiss Space System (S3), visit: http://www.s-3.ch/

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: ATS/Translation: Orbiter.ch Aerospace.

Cheers, Orbiter.ch

Understanding the ‘OC’ in GOCE

ESA - GOCE Mission logo.

25 November 2014

Artist's view of GOCE satellite

A year after the satellite reentered the atmosphere, scientists using data from the GOCE satellite have made a breakthrough in our understanding of ocean currents.

The Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer, or GOCE, mapped variations in Earth’s gravity with unrivalled precision, resulting in the most accurate shape of the ‘geoid’ – a hypothetical global ocean at rest – ever produced.

Ocean currents from GOCE

While the mission is well known for its gravity measurements, the second mission objective as an ‘ocean circulation explorer’ has reached a milestone.

Using GOCE data, scientists have produced the most accurate model of ocean current speeds to date.

To do this, the GOCE geoid was subtracted from the mean sea-surface height measured over a 20-year period by satellites including ESA’s veteran Envisat. The result shows the mean dynamic topography of the ocean surface, showing higher- and lower-than-average water levels. Based on this map, ocean currents and their speeds were calculated and validated using in situ buoys.

The result shows that this GOCE-based model is more accurate than any other model based on space data to date.

Mean dynamic topography

“The accurate estimate of ocean surface currents, as provided today by the combination of GOCE and altimetry data, is crucial for the better understanding of the ocean dynamics,” said Marie-Hélène Rio from the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate of the Italian National Research Council.

“In particular, the assimilation of this information into operational ocean monitoring and forecasting systems will provide highly valuable new insight into the present and future state of the ocean.”

This was just one of many GOCE results presented today at the opening of the 5th International GOCE User Workshop at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France.

The new ocean current speed map is of particular interest to UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, which supports the international cooperation and the understanding and management of oceans and coastal areas.

GOCE geoid

During the workshop this week, presentations on the scientific results that continue to come from ESA’s gravity mission will be given, with focus on the improved measurements obtained during the satellite’s ‘second mission’ – when  its super-low orbit was lowered even further during its final year of life.

On 21 October 2013, the mission came to a natural end when it ran out of fuel. Three weeks later, on 11 November, the satellite disintegrated in the lower atmosphere.

Although its flight is over, the wealth of data from GOCE continues to be exploited to improve our understanding of ocean circulation, sea level, ice dynamics and Earth’s interior.

Related links:

5th International GOCE User Workshop: http://www.goce2014.org/

ISAC-CRN: http://www.isac.cnr.it/

IOC-UNESCO: http://ioc-unesco.org/

Access GOCE data: http://earth.esa.int/GOCE/

Images, Text, Credits: ESA/CNES/CLS/HPF/DLR.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Europa's Stunning Surface

NASA - Galileo Mission patch.

November 24, 2014

Europa's Stunning Surface

The puzzling, fascinating surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa looms large in this newly-reprocessed color view, made from images taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990s. This is the color view of Europa from Galileo that shows the largest portion of the moon's surface at the highest resolution.

The view was previously released as a mosaic with lower resolution and strongly enhanced color (see PIA02590). To create this new version, the images were assembled into a realistic color view of the surface that approximates how Europa would appear to the human eye.

The scene shows the stunning diversity of Europa’s surface geology. Long, linear cracks and ridges crisscross the surface, interrupted by regions of disrupted terrain where the surface ice crust has been broken up and re-frozen into new patterns.

Color variations across the surface are associated with differences in geologic feature type and location. For example, areas that appear blue or white contain relatively pure water ice, while reddish and brownish areas include non-ice components in higher concentrations. The polar regions, visible at the left and right of this view, are noticeably bluer than the more equatorial latitudes, which look more white. This color variation is thought to be due to differences in ice grain size in the two locations.

Artist's view of NASA's Galileo spacecraft in the Jovian system

Images taken through near-infrared, green and violet filters have been combined to produce this view. The images have been corrected for light scattered outside of the image, to provide a color correction that is calibrated by wavelength. Gaps in the images have been filled with simulated color based on the color of nearby surface areas with similar terrain types.

This global color view consists of images acquired by the Galileo Solid-State Imaging (SSI) experiment on the spacecraft's first and fourteenth orbits through the Jupiter system, in 1995 and 1998, respectively. Image scale is 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) per pixel. North on Europa is at right.

The Galileo mission was managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.

Additional information about Galileo and its discoveries is available on the Galileo mission home page at http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/galileo/. More information about Europa is available at http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/europa.

Images, Text, Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute.

Cheers, Orbiter.ch

Cosmic lighthouse

ESA - Hubble Space Telescope patch.

November 24, 2014

The Egg Nebula

This colourful image shows a cosmic lighthouse known as the Egg Nebula, which lies around 3000 light-years from Earth. The image, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, has captured a brief but dramatic phase in the life of a Sun-like star.

The Egg Nebula is a ‘preplanetary nebula’. These objects occur as a dying star’s hot remains briefly illuminates material it has expelled, lighting up the gas and dust that surrounds it.

These objects will one day develop into planetary nebulas which, despite the name, have nothing at all to do with planets. They gained their rather misleading title because when they were discovered in the 18th century they resembled planets in our Solar System when viewed through a telescope.

Although the dying star is hidden behind the thick dust lane that streaks down the centre of this image, it is revealed by the four lighthouse-like beams clearly visible through the veil of dust that lies beyond the central lane.

The light beams were able to penetrate the central dust lane due to paths carved out of the thick cloud by powerful jets of material expelled from the star, although the cause of these jets is not yet known.

The concentric rings seen in the less dense cloud surrounding the star are due to the star ejecting material at regular intervals – typically every hundred years – during a phase of the star’s evolution just prior to this preplanetary nebula phase. These dusty shells are not usually visible in these nebulas, but when they are it provides astronomers with a rare opportunity to study their formation and evolution.

Hubble orbiting Earth

The fleeting nature of this phase in a star’s life – which occupies only a few thousand of the star’s few billion years of existence – and the fact that they are fairly faint make it rare to capture them in action. In fact, the Egg Nebula, the first of its kind to be identified, was discovered only 40 years ago.

This image was taken with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. Artificial colours are used to represent how the light from the star reflects off the dust – this can tell scientists about the physical properties of the dust.

The image combines observations with three different polarising filters, each showing light vibrating at a specific orientation. The three filters have been coloured red, blue and green, and all three observations were made at a wavelength of 0.606 microns. The image spans 1.2 light-years.  North is to the right and east is up.

This image was previously published on the NASA Hubble Heritage website: http://heritage.stsci.edu/2003/09/index.html

For images and more information about Hubble, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/hubble and http://hubblesite.org/ and http://www.spacetelescope.org/

Image, Video, Credits: Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). Acknowledgment: W. Sparks (STScI) & R. Sahai (JPL).

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

New Trio Joins Expedition 42 During Crew Greeting Ceremony

ISS - Expedition 42 Mission patch.

November 24, 2014

Image above: In the front row, from left are the newest Expedition 42 crew members Anton Shkaplerov, Samantha Cristoforetti and Terry Virts. In the back are Elena Serova, Commander Barry Wilmore and Alexander Samokutyaev. They are in the Zvezda service module for a traditional crew greeting ceremony with family and mission officials on the ground. Credit: NASA TV.

NASA astronaut Terry Virts, Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency joined their Expedition 42 crewmates when the hatches between the Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft and the International Space Station officially opened at midnight EST. Expedition 42 Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore of NASA and Alexander Samoukutyaev and Elena Serova of Roscosmos welcomed the new crew members aboard their orbital home.

Welcome to the Space Station!

Expedition 42 will continue to take advantage of the orbital lab’s unique microgravity environment and expand the scope of research. The crew will perform experiments that cover human research, biological and physical sciences, technology development and Earth observations as well as engage in educational activities. They are scheduled to greet a host of cargo vehicles during their mission, including a number of U.S. commercial resupply flights, two Russian Progress resupply missions and the departure of the final European ATV cargo spacecraft. The crew will conduct up to three U.S. spacewalks.

International Space Station (ISS)

Wilmore, Samoukutyaev and Serova will return home in March 2015. At that time Virts will become commander for Expedition 43. Virts, Shkaplerov and Cristoforetti will return to Earth in May 2015.

To learn more about Expedition 42, visit: http://go.nasa.gov/1yMQKPe.

To follow Twitter updates from NASA’s Expedition 42 astronauts, visit:

http://www.twitter.com/AstroTerry
http://www.twitter.com/AntonAstrey
http://www.twitter.com/AstroSamantha

To join the online conversation about the International Space Station and Expedition 42 on Twitter, follow the hashtags #ISS, #Exp42 and #Soyuz. To learn more about all the ways to connect and collaborate with NASA, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/connect.

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

Images, Video, Text, Credits: NASA/NASA TV.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Expedition 42 Docks With Space Station

ROSCOSMOS - Soyuz TMA-15M Mission patch.

November 24, 2014

The Soyuz TMA-15M vehicle docked to the International Space Station at 9:49 p.m. EST, above the Pacific Ocean, approaching the coast of Ecuador.

Image above: The Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft carrying a new Expedition 42 trio approaches the International Space Station shortly before docking. Credit: NASA TV.

Aboard the space station, Expedition 42 Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore of NASA and Alexander Samoukutyaev and Elena Serova of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) will welcome Soyuz crew members Terry Virts of NASA, Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency when the hatches between the two spacecraft are opened.

Watch the hatch opening and welcome ceremony live beginning at 11 p.m.: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv.

 New Crew Docks to ISS

The Soyuz crew will join Expedition 42 Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore of NASA and Alexander Samoukutyaev and Elena Serova of the Russian Federal Space Agency. Wilmore, Samoukutyaev and Serova have lived aboard the space station since September.

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

Image (mentioned), Video, Text, Credit: NASA/NASA TV.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Expedition 42 Trio Launches on Time to Station

ROSCOSMOS - Soyuz TMA-15M Mission patch.

November 23, 2014

Expedition 42/43 Launches to the ISS

The Soyuz TMA-15M launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station at 4:01 p.m. EST (3:01 a.m. on Nov. 24 Baikonur time). Terry Virts of NASA, Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency now are safely in orbit.

Image above: The Soyuz TMA-15M launches on time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 4:01 p.m. EST. Credit: NASA TV/Screen capture: Orbiter.ch Aerospace.

Virts, Shkaplerov and Cristoforetti will dock with the station’s Rassvet module at 9:53 p.m. Welcoming them aboard will be the current station residents, Expedition 42 Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore of NASA and Alexander Samoukutyaev and Elena Serova of Roscosmos. Wilmore, Samoukutyaev and Serova arrived at the space station in September aboard their Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft and will remain aboard until March 2015.

Soyuz TMA-15M crew on way to ISS. Credit: NASA TV/Screen capture: Orbiter.ch Aerospace

Some of the cargo flown aboard this Soyuz will be used in research investigations that are either ongoing or planned aboard the International Space Station. Items such as questionnaires will be delivered to obtain in-flight data about crew member characteristics, such as day-to-day changes in health or incidence of pain or pressure in microgravity. One such investigation is Space Headaches which uses questionnaires to collect information about the prevalence and characteristics of crew members’ headaches in microgravity. This information is used to develop future countermeasures for headaches often caused by intracranial pressure change.

Soyuz TMA spacecraft

Read more about Space Headaches: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/181.html

Read more about intracranial pressure change: http://www.nasa.gov/content/it-s-all-in-your-head-nasa-investigates-techniques-for-measuring-intracranial-pressure/

Researchers will also use biological sample kits delivered by the Soyuz spacecraft to obtain samples of blood, saliva or urine. The ongoing collection of biological samples from crew members help scientists determine if immune system impairment caused by spaceflight increases the possibility for infection or poses a significant health risk during life aboard the space station.

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

Images, Video, Text, Credits: NASA/NASA TV.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch