Orbiter.ch Space News

mercredi 12 septembre 2018

Aeolus wows with first wind data

ESA - Aeolus Mission logo.

12 September 2018

Just one week after ESA’s Aeolus satellite shone a light on our atmosphere and returned a taster of what’s in store, this ground-breaking mission has again exceeded all expectations by delivering its first data on wind – a truly remarkable feat so early in its life in space.

Florence Rabier, Director General of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), said, “We always knew that Aeolus would be an exceptional mission, but these first results have really impressed us.

Winds imaged by Aeolus

“The satellite hasn’t even been in orbit a month yet, but the results so far look extremely promising, far better than anyone expected at this early stage.

“We are very proud to be part of the mission. Aeolus looks set to provide some of the most substantial improvements to our weather forecasts that we’ve seen over the past decade.”

ESA’s Aeolus mission scientist, Anne Grete Straume, explained, “These first wind data shown in the plot made by ECMWF are from one orbit. In the profile we can see large-scale easterly and westerly winds between Earth’s surface and the lower stratosphere, including jet streams.

“In particular, you can see strong winds, called the Stratospheric Polar Vortex, around the South Pole. These winds play an important role in the depletion of the ozone layer over the South Pole at this time of the year.”

Named after Aeolus, who in Greek mythology was appointed ‘keeper of the winds’ by the Gods, this novel mission is the fifth in the family of ESA’s Earth Explorers, which address the most urgent Earth-science questions of our time.

It carries the first instrument of its kind and uses a completely new approach to measuring the wind from space.

Earth’s wind patterns

ESA’s Earth Explorer Programme manager, Danilo Muzi, said, “Aeolus carries revolutionary laser technology to address one of the major deficits in the Global Observing System: the lack of direct global wind measurements.

“The essence of an Earth Explorer mission is to deliver data that advances our understanding of our home planet and that demonstrates cutting-edge space technology. With the first light measurements and now these amazing wind data, Aeolus has wowed us on both fronts.”

Ozone hole, Antarctica

ESA’s Aeolus instrument manager, Denny Wernham, noted, “These first results are truly amazing. It took years to develop this remarkable mission and everyone’s hard work is really paying off.

“Aeolus’ Aladin instrument is extremely sensitive. When we switched it on we increased its energy levels step by step, checking it after every move.

“It is indeed wonderful to see that it is behaving superbly so soon after launch.”

Keeper of the winds

Nicola Chamussy, Head of Airbus Space Systems, said, “These initial results look wonderful. Thanks to the meticulous preparatory work and testing, the mission is in really good shape. Our Aladin system engineer, Olivier Lecrenier, tells me that it has exceeded his best expectations.

“Huge congratulations to everyone involved in this world first.”

Related links:

Aeolus: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Aeolus

ECMWF: https://www.ecmwf.int/

Airbus Defence and Space: http://www.airbus.com/

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

Centre Spatial de Liège: http://www.csl.uliege.be/jcms/c_5053/en/home

Leonardo: http://www.leonardocompany.com/en

Images, Text, Credits: ESA/ECMWF/AOES Medialab/KNMI–Temis/ATG medialab.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

mardi 11 septembre 2018

Exploring the Solar System? You May Need to Pack an Umbrella

NASA - Adaptable Deployable Entry Placement Technology (ADEPT) logo.

Sept. 11, 2018

Image above: Adaptable Deployable Entry Placement Technology or ADEPT. Image Credits: NASA Ames Research Center.

Gearing up for its first flight test, NASA’s Adaptable Deployable Entry Placement Technology, or ADEPT, is no ordinary umbrella. ADEPT is a foldable device that opens to make a round, rigid heat shield, called an aeroshell. This game-changing technology could squeeze a heat shield into a rocket with a diameter larger than the rocket itself. The design may someday deliver much larger payloads to planetary surfaces than is currently possible.

Spacecraft typically approach planets at speeds tens of thousands of miles per hour —screaming fast. Entering a planet’s atmosphere at those speeds compresses atmospheric gas, creating pressure shock and generating intense heat right in front of the spacecraft.

Image above: Twin ADEPT units include a flight unit for the first flight test on Sept. 12 and a spare. The units are shown fully deployed. The heat shields measure 28 inches in diameter. This test configuration includes a payload that is sized to approximate a 3U, or three unit, CubeSat, about 12 by 4 by 4 inches. This design could be adapted to build larger heat shields to support larger payloads. Image Credits: NASA Ames Research Center/Dominic Hart.

Aeroshells slow spacecraft during entry and shield them from heat. ADEPT could be key to future NASA missions that require extra-large aeroshells to protect spacecraft destined to land on the surface of other planets, all without requiring larger rockets.

Adaptable Deployable Entry and Placement Technology (ADEPT)

Video Credits: NASA Ames Research Center.

ADEPT’s first flight test is scheduled for Sept. 12 from Spaceport America in New Mexico aboard an UP Aerospace suborbital SpaceLoft rocket. ADEPT will launch in a stowed configuration, resembling a folded umbrella, and then separate from the rocket in space and unfold 60 miles above Earth.

The test will last about 15 minutes from launch to Earth return. The peak speed during the test is expected to be three times the speed of sound, about 2,300 miles per hour. That is not fast enough to generate significant heat during descent, but the purpose of the test is to observe the initial sequence of ADEPT’s deployment and assess aerodynamic stability while the heat shield enters Earth’s atmosphere and falls to the recovery site.

Image above: Brandon Smith, ADEPT principal investigator, and Joseph William, system engineer, in the entry systems and vehicle development lab at Ames perform final checks to the first ADEPT flight unit prior to a deployment test. Image Credits: NASA Ames Research Center/Dominic Hart.

“For a deployable like ADEPT, you can do ground-based testing, but ultimately, a flight test demonstrates end-to-end functionality – surviving launch environments, deploying in zero gravity and the vacuum of space, holding that rigid shape and then entering, in our case, Earth’s atmosphere,” said Paul Wercinski, ADEPT project manager at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.

This umbrella-like mechanical aeroshell design uses flexible 3D woven carbon fabric skin stretched over deployable ribs and struts, which become rigid when fully flexed. The carbon fabric skin covers its structural surface, and serves as the primary component of the entry, descent and landing thermal protection system.

“Carbon fabric has been the major recent breakthrough enabling this technology, as it utilizes pure carbon yarns that are woven three-dimensionally to give you a very durable surface,” said Wercinski. “Carbon is a wonderful material for high temperature applications.”

Image above: Paul Wercinski, ADEPT project manager and Cole Kazemba, ADEPT system engineer, attach the woven carbon fabric skin to the ribs of an early version of ADEPT in the assembly lab at Ames. Image Credits: NASA Ames Research Center/ Eric James.

The next steps for ADEPT are to develop and conduct a test for an Earth entry at higher “orbital” speeds, roughly 17,000 miles per hour, to support maturing the technology with an eye towards Venus, Mars or Titan, and also returning lunar samples back to Earth.

The ADEPT aeroshell heat shield technology was developed at Ames. The center leads the agency in the development and innovation of thermal protection system technologies.

Foldable Heat Shield Could Help NASA Deliver Much Bigger Cargo to Deep Space

Video Credits: NASA Ames Research Center.

ADEPT was funded by the Space Technology Mission Directorate’s (STMD) Game Changing Development program. The flight test was funded by STMD’s Flight Opportunities program, managed at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. Through both programs, NASA supports promising technologies from government, industry and academia for development and/or testing. UP Aerospace, based in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, is the flight provider.

To follow the ADEPT project at Ames, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ames

Adaptable Deployable Entry Placement Technology (ADEPT): https://gameon.nasa.gov/adept-sr-1/

Space Technology Mission Directorate’s (STMD): http://nasa.gov/spacetech

Images (mentioned), Videos (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Ames Research Center/Kimberly Minafra and Gianine Figliozzi.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA’s SDO Spots 2 Lunar Transits in Space

NASA - Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) patch.

Sept. 11, 2018

On Sept. 9, 2018, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, SDO, saw two lunar transits as the Moon passed in front of the Sun. A transit happens when a celestial body passes between a larger body and an observer. This first lunar transit lasted one hour, from 4:30 pm to 5:30 p.m. EDT and obscured 92 percent of the Sun at the peak of its journey. The second transit happened several hours later at 9:52 p.m. and lasted a total of 49 minutes, ending at 10:41 p.m. EDT. This transit only obscured 34 percent of the Sun at its peak.

Watch the movie here to see how — from SDO’s perspective — the Moon appears to go in one direction and then switch direction to cross the Moon again. The Moon does not, of course, actually change direction, but it appears to do so from SDO’s perspective based on the fact that the spacecraft’s orbit essentially catches up and passes the Moon during the first transit.

Because the Moon does not have an atmosphere, when a lunar transit occurs no light from the Sun gets distorted, allowing for a distinct view of the Moon’s surface. Although it looks smooth from far away, the surface of the Moon is rugged, sprinkled with craters, valleys and mountains.

SDO captured these images in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light that shows solar material heated to more than 10 million degrees Fahrenheit. Extreme ultraviolet light is typically invisible to the human eye, but satellites like SDO allow us to observe the swirling movement in the Sun’s atmosphere visible only in these wavelengths.

SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory): http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sdo/main/index.html

Image, Animation, Text, Credits: NASA/Rob Garner/Susie Darling/Goddard/SDO.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

New HTV Launch Date Adjusts Spacewalk Dates as Science Continues

ISS - Expedition 56 Mission patch.

September 11, 2018

JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) has rescheduled the launch of its HTV-7 resupply ship to the International Space Station to Thursday, U.S. time. As a result of the new launch and arrival dates for the HTV-7, the target dates for a pair of maintenance spacewalks have been adjusted as well.

More than five tons of food, fuel, crew supplies and new science gear is due to launch Thursday at 5:21 p.m. EDT from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan. The HTV-7 with the space cargo will take a 3-1/2 day ride to the orbital laboratory where it will be captured Monday with the Canadarm2 robotic arm around 6:50 a.m. It will then be installed on the station’s Harmony module around three hours later. NASA TV will broadcast all the activities live.

Image above: NASA astronauts Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Drew Feustel work a pair of different experiments aboard the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA.

The HTV-7 is also delivering six new lithium-ion batteries to the station which will be the focus of the upcoming spacewalk activity. Robotics controllers will remove the new batteries from the HTV-7 and install them on the Port 4 truss structure. Then astronauts Alexander Gerst and Drew Feustel will begin the final battery hookup work on the first of two spacewalks on Sept. 23. Gerst will go outside a second time with spacewalker Ricky Arnold on Sept. 29 to complete the battery hookups.

Gerst, Feustel and Arnold spent a couple of hours today reviewing their upcoming spacewalk procedures and discussing their concerns with specialists on the ground. Flight Engineer Serena Auñón-Chancellor cleaned the trio’s spacesuits’ cooling loops and refilled the suits’ water tanks.

Image above: Astronaut Ricky Arnold working on spacesuits, image captured by Roland Berga (on Earth in Switzerland) from International Space Station (ISS) using ISS-HD Live application with EarthCam's from ISS on September 11, 2018 at 18:30 UTC. Image Credits: Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

The entire Expedition 56 crew did manage to conduct a variety of science experiments exploring biology and physics in microgravity. The astronauts researched how mice adapt to space and swabbed their own bodies to collect microbe samples for analysis. The crew also studied liquid atomization and the composition of meteorites entering Earth’s atmosphere.

Related links:

Expedition 56: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition56/index.html

Spacewalk: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/spacewalks

NASA TV: https://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

Microbe samples: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1663

How mice adapt to space: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7425

Liquid atomization: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=282

Meteorites entering Earth’s atmosphere: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1174

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

lundi 10 septembre 2018

SpaceX - Telstar 18 VANTAGE Mission Success

SpaceX - Telstar 18 VANTAGE Mission patch.

Sept. 10, 2018

Falcon 9 carrying Telstar 18 VANTAGE launch

On Monday, September 10th, SpaceX's Falcon 9 successfully lifted off at 12:45 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida carrying the Telstar 18 VANTAGE satellite to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). The satellite was deployed approximately 32 minutes after liftoff.

Telstar 18 VANTAGE

Following stage separation, the first stage of SpaceX's Falcon 9 landed on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Telstar 18 VANTAGE satellite

Telstar 18 VANTAGE communications satellite for Telesat. The Telstar 18 VANTAGE satellite will provide broadcast, enterprise and government communications services over parts of India, China, Mongolia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Ocean region. APT Satellite of Hong Kong has an agreement to use capacity on Telstar 18V, which is also known as Apstar 5C. The satellite was built SSL.

Related link:

SpaceX: https://www.spacex.com

Images, Video, Text, Credits: SpaceX/Günter Space Page.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

The Large Hadron Collider: 10 years and counting

CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research logo.

10 Sep 2018

Image above: Image of a LHC beam screen recorded on 10 September 2008, showing two spots corresponding to the successful circulation of protons once around the machine (Image: CERN).

Ten years ago, on 10 September 2008, two yellow dots on a screen signalled the first time that protons had circulated CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), marking the end of years of design and construction.

It was also a moment when the wider world switched on to particle physics. The spectacle of a bunch of subatomic particles making its way around a 27-km-circumference subterranean tube at 10:28 local time on that clear autumn Wednesday is estimated to have reached an audience of more than a billion people around the globe. There were record numbers of hits to the CERN homepage, in addition to some 2500 television broadcasts and 6000 press articles on the day.

The event was dubbed “first-beam day” by CERN and “Big Bang day” by the BBC, which had taken over a room in the CERN Control Centre and devoted a full day’s coverage on Radio 4. Even Google turned its logo into a cartoon of a collider. It is hard to think of a bigger media event in science in recent times, and it launched particle physics, the LHC and CERN into mainstream culture. What drove this massive interest? Read the cover feature in the CERN Courier September issue to find out.

The Large Hadron Collider: 10 years and counting

Video above: Project leaders of the LHC and the High-Luminosity LHC look back at the day the LHC first circulated beams and how the machine has evolved since (Video: CERN).

But the LHC has more than one anniversary. Its first proton collisions were recorded on 20 November 2009, following the successful repair and consolidation of the machine after an electrical fault nine days after first-beam day forced a pause in commissioning. Then, on 30 November 2009, the LHC eclipsed the Tevatron in the US to become the world’s most powerful collider, reaching an energy of 1.18 TeV per beam.

The LHC physics programme began in earnest on 30 March 2010 with collisions at 3.5 TeV per beam. For many physicists working on the ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb experiments, this was when the LHC fully came to life, making spring 2020 another golden opportunity to take stock of the LHC’s immense contributions.

Find out the key moments in the LHC’s history: https://timeline.web.cern.ch/timelines/The-Large-Hadron-Collider/export#

The LHC and its experiments have a long life ahead of them, and are currently preparing for a luminosity upgrade (HL-LHC). As Lucio Rossi explains in this viewpoint article in CERN Courier, the experience gained in organising, building and operating the LHC has been crucial for this upgrade and plans for future colliders.

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 22 Member States.

Related article:

Large Hadron collider celebrates 10 years
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2018/09/large-hadron-collider-celebrates-10.html

Related links:

Large Hadron Collider (LHC): https://home.cern/topics/large-hadron-collider

ALICE: https://home.cern/about/experiments/alice

ATLAS: https://home.cern/about/experiments/atlas

CMS: https://home.cern/about/experiments/cms

LHCb: https://home.cern/about/experiments/lhcb

HL-LHC: https://home.cern/topics/high-luminosity-lhc

CERN Courier September issue: https://cerncourier.com/the-day-the-world-switched-on-to-particle-physics/

Lucio Rossi CERN Courier: https://cerncourier.com/viewpoint-lessons-from-the-accelerator-frontier/

For more information about European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Visit: https://home.cern/

Image (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: CERN/Matthew Chalmers.

Happy Birthday LHC! Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Space Station Science Highlights: Week of September 3, 2018

ISS - Expedition 56 Mission patch.

Sept. 10, 2018

The Expedition 56 crew members aboard the International Space Station were busy last week preparing for the arrival of Japan’s H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-7). However, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has since postponed the launch of HTV-7, previously scheduled for September 10th. Our space scientists also spent the week preparing to become space walkers in preparation for two spacewalks, scheduled for later in the month.

Image above: European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst shared this image on his social media, saying, “Sweating for science. You can probably tell that Spacetex & Metabolic Space are some of my favorite experiments. In any case, they will help a lot of people on Earth to stay healthy." Image Credits: ESA/NASA.

Crew members studied new materials, conducted technology demonstrations for future long-duration space travel, and conducted an air quality test, among other scientific operations. Learn more below:

Crew reverse roles in investigation to increase proficiency

A tool that has helped guide sailors across oceans for centuries is now being tested aboard the station as a potential emergency navigation tool for guiding future spacecraft across the cosmos. The Sextant Navigation investigation tests use of a hand-held sextant aboard the space station.

Animation above: NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor working within the JEM facility to remove the degraded JEM EF HDTV Camera Unit from the Exposed Facility Unit (EFU) Adapter. A new, replacement camera was subsequently installed on the EFU Adapter in preparation for the JEM Airlock depressurization and Monday’s installation of the HDTV unit. The HDTV-EF2 is a high-definition television camera system used for Earth observation from the station. Animation Credits: NASA.

Sextants have a small telescope-like optical sight to take precise angle measurements between pairs of stars from land or sea, enabling navigation without computer assistance.

Last week, the crew performed a session for the investigation. In this session, the operator and assistant roles were reversed in order to gain proficiency for both crew members. The crew collected the data and recorded the results for ground evaluation. This was reported to be the most productive session to date.

For more information about the investigation, click here: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/Sextant_ISS

Crew completes testing in station’s airlock

With dust particles present in the space station atmosphere, Airway Monitoring studies the occurrence and indicators of airway inflammation in crew members, using ultra-sensitive gas analyzers to evaluate exhaled air. This helps to highlight any health impacts and to maintain crewmember well-being on future human spaceflight missions, especially longer-duration missions to the Moon and Mars for example, where crewmembers will have to be more self-sufficient in highlighting and avoiding such conditions. This kind of research may also benefit people on Earth who suffer from airway health conditions such as asthma.

Animation above: NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold replaced the EXPRESS Rack 5 lower payload valve following indications that a leak from the Moderate Temperature Loop (MTL) in the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) had continued after the initial repairs of the main payload valve. The successful recovery of EXPRESS Rack 5 will allow installation of the Plant Habitat Science Carrier #2 and subsequent resumption of science in the facility. Animation Credits: NASA.

Last week, the crew completed a session of Airway Monitoring in the station’s US Airlock. After reviewing procedures, the crew performed the testing at both ambient and reduced (10.2psi) pressure in the airlock.

New fabrics tested aboard station

Crew members perform daily exercise aboard the station to avoid cardiovascular deconditioning, and to maintain bone density and muscle mass. Problems associated with this physical deconditioning will become increasingly prominent during future exploratory missions, which could also have a negative effect on quality of sleep, alertness and mental performance of the crew.

Last week, as a part of the SpaceTex-2 and Metabolic Space investigations, a crew member donned Thermolab equipment, a heartrate monitor and the SpaceTex material shirt, as well as Metabolic Space equipment, for an exercise session using the Cycle Ergometer with Vibration Isolation and Stabilization (CEVIS).

Space to Ground: Batteries Included: 09/07/2018