First Notable Solar Flare of 2015

NASA - Solar Dynamics Observatory patch.

13 January 2015

The sun emitted a mid-level solar flare, peaking at 11:24 p.m. EST on Jan. 12, 2015. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the sun constantly, captured an image of the event.

Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however -- when intense enough -- they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.

For more information about Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sdo/main/

Image, Text, Credits: NASA/SDO.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Dragon Attached to Space Station

SpaceX - Falcon 9/Dragon Resupply Mission CRS-5 patch.

12 January 2015

The Canadarm2 has the SpaceX Dragon in its grips. Image Credit: NASA TV

While the International Space Station was traveling over the Mediterranean Sea, Expedition 42 Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore of NASA, with the assistance of Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency, successfully captured the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft with the station’s robotic arm at 5:54 a.m. EST.

The SpaceX Dragon is attached to the Harmony module. Image Credit: NASA TV

The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft was berthed to the Harmony module of the International Space Station at 8:54 a.m. EST. The hatch between the newly arrived spacecraft and the Harmony module of the space station is scheduled to be opened Tuesday, but could occur earlier. The capsule is scheduled to spend four weeks attached to the station.

For an overview of newly delivered science investigations aboard Dragon, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/spacex

Two days after its launch from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, the unpiloted U.S. SpaceX Dragon cargo craft arrived at the International Space Station Jan. 12 with more than two tons of supplies and science experiments for the Expedition 42 crew.

U.S. Cargo Ship Delivers Goods to ISS

The station crew grappled the Dragon supply ship with the station’s robotic arm and ground controllers at Mission Control, Houston maneuvered Dragon to the Earth-facing port of the station’s Harmony module, where it was installed and bolted into place for a month-long stay.

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

LHC Season 2: holding the key to new frontiers

CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research logo.

12 January 2015

This year, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will restart at the record collision energy of 13 TeV, following a two-year long shutdown (LS1) for planned maintenance. To mark this, today saw the LS1 activities coordinator symbolically handing over the LHC key to the operations team. The team will now perform tests on the machine in preparation for the restart this spring. 

After three years of highly successful running, the LHC was shut down for maintenance in 2013. Since then, engineers and technicians have been repairing and strengthening the 27-kilometre accelerator in preparation for its restart at 13 TeV. Some 18 of the 1232 dipole magnets that steer particle beams around the accelerator were replaced, and more than 10,000 electrical interconnections between the magnets were strengthened. The LHC’s vacuum, cryogenics and electronics systems were also consolidated.

Image above: Katy Foraz, LS1 activities coordinator, hands the LHC key to the operations team, represented, left to right, by Jorg Wenninger, Mike Lamont and Mirko Pojer. (Image: Maximilien Brice/CERN).

"It's important to stress that after the long shutdown, the LHC is essentially a new machine," said CERN Director-General Rolf Heuer in his New Year address at CERN last week.

The collision energy of 13 TeV is a significant increase compared with the initial three-year LHC run, which began at 7 TeV and rose to 8 TeV. In addition, in the run that starts this year, bunches of protons in the accelerator will collide at briefer intervals – 25 nanoseconds(ns) between them instead of 50 ns – and the beams will be more tightly focused. All these factors are aimed at optimising the delivery of particle collisions for physics research.

With collisions at energies never reached in a particle accelerator before, the LHC will open a new window for discovery, allowing further studies of the Higgs boson and the potential to address unsolved mysteries such as dark matter.

CERN - Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Image Credit: CERN

The LHC is CERN's flagship machine, but the accelerator complex also provides a broad programme of research that makes many contributions to fundamental physics. The long shutdown has allowed teams throughout CERN to upgrade experiments, detectors, accelerators and equipment.

In addition, the laboratory has continued to nurture its collaborations around the world with involvements in future collider studies, showing CERN’s dedication to the future of particle physics at the very forefront of knowledge.

It will be a busy year ahead, and with so much in store the laboratory looks forward to LHC Season 2 and more!

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:

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

Higgs boson: http://home.web.cern.ch/topics/higgs-boson

Dark matter: http://home.web.cern.ch/about/physics/dark-matter

Fundamental physics: http://home.web.cern.ch/about/physics

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

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: CERN/Cian O'Luanaigh/Kate Kahle.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

CleanSat: new satellite technologies for cleaner low orbits

ESA - Clean Space logo.

12 January 2015

What goes up must go down. When it comes to satellites, this dictum has become a statutory requirement. Otherwise, key low orbits may well become unusable as they fill with debris.

In March, European satellite manufacturers will come together to discuss redesigning low-orbit missions to meet anti-debris regulations.

The growing problem of space debris

Prompted by ESA’s Clean Space initiative, devoted to safeguarding the terrestrial and space environments, they will consider new technologies devoted to cutting down on derelict satellites being abandoned, reducing the risk of orbital collisions from increasing debris while also reducing the threat posed by reentering satellites.

“This workshop is an essential step for involving the whole European space sector in shaping the way forward for low-orbiting satellites,” explained ESA organiser Jessica Delaval.

Trackable objects in orbit around Earth

“Companies will have the opportunity to put forward their own technologies for debris mitigation.”

There are more than 12 000 trackable items of space debris larger than 10 cm orbiting Earth, including derelict satellites, spent upper stages and fragments of old missions – all presenting a clear and present danger to current missions. 

 The number of smaller, untraceable objects is in the millions: hundreds of thousands of 1–10 cm pieces and literally millions of smaller particles. At orbital speeds, a 1 cm nut can strike with the force of a hand grenade.

Today, international regulations state that minimal debris should be left to propagate within heavily trafficked orbits, especially the low orbits favoured by Earth-observing missions and some classes of communication satellite, not to mention manned spacecraft and the International Space Station.

For these orbits, extending up to about 2000 km above Earth, the requirement is that satellites are removed within 25 years of ending their lives. Either they should end up at an altitude where atmospheric drag gradually induces reentry, or alternatively be despatched up to quieter ‘graveyard orbits’.

The highest debris collision risk is found at Earth's poles

So mitigation methods are having to be built into new low-orbit missions, with important implications for their design – not least because any mass added to the platform means less is left for the payload, the part of the satellite that actually achieves the mission goal.

That means smaller satellites find it more difficult to meet mitigation requirements.

The workshop at ESA’s ESTEC technical centre on 17–18 March will promote a common approach to debris mitigation, summarising the current state-of-the-art for both passive and active deorbiting approaches, as well as detailing ESA's new CleanSat programme - seeking to adopt debris mitigation techniques within common platform building blocks.

For more information, including how to attend: http://space-env.esa.int/indico/confRegistrationFormDisplay.py/creationDone?authkey=a3c30b3abeed10da1c825e9d428ce522&registrantId=2&confId=73

Related link:

Technical day on deorbiting strategies and CleanSat workshop: http://space-env.esa.int/indico/conferenceDisplay.py?ovw=True&confId=73

About Clean Space:

What is Clean Space?: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Engineering_Technology/Clean_Space/What_is_Clean_Space

Why is it needed?: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Engineering_Technology/Clean_Space/Why_is_it_needed

What are its objectives?: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Engineering_Technology/Clean_Space/What_are_its_objectives

Q & A on Clean Space: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Engineering_Technology/Clean_Space/Q_A_on_Clean_Space

Images, Text, Credit: European Space Agency (ESA).

Cheers, Orbiter.ch

The first images from the spacecraft Resource-P2

ROSCOSMOS logo.

10/01/2015

On January 4, 2015 began testing the target hardware spacecraft Resource-P2, the successful launch of the calculated operating orbit in a single orbital constellation spacecraft (SC) Resource-P1.

On January 5 Roscosmos received the first test shots of high resolution equipment "Geoton-Sangura" in panchromaticmand multispectral mode, as well as wide-field high-resolution set at SC Resource-P2. Work continues on further setup, testing and calibration of the whole complex of the target hardware.

The launch of the space rocket Soyuz-2.1b with promising Russian spacecraft remote sensing of the Earth Resource-P2 held December 26, 2014 at 21:55 MSK from launch pad 31 Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Equipment placed on the SC Resource-P2, allows high resolution imagery of the Earth's surface in the panchromatic and five narrow spectral bands with a ground resolution of 1.0 and 3.0-4.0 meters, respectively, in the band width 38 km; Shoot with wide-swath 97 and 441 km and a resolution 12.0 and 60.0 m in panchromatic band; hyperspectral survey in 96 spectral bands with a resolution of 25-30 m.

Resource-P description

In addition, the SC Resource-P2 installed equipment Automatic Identification (AIS) and scientific equipment "nucleon".

As part of the Russian Federal Space Program for the fourth quarter 2015 is scheduled to launch satellites Resource-P3.

ROSCOSMOS Press Release : http://www.federalspace.ru/21229/

Images, Text, Credits: Press Service of the Russian Federal Space Agency/ROSCOSMOS/Translation: Orbiter.ch Aerospace.

Cheers, Orbiter.ch

NASA Cargo Launches to Space Station aboard SpaceX Resupply Mission

SpaceX - Falcon 9/Dragon Resupply Mission 5 (CRS-5) patch.

January 10, 2015

Image above: A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket launches from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 4:47 a.m. EST on Jan. 10, 2014. The Dragon is loaded with more than two tons of supplies and NASA science investigations for the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA TV.

More than two tons of supplies and NASA science investigations are on the way to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft. The spacecraft launched Saturday on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 4:47 a.m. EST.

The mission is the company's fifth official cargo delivery flight to the station through NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract. Dragon's cargo will support more than 250 experiments that will be conducted by the station’s Expeditions 42 and 43 crews.

Liftoff of SpaceX CRS-5

“We are delighted to kick off 2015 with our first commercial cargo launch of the year,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “Thanks to our private sector partners, we've returned space station resupply launches to U.S. soil and are poised to do the same with the transport of our astronauts in the very near future. Today’s launch not only resupplies the station, but also delivers important science experiments and increases the station’s unique capabilities as a platform for Earth science with delivery of the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System, or CATS instrument. I congratulate the SpaceX and NASA teams who have made today’s success possible. We look forward to extending our efforts in commercial space to include commercial crew by 2017 and to more significant milestones this year on our journey to Mars.”

The CATS instrument measures the location, composition and distribution of pollution, dust, smoke, aerosols and other particulates in the atmosphere. CATS will be attached outside the station on the Japanese Experiment Module. By gaining a deeper understanding of cloud and aerosol coverage, scientists can create a better model of their role in Earth's changing global climate.

F9 & Dragon on the launch pad

A new biological study will use flatworms as a model organism to see how gravity affects tissue regeneration and the rebuilding of damaged organs and nerves. Flatworms regenerate their cells, replacing them as they age or are damaged. This investigation studies the cell signaling mechanisms the worms use while regenerating their tissue in microgravity. Its results could provide insight into how wounds heal in space.

Also making the trip as model organisms will be fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster). Scientists will study the flies’ immune systems as a model for the human immune system, to explore how spaceflight can make organisms more susceptible to disease, especially since microbes can become more virulent in space.

The new Micro-5 investigation aims to understand the risks of in-flight infections in space explorers during long-term spaceflight. It will study the interactions between the host and bacteria, cellular responses and the effectiveness of countermeasures during spaceflight. The model organism Caenorhabditis elegans (roundworm) will be studied along with the microbe Salmonella typhimurium, which is known to cause food poisoning in humans.

SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft

Dragon will be grappled at 6:12 a.m. Monday, Jan. 12, by Expedition 42 Commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore of NASA, using the space station's robotic arm to take hold of the spacecraft. European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti will support Wilmore in a backup position. Dragon is scheduled to spend about a month attached to the space station before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, west of Baja California, Mexico, carrying more than 3,800 pounds of cargo, including crew supplies, hardware and computer resources, science experiments, space station hardware and trash.

The International Space Station is a convergence of science, technology and human innovation that demonstrates new technologies and makes research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. The space station has been occupied continuously since November 2000. In that time, more than 200 people and a variety of international and commercial spacecraft have visited the orbiting laboratory. The space station remains the springboard to NASA's next great leap in exploration, including future missions to an asteroid and Mars.

SpaceX rocket landing report:

Meanwhile, SpaceX attempted to land the first stage on an autonomous spaceport drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean after stage separation. While the rocket made it to the drone ship, it landed hard. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get good landing video because of the dark and fog, but we are in the process of evaluating invaluable telemetry data which will inform future attempts.

Autonomous spaceport drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean

"Rocket made it to drone spaceport ship, but landed hard. Close, but no cigar this time. Bodes well for the future though."

For more information about SpaceX's mission to the International Space Station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/spacex

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

Images, Video, Text, Credits: SpaceX/NASA/Josh Buck/Johnson Space Center/Dan Huot.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Scientists Pinpoint Saturn With Exquisite Accuracy

NASA - Cassini Mission to Saturn patch.

January 8, 2015

Scientists have paired Cassini spacecraft with the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio-telescope system to pinpoint the position of Saturn and its family of moons to within about 2 miles (4 kilometers). The measurement is some 50 times more precise than those provided by ground-based optical telescopes. The feat improves astronomers' knowledge of Saturn's orbit and benefits spacecraft navigation and basic physics research.

The team of researchers used the VLBA -- a giant array of radio-telescope antennas spread from Hawaii to the Virgin Islands -- to pinpoint the position of Cassini as it orbited Saturn over the past decade by receiving the signal from the spacecraft's radio transmitter. They combined this data with information about Cassini's orbit from NASA's Deep Space Network. The combined observations allowed the scientists to make the most accurate determinations yet of the position of the center of mass, or barycenter, of Saturn and its numerous moons.

Image above: Researchers have determined the location of the Saturn system's center of mass to within just a couple of miles (or kilometers), a factor of 50 improvement over previous knowledge. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.

The study team included researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Socorro, New Mexico. The scientists are presenting the results of their work today at the American Astronomical Society's meeting in Seattle.

The new measurement was made possible by two factors: Cassini's long-term presence in the Saturn system and the VLBA's ability to discern extremely fine detail. The result is a greatly improved table of predicted positions of objects in the Saturn system, known as an ephemeris. An ephemeris is one of the basic tools of astronomy.

"This work is a great step toward tying together our understanding of the orbits of the outer planets of our solar system and those of the inner planets," said Dayton Jones of JPL, who led the study.

The improved positional information will help enhance precise navigation of interplanetary spacecraft and help refine measurements of the masses of solar system objects. It will also improve predictions of when Saturn or its rings will pass in front of background stars -- events that provide a variety of research opportunities for astronomers.

VLBA measurements of Cassini's position have even helped scientists who seek to make ever-more-stringent tests of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity by observing small changes in the apparent positions of actively feeding black holes, or quasars, as Saturn appears to pass in front of them on the sky.

Cassini spacecraft. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Cassini's navigation team, charged with plotting the spacecraft's course around Saturn, began using new positional information provided by the ongoing study in 2013. The new ephemeris has enabled them to design better maneuvers for the spacecraft, leading to mission-enhancing savings in propellant. Previously, the navigators performed their own estimates of the positions of Saturn and its satellites using data gleaned by tracking Cassini's radio signal during its communications with Earth. The new calculations, enhanced by VLBA data, are about 20 times more accurate.

Jones and colleagues plan to continue the joint observations with Cassini and the VLBA through the end of Cassini's mission in late 2017. The team plans to use similar techniques to observe the motion of NASA's Juno spacecraft when it reaches Jupiter in mid-2016. They hope to improve the orbital knowledge of that giant planet as well.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Cassini and Juno missions and the Deep Space Network for NASA. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

More information about Cassini, the Deep Space Network and Juno: http://www.nasa.gov

For more information about Cassini Mission from European Space Agency (ESA) website: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cassini-Huygens

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/JPL/Preston Dyches/National Radio Astronomy Observatory/Dave Finley.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch