Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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October 27th, 2014
Credit: NASA Office of the Chief Technologist, 2014
A new NASA report provides an introduction and overview, and a look into the future, of the emerging “space ecosystem” and American private-sector space activities.
Titled Emerging Space: The Evolving Landscape of 21st Century American Spaceflight, the report is by the NASA Office of the Chief Technologist, 2014.
The report is available from NASA’s Emerging Space Office (ESO), “formed in recognition of the rising importance of private-sector individuals and organizations that invest their own time and money in space activities. This emerging space community is increasingly a major force in American space developments,” ESO’s website notes.
According to the newly issued report, the United States stands today at the opening of a “second Space Age.”
Industrial strength space
“Innovative NASA programs and American entrepreneurs together are transforming the space industry,” the report says.
Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) is set for deployment on the International Space Station next year.
Credit: Bigelow Aerospace
“These initiatives – both at NASA and in the private sector – are expanding the nation’s opportunities for exploration and for the economic development of the solar system.”
The report stresses that NASA’s goal is to develop the capabilities that will allow the American people to explore, pioneer, and expand our economic sphere into the solar system.
“To do this we will build on our long-standing relationships with American industry by embracing new and diverse forms of partnerships,” the report explains.
Special thanks to the Space Frontier Foundation for flagging the release of this informative report.
Go to the report, Emerging Space: The Evolving Landscape of 21st Century American Spaceflight, at:
http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/files/Emerging_Space_Report.pdf
Also go to NASA’s Emerging Space Office (ESO) Website at:
http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oct/emerging_space/#.VElIsPnF8nV
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An early Nimbus satellite undergoes vibration testing at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, circa 1967.
Image Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Researchers are recovering valuable data by perusing stashed away and nearly forgotten images from 5 decades old NASA Nimbus data tapes and black and white film.
The upshot is that they are finding treasures in the pictures.
Experts at the Boulder, Colorado-based National Snow and Ice Data Center — part of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) — are expanding their understanding of sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic.
In 1964, NASA launched the first of seven Nimbus spacecraft to study Earth from space.
Now fifty years later, scientists are getting an eye-full thanks to the old data via a NASA-sponsored Nimbus Data Rescue Project.
Early NIMBUS photo.
Credit: NASA
An informative video on this effort is available at:
Credit: OECD
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has unveiled their new report: The Space Economy at a Glance 2014.
This new report provides a statistical overview of the global space sector and its contributions to economic activity.
The new edition provides indicators and statistics based on both official and private data, in over forty countries with space programs, and identifies new dynamics in the space sector.
Globalization
The report notes that globalization is affecting the space economy at different levels.
In the 1980s, only a handful of countries had the capacity to build and launch a satellite. Many more countries and corporate players across a wide range of industrial sectors are now engaged in space-related activities, a trend that is expected to strengthen in the coming years.
Supply chains for the development and operation of space systems are also increasingly evolving at the international level, even if the space sector remains heavily influenced and shaped by strategic and security considerations. Many space technologies are dual use, i.e. employed for both civilian and military programs, which tends to constrain international trade in space products.
Nonetheless, as evidenced by recent OECD research on global value chains, product and service supply chains for space systems are internationalizing at a rapid pace.
Space budgets
Among key findings, the report states:
Countries with long-established space programs face growing challenges as lower costs and technological advances draw more countries and companies into the sector and give rise to a burgeoning commercial space industry.
The Space Economy at a Glance 2014 shows that while space budgets in the 34 OECD countries totaled USD 50.8 billion in 2013, down from USD 52.3 billion in 2008, the combined space budget of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) swelled to USD 24.0 billion from USD 16.5 billion over the same period.
To view this new OECD (2014) report, go to:
Long March-3C rocket lifts off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center carrying China’s new Moon test spacecraft.
Credit: China Space
An advanced Long March-3C rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China’s Sichuan Province has hurled toward the Moon China’s robotic test vehicle.
Launched early Friday (local China time), the spacecraft will fly around the Moon for half a circle and return to Earth in a test of reentry technologies to be used for China’s lunar return sample program.
On its return to Earth, the test spacecraft will make a “skip reentry” to progressively slow down before landing in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Dubbed by China observers as the Chang’e-5 Test 1 (CE5-T1), the mission is to take some 8 days, according to China news outlets.
Well-controlled reentry
“Earthbound experiments can’t effectively simulate the complexity of the atmospheric environment,” Hao Xifan, deputy chief designer of the CE5-T1 and Chang’e-5 missions told China’s S&T Daily shortly before the launch, according to the AAAS ScienceInsider.
Hao said the spacecraft’s skip reentry must be well-controlled. “If it’s too low, the probe may be burnt. If too high, it won’t be able to land in the targeted area.”
Also on the China booster: Hitchhiking payloads 4M, developed by LuxSpace in Luxembourg and PS86X1 from Pocket Spacecraft – a virtual organization situated in the United Kingdom.
This current Moon mission by China is to gather experimental data and confirm re-entry technologies such as guidance, navigation and control, heat shield and trajectory design. That knowledge will be rolled into a future touch-down on the Moon by Chang’e-5, now targeted for a 2017 flight to land on the lunar surface and snag samples for return to Earth.
For an interesting look at China’s current and future robotic lunar missions, go to:
— Video: Launch of Chang’e 5 test mission
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfIBUlflRM0
— Video describing the mission.
http://www.ecns.cn/video/2014/10-23/139651.shtml
— Video: Chang’e 5 moon return test mission
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkgG_SzXHVw
According to LuxSpace:
After a thunderstorm two hours before liftoff, the skies cleared to see the Long March 3C booster rocket “through” the Orion constellation and head toward the Moon.
Here is a movie of the liftoff:
https://cloud.luxspace.lu/public.php?service=files&t=c7cc065cd4757e1ba570521e3f40b4c2&download
The LuxSpace 4M spacecraft has been successfully activated and has started to transmit to Earth with data received from stations all over the world (so far from Argentina, Brazil, USA, and Australia).
Temperature variations of the 4M spacecraft indicate that the last stage of the rocket is smoothly rotating, “making 4M’s journey to the moon and back so far not too harsh,” LuxSpace reports.
China’s next robotic mission to the Moon will test key technology for a future lunar sample return program.
Credit: CASC
Here’s my new story and update on China’s next robotic trek to the Moon – while technical details are skimpy, this mission should sharpen the country’s lunar sample return program:
China Poised to Launch Next Moon Mission on Thursday
By Leonard David, Space.com’s Space Insider Columnist
October 22, 2014 07:00am ET
http://www.space.com/27503-china-moon-mission-launch-thursday.html
China’s Hainan launching site is approaching operational status. Early work on China’s newest spaceport is shown here in full swing with rocket assembly towers in view.
Credit: China Space Website
China’s new launch complex is the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in Hainan province.
Construction of that facility began in 2009 and is now completed. It will soon become operational, China’s People’s Daily reported last week.
The center is designed to handle next-generation rockets, the lofting of large space station modules – as well as deep space missions.
Coastal launch base
The new launch facility is situated on the northeast coast of Hainan Island, about 37 miles (60 kilometers) from Haikou, the provincial capital. The center is the country’s first coastal satellite launch base – no danger of discarded booster parts sailing into residential areas.
Wenchang adds to a trio of other Chinese launch sites: the heavily used Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, Taiyuan in the Shanxi province, and in Xichang, Sichuan province.
Space city with trams!
Wenchang is built to loft the Long March 5 rocket, China’s most powerful booster, which is now under development.
According to Qi Faren, former chief designer of the Shenzhou spaceships, the Long March 5 will be launched from the new center next year.
Hainan is site of China’s newest launch center, complete with trams to visit the complex.
Credit: TravelChinaGuide.com
The launch site will be used primarily for dispatching heavy geostationary telecommunications satellites.
As China’s fourth “space city,” Wenchang also includes a space theme park where visitors will be given tram tours of the launch pads.
By the way, the third annual Hainan Wanning Riyue Bay International Surfing Festival will take place on Hainan from November 23-28.
Surf and space are up!
China’s Yutu Moon rover.
Credit: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Feeble but hanging on.
That’s the diagnosis from China regarding the country’s Yutu moon rover.
According to China’s Xinhua news agency, the lunar robot has undergone 11 periods of dormancy with its functions “gradually degrading,” said Yu Dengyun, deputy chief designer of China’s lunar probe mission.
“Yutu has gone through freezing lunar nights under abnormal status, and its functions are gradually degrading,” Yu told Xinhua.
China’s Chang’e 3 mission – a lander and rover – touched down on the lunar surface in mid-December of 2013.
Deployed from the lander, the Yutu rover performed several science duties before control problems struck the robot prior to experiencing a second lunar night of 14 days duration on January 25, 2014.
China space engineers are trying to deduce why the robot ran into problems via ground-based simulations, Yu said. That research is intended to be used in China’s robotic lunar sampling program – scooping up and rocketing back to Earth selected specimens of the Moon.
A new story from me on China’s space program and potential for international cooperation:
China presses forward on its space station work.
Credit: CMSE
ESA and its Rosetta mission partners are inviting you to suggest a name for the site where lander Philae will touch down on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on November 12.
Got a name for the spot that the first soft landing of a human-made object on a comet will occur?
The European Space Agency and its Rosetta mission will deploy on November 12 the Philae lander to touch down on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
The site now has a less than glamorous name: Site J.
Philae’s primary landing site from about 30 kilometers distance. Close-up of the region containing Philae’s primary landing site J, which is located on the ‘head’ of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The image was taken by Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera.
Credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
That locale deserves a meaningful and memorable name that captures the significance of the occasion.The rules are simple: any name can be proposed, but it must not be the name of a person. The name must be accompanied by a short description (up to 200 words) explaining why this would make the ideal name for such an historic location.
A jury comprising members of the Philae Steering Committee will select the best name from the entries, and the winning proposer will be invited to follow the landing in person from ESA’s mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany.
Note: The competition opens today and runs until 23:59 GMT on October 22. The winner will be announced on November 3.
Full rules, terms and conditions can be found at:
Credit: CASC
A new story of mine up on Space.com. I’ve tried to piece together an upcoming China mission – little on official details at the moment:
China prepares next Moon mission – a test of reentry technology needed for future sample return program.
Credit: LuxSpace
China Readies Moon Mission for Launch Next Week
http://www.space.com/27422-china-moon-mission-launch-october.html
