News ESA's Future: The News and Updates Thread

[Notebook]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36786915

The European Space Agency has signed a contract to build a prototype drill and chemistry lab that will be flown on a Russian mission to the Moon in 2021.

Known as Prospect, the instrument package will be a key contribution to Moscow's Luna-Resurs venture.

The equipment will pull up sub-surface material and analyse it for the presence of water and other substances.

The €8m (£10m) deal was signed at the Farnborough Air Show.

Hurrah, mining on the Moon. I can do that.

N.

 

[orb]

Spaceflight Now: Ariane 6 rocket holding to schedule for 2020 maiden flight

 

[Notebook]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Launchers/Ariane_6_on_track

9 November 2016
After a programme review completed in September, ESA is now in a position to proceed with the full development of its Ariane 6 and Vega C launch vehicles.

 

[Notebook]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/S...king_technology/Making_space_missions_smarter

Engineering models of the latest Next Generation Microprocessor (NGMP) are currently undergoing evaluation. It’s exciting, because their performance will boost the broad range of capabilities of our space missions for years to come. 
The NGMP is a quadcore design – common in modern games consoles, laptops, and even mobile phones – that combines four embedded LEON4 processor cores – the latest in a series that began with the LEON2-FT, developed at ESA from the second half of the 1990s.

 

[Notebook]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/S...logy/Software_at_the_service_of_space_science

Peter van der Plas, software engineer
Each interplanetary mission that ESA flies carries a multitude of instruments. These spacecraft are headed to pretty inaccessible deep space destinations, so the aim is always to survey as many different aspects of these target environments as possible. 
Usually each one of these instruments is contributed by the scientific community – designed by universities or research institutes and overseen by a senior scientist termed a ‘Principal Investigator’. Rosetta, for instance, had 11 different instruments on the orbiter, plus another seven on its lander.

MAPPS: A science planning tool supporting the ESA Solar System missions
http://arc.aiaa.org/doi/pdf/10.2514/6.2016-2512

 

[Notebook]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38183188

Europe will push ahead with its plan to put a UK-assembled robotic rover on the surface of Mars in 2021.
Research ministers meeting in Lucerne, Switzerland, have agreed to stump up the outstanding €436m euros needed to take the project through to completion.
The mission is late and is costing far more than originally envisaged, prompting fears that European Space Agency member states might abandon it.
But the ministers have emphatically reaffirmed their commitment to it.

 

[Notebook]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/H...Service_Module_for_first_crewed_Orion_mission

December 2016
ESA and NASA are extending their collaboration in human space exploration following confirmation that Europe will supply a second Service Module to support the first crewed mission of the Orion spacecraft.

 

[Notebook]

http://www.esa.int/About_Us/ESAC/Full_go-ahead_for_building_ExoMars_2020

19 December 2016
The first ExoMars mission arrived at the Red Planet in October and now the second mission has been confirmed to complete its construction for a 2020 launch. 
ESA and Thales Alenia Space signed a contract today that secures the completion of the European elements of the next mission.
The main objective of the ExoMars programme is to address one of the most outstanding scientific questions of our time: is there, or has there ever been, life on Mars?

 

[Notebook]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/S..._Ariane_6_mobile_gantry_at_Europe_s_Spaceport

27 November 2017
The first structural element of the mobile gantry that will house and protect Ariane 6 before launch has been assembled.
The mobile gantry is a 90 m-high, nine-storey structure weighing 8200 tonnes. Riding on rails, it is retracted before launch.

 

[Notebook]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/S..._Ariane_6_mobile_gantry_at_Europe_s_Spaceport

27 November 2017
The first structural element of the mobile gantry that will house and protect Ariane 6 before launch has been assembled.
The mobile gantry is a 90 m-high, nine-storey structure weighing 8200 tonnes. Riding on rails, it is retracted before launch.

 

[Notebook]

11 December 2017
A new technique combining Galileo and other satnav constellations to rapidly deliver smaller than hand-sized positioning accuracy has been proven using signals from all over Earth.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/S...satnav_accuracy_down_to_the_palm_of_your_hand

 

[Notebook]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Transportation/ESA_Euronews_Ariane_6

Last two minutes show Ariane 1, should have been BLUE STREAK there!

N.

 

[Urwumpe]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Transportation/ESA_Euronews_Ariane_6

Last two minutes show Ariane 1, should have been BLUE STREAK there!

N.

Well, Blue Streak was WAY before ESA, even before ELDO. :lol:

 

[Notebook]

Yes, a shocking waste of a design.

N.

 

[Urwumpe]

Yes, a shocking waste of a design.

N.

Well, also it was about the first launch from Kourou, which if at all, would have been a French Diamond B rocket...:lol:

 

[Notebook]

Precursor(nearly) to the Europa series:

https://web.archive.org/web/2012031...itain-in-space.co.uk:80/1950/blackprince.html

What Blue Streak could have been:

http://www.spaceuk.org/bstreak/bs/bs_centaur.html

Ho-hum, I've winged about this many atimes, just irritates that a decent rocket prog got scrapped.

N.

 

[Urwumpe]

Ho-hum, I've winged about this many atimes, just irritates that a decent rocket prog got scrapped.

Well, hard to tell how this happened, but UK leaving ELDO already in 1972 might have been a reason. After all, the Blue Streak was first stage for the Europa.

 

[Notebook]

Indeed it was, never proven as the Medium Range Ballistic Missile. Developed from Rocketdyne and Convair, the ATLAS ICBM.
Should have been developed further.
Still, we do have Reaction Engines!

N.

 

[Urwumpe]

Still, we do have Reaction Engines!

N.

Well, if there is a British curse, it must be something like this: Like for example your motorcycle industry, you are trying building things the hardest and technologically most sophistical way, only to be defeated by simpler cheaper technology from abroad.

As much as I like the Skylon project, I fear it will never be that much cheaper that it could have a chance against the Ariane 6 in ESA politics. After all - what could France do for a Skylon?

 

[Notebook]

Skylon well may never get off the ground, my hope is SABRE engine will.

N.

There was an earlier version...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon_(Festival_of_Britain)