News ESA's Future: The News and Updates Thread

[Notebook]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42623300

A final order for a batch of 10 Ariane 5 rockets has been raised.
The vehicle, which has been the mainstay of European launcher activity for the past 20 years, will be phased out once its successor is in place.
ArianeGroup, the French-led industrial consortium, expects its new Ariane 6 to be flying no later than mid-2020, and in full operational service in 2023.
At that point, Ariane 5 can be retired. The last order ensures sufficient rockets are available for the handover.

 

[Notebook]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Transportation/Highlights/Ariane_6_launch_site_visit

At Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana, everything is being prepared to accommodate Europe’s newest launcher, Ariane 6.
A new launch pad is under construction and the mobile gantry protecting the launcher will soon be visible.
The new assembly building dimensions can now be fully seen as the outer shell is almost complete.
Ariane 6 will guarantee Europe’s independent access to space and should consolidate Arianespace’s leading role on the satellites launch market.
The first Ariane 6 launch is scheduled for July 2020.
This A & B roll offers a visit of the launch pad under construction in Kourou . It includes an interview with Didier Coulon, ELA 4 Programme Manager, ESA.
Credits: ESA

 

[Notebook]

www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Transportation/Ariane_6_launch_table_takes_shape_in_Kourou

16 February 2018
The table that will support Ariane 6 on the pad is being assembled at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
This 700 tonne steel structure is 4 m high, 20 m long and 18 m wide and sits in the centre of the launch pad. It is so large it had to be dismantled before it was shipped from Germany.

I do like a good launch-table.

N.

 

[Urwumpe]

Interesting to do some research about the companies building it. For example, Donges GmbH has about 200 employees, still it seems to be one of the more active steel building companies in Germany, located in Darmstadt.

MT aerospace is one of the bigger names here, it has the engineering responsibility for the whole launch pad structures, including launch table and service mast. The company has 700 employees, its a spin off of MAN. They are a regular service provider for ESA since the Europa rocket. They have to major offices in Bremen and Augsburg.

http://www.mt-aerospace.de/home.html

Studying their career page and job offers, I must say: They are about to enter a world of pain. They want to let a student do the SAP software development for them. I have seen skilled and experienced C developers crash nearly fatally trying to develop SAP without going through the proper training and long-term qualification. Such projects are facing severe employee fluctuation.

 

[RGClark]

Current ESA head Jan Woerner suggests future ESA launchers should have reusability:

EUROPE’S MOVE.
Posted on 11/02/2018 by Jan Woerner
http://blogs.esa.int/janwoerner/2018/02/11/europes-move/


EUROPE’S MOVE, PART 2.
Posted on 15/02/2018 by Jan Woerner
http://blogs.esa.int/janwoerner/2018/02/15/europes-move-part-2/

Bob Clark

 

[Notebook]

http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Welcome_to_ESA/Croatia_signs_Cooperation_Agreement

9 February 2018
The Republic of Croatia signed a Cooperation Agreement with ESA on 19 February 2018. This agreement will allow Croatia and ESA to create the framework for a more intensive and concrete cooperation related to ESA programmes and activities.

 

[Notebook]

Title Goonhilly
Released 22/02/2018 10:39 am
Copyright GES - Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd.
Description
Goonhilly Earth Station, a commercial tracking station in Cornwall, UK, will be upgraded to provide Europe’s first deep-space services on a commercial basis.
Under the project, the station’s GHY-6 antenna (seen here), built in 1985 and featuring a 32 m-diameter dish, will be upgraded to provide high bit-rate data links for missions far from Earth – typically exceeding 2 million km.
These include not only missions to our somewhat closer Moon, but also to the asteroids and planetary destinations such as Mars.

http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2018/02/Goonhilly2

http://www.goonhilly.org/GES-blog/8...or-european-space-agency-project-to-goonhilly

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/Estrack/Goonhilly_goes_deep_space

 

[Notebook]

5 March 2018
In a world-first, an ESA-led team has built and fired an electric thruster to ingest scarce air molecules from the top of the atmosphere for propellant, opening the way to satellites flying in very low orbits for years on end.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/S...rst_firing_of_air-breathing_electric_thruster

 

[Urwumpe]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/S...rst_firing_of_air-breathing_electric_thruster

That's a really cool technology if it works, might even make LEO space stations a lot easier to operate. :thumbup:

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Okay, THAT is slick. Hats off to the team who came up with the idea and made it work.

 

[Andy44]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/S...rst_firing_of_air-breathing_electric_thruster

Wow, sounds like a Bussard Ramjet!

 

[Marijn]

World-first firing of air-breathing electric thruster

"In a world-first, an ESA-led team has built and fired an electric thruster to ingest scarce air molecules from the top of the atmosphere for propellant, opening the way to satellites flying in very low orbits for years on end."

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/S...rst_firing_of_air-breathing_electric_thruster

 

[Notebook]

9 March 2018
Europe’s first mission to Mercury will soon be ready for shipping to the spaceport to begin final preparations for launch.
The mission passed a major review yesterday, meaning that the three BepiColombo spacecraft, along with ground equipment and mission experts, are confirmed to start the move from ESA’s centre in the Netherlands to Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana at the end of next month. The launch window is open from 5 October until 29 November.

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

 

[Nicholas Kang]

In Sardinia last week, Avio tested the Zefiro 40 (Z40) engine, the second stage propulsion system of the Vega C satellite launcher, an evolution of the current Vega launcher scheduled to lift off for its maiden flight in 2019. This is the first functional test required to qualify this new propulsion system.

 

[Notebook]

Call me Ishmael.

Big harpoon is 'solution to space junk'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-43418047

 

[Notebook]

Nice graphical display of ESA projects:

http://scifleet.esa.int/#/

Wish they hadn't put the grey text on black background.

 

[Nicholas Kang]

New Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 M5 entries!

ESA Selects 3 New Mission Concepts for Study

7 May 2018
A high-energy survey of the early Universe, an infrared observatory to study the formation of stars, planets and galaxies, and a Venus orbiter are to be considered for ESA’s fifth medium class mission in its Cosmic Vision science programme, with a planned launch date in 2032.

The three candidates, the Transient High Energy Sky and Early Universe Surveyor (Theseus), the SPace Infrared telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (Spica), and the EnVision mission to Venus were selected from 25 proposals put forward by the scientific community.

Theseus, Spica and EnVision will be studied in parallel and a final decision is expected in 2021.

The next years will provide a detailed technical and scientific definition of the three concepts, before one mission is selected to fill the fifth medium-class opportunity in ESA’s Cosmic Vision plan.

Solar Orbiter, Euclid, Plato and Ariel have already been selected as medium-class missions to be launched during the next decade.

 

[RGClark]

CNES’ director of launchers talks reusable rockets.
2 June 2018
gosnold
https://satelliteobservation.net/2018/06/02/cnes-director-of-launchers-talks-reusable-rockets/

Seems to be suggesting ESA will be moving to reusable launchers. I don’t see the size of the Themis and Callisto launchers mentioned though. Anyone know the size of these?

Also the article seems to imply they will be phasing out the Vulcain engine, which is too bad. The Vulcain is an excellent engine. Better would be to upgrade it to be reusable like SpaceX did with the Merlin.

Bob Clark

 

[Urwumpe]

See here for the Callisto project, which is not a ESA project, but a cooperation between the ESA members CNES and DLR (Yes, this can be confusing sometimes):

https://www.eucass.eu/doi/EUCASS2017-680.pdf

40 kN thrust of the main engine pretty much limit the maximum takeoff mass to about 3 tons.

EDIT: Here is a paper by the German half of the project:

http://elib.dlr.de/119728/1/406_DUMONT.pdf

 

[4throck]

Very interesting links but I'm skeptical.

I don't see this going beyond demonstration missions.
If successful, ESA would still be years behind SpaceX (and others).