News ESA's Future: The News and Updates Thread

[Urwumpe]

And in other news: The service module for EM-1 has left Germany for the USA:

http://blogs.esa.int/orion/2018/11/05/first-european-service-module-enroute-to-usa/

The aircraft is over Greenland right now and will land in Portsmouth soon, after a refueling stop in Hamburg (after only 17 minutes of flight from Bremen airport).

The aircraft is RA-82068.

---------- Post added at 16:22 ---------- Previous post was at 16:21 ----------

And before you are confused, its that Portsmouth:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portsmouth_International_Airport_at_Pease

 

[Notebook]

Still travelling:

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

 

[Notebook]

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

9 November 2018
The ExoMars Landing Site Selection Working Group has recommended Oxia Planum as the landing site for the ESA-Roscosmos rover and surface science platform that will launch to the Red Planet in 2020.
The proposal will be reviewed internally by ESA and Roscosmos with an official confirmation expected mid-2019.

 

[Marijn]

Oxia Planum is just over 400 kilometers east of the Pathfinder landing site. It seems, to me, to be the other shore of a huge river delta area which is situated at the far end of Valles Marineris. But more shallow terrain than Pathfinder. And more cratered. I wonder if they are following up on something.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/NASA-OxiaPlanum-LocationMap-20151021.png

 

[Notebook]

13 November 2018
Space engineers and asteroid experts from across Europe and beyond will gather at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin this week to discuss plans for ‘bonus’ science resulting from humankind’s first spacecraft to explore a binary asteroid system – ESA’s proposed Hera planetary defence mission.

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

 

[Notebook]

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

Thought this technique was already used in industry?

 

[Urwumpe]

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

Thought this technique was already used in industry?

Its a bit more complicated, this article is essentially talking about my paid job: Computer aided engineering.



A part of it describes PDM, product data management, especially keeping data consistent.



Virtual A.I.T touches what is called "virtual validation" outside ESA: Making sure something can actually be build outside the computer. It is still a very complicated thing and only done in bigger companies - and current technology results sometimes in assembly sequences, that require a complicated 4D trajectory for getting a part into the assembly.



But: Assembly, Integration and Testing means more than that, VV only covers assembly. Integration requires fit testing, accessibility and RF compliance for launch vehicles and transport containers. Testing already making sure it works in space before it gets build.



This now means really something new: Virtual AIT requires a FDMU, a functional digital mockup. While DMUs are commonplace today, FDMU are cutting edge technology. A FDMU would be easy if it is just about testing if the solar arrays can deploy, but really complicated if you want to predict how it reacts to solar wind.



A simple FDMU is already way more complicated than the FEM models used in crash simulations - there one special model only needs to work for a few simulated milliseconds and when exceeding a load in simulation #10, simulation #11 will continue at this point lacking a part of the model and get optimized for this calculation.

 

[Notebook]

After a comprehensive review of their scientific merits and technical status, the SPC has decided to extend the operation of the five missions led by ESA's Science Programme: Cluster, Gaia, INTEGRAL, Mars Express, and XMM-Newton. The SPC also confirmed the Agency's contributions to the extended operations of Hinode, Hubble, IRIS, SOHO, and ExoMars TGO.

http://sci.esa.int/director-desk/60943-extended-life-for-esas-science-missions/

 

[Notebook]

http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2018/11/Future_Moon_base

Title Future Moon base
Released 21/11/2018 11:06 am
Copyright RegoLight, visualisation: Liquifer Systems Group, 2018
Description
A vision of a future Moon base that could be produced and maintained using 3D printing.

 

[Notebook]

4 December 2018
Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation system – already serving users globally – has now provided a historic service to the physics community worldwide, enabling the most accurate measurement ever made of how shifts in gravity alter the passing of time, a key element of Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity.
Two European fundamental physics teams working in parallel have independently achieved about a fivefold improvement in measuring accuracy of the gravity-driven time dilation effect known as ‘gravitational redshift’.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/N...n_s_Relativity_Theory_to_highest_accuracy_yet

 

[mahdavi3d]

 

[Notebook]

17 December 2018
Use Europe’s satellite navigation system to seek treasure in virtual mazes or ‘see’ Galileos as they cross the sky above you: two new Android smartphone apps based on Galileo are now available for general download, the results of a competition by ESA trainees.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/N...Galileo_new_Android_smartphone_apps_published

 

[Notebook]

20 December 2018
ESA signed an Implementing Arrangement on 19 December with the Brazilian Space Agency for the setting up and use of telemetry and tracking facilities on Brazilian territory.

www.esa.int/About_Us/Welcome_to_ESA...enting_Arrangement_for_Natal_tracking_station

 

[Notebook]

ESA is looking forward to another interesting year in 2019.
ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano will return to the International Space Station, in Science Cheops will look at exoplanets, while the EDRS-C satellite will start the era of super-fast data relay on orbit.
In Kourou preparation will go full speed for Vega-C, a more powerful version of ESA’s light weight launcher, also paving the way for future Ariane 6.
And in November in Spain at 'Space 19+', the Council at Ministerial level, ESA will propose to its Member States a bold vision for a strong Europe in Space.

http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2018/12/Preview_2019

 

[Notebook]

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

7 January 2019
When ESA’s planned Hera mission journeys to its target binary asteroid system, it will not be alone. The spacecraft will carry two tiny CubeSats for deployment around – and eventual landing on – the Didymos asteroids. Each companion spacecraft will be small enough to fit inside a briefcase, as compared to the desk-sized Hera.

Hera – named after the Greek goddess of marriage – is a candidate ESA mission that will be humankind’s first probe to rendezvous with a binary asteroid system, a little understood class making up around 15% of all known asteroids.

Due to launch in 2023, Hera would travel to a binary asteroid system – the Didymos pair of near-Earth asteroids. The 780 m-diameter mountain-sized main body is orbited by a 160 m moon, informally called ‘Didymoon’, about the same size as the Great Pyramid of Giza.

 

[Urwumpe]

The first launch of the Ariane 6 is now scheduled for July 2020:

https://www.heise.de/newsticker/mel...iane-6-soll-im-Juli-2020-abheben-4269851.html

This means the development is pretty much on schedule, since 2020 is also the year for the first Galileo launches with it.

BTW, the user manual for the Ariane 6 is already available:

http://www.arianespace.com/ariane-6/

 

[Notebook]

4 February 2019
A kite-blown science expedition to the interior of Antarctica has made the most southerly positioning fixes yet made with Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation system.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/N...s_make_most_southerly_Galileo_positioning_fix

 

[Urwumpe]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/N...s_make_most_southerly_Galileo_positioning_fix

Nice - usually, it should be pretty hard to get a good fix beyond the arctic circle with GPS.

 

[Notebook]

5 February 2019
An Ariane 5 has delivered the Saudi Geostationary Satellite 1/Hellas Sat-4 and GSAT-31 telecom satellites into their planned orbits.
Arianespace announced liftoff at 21:01 GMT (22:01 CET, 18:01 local time) this evening from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The mission lasted about 42 minutes.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Transportation/Ariane_5_s_first_launch_of_2019

 

[Notebook]

7 February 2019
The ExoMars rover that will search for the building blocks of life on the Red Planet has a name: Rosalind Franklin.The prominent scientist behind the discovery of the structure of DNA will have her symbolic footprint on Mars in 2021.

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