News ESA's Future: The News and Updates Thread

4throck

Enthusiast !
Joined
Jun 19, 2008
Messages
3,502
Reaction score
1,008
Points
153
Location
Lisbon
Website
orbiterspaceport.blogspot.com
It all depends on €€€ and political will. ESA lacks both :rofl:
There's a Soyuz pad in Kourou. Why not fly manned from there ?
The Soyuz is capable of reaching lunar orbit...
 

Urwumpe

Not funny anymore
Addon Developer
Donator
Joined
Feb 6, 2008
Messages
37,588
Reaction score
2,312
Points
203
Location
Wolfsburg
Preferred Pronouns
Sire
It all depends on €€€ and political will. ESA lacks both :rofl:
There's a Soyuz pad in Kourou. Why not fly manned from there ?
The Soyuz is capable of reaching lunar orbit...


Well, mostly because it is specialized completely on this "first generation" launch vehicle. You can't use it for anything else. That is fine for the use case intended.



But I am more talking about having a common infrastructure for different launch vehicles on the same pad, only requiring a rented integration hall for getting the launcher assembled near the launch site and integrated into the GSE. No special pad for each launcher causing huge fixed costs independent of the launch rate.
 

Notebook

Addon Developer
Addon Developer
News Reporter
Donator
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Messages
11,813
Reaction score
640
Points
188
ESA / Enabling & Support / Space Transportation
ESA’s Prometheus is the precursor of ultra-low-cost rocket propulsion that is flexible enough to fit a fleet of new launch vehicles for any mission and will be potentially reusable.
At the Space19+ Council meeting in Seville, Spain last November, ESA received full funding to bring the current Prometheus engine design to a technical maturity suitable for industry. Developed by ArianeGroup, Prometheus is now seen as key in the effort to prepare competitive future European access to space.
By applying a design-to-cost approach to manufacturing Prometheus, ESA aims to lower the cost of production by a factor of ten of the current main stage Ariane 5 Vulcain 2 engine.

http://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support...oves_ahead_on_low-cost_reusable_rocket_engine
 

Notebook

Addon Developer
Addon Developer
News Reporter
Donator
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Messages
11,813
Reaction score
640
Points
188
Preparatory testing for Ireland’s first space mission, EIRSAT-1, seen taking place at ESA’s Hertz antenna test chamber.
Educational Irish Research Satellite 1, or EIRSAT-1 for short, is being built by students and staff of University College Dublin, who are participating in ESA Education’s Fly Your Satellite! programme.
At just 22 by 10 by 10 cm, the miniature EIRSAT-1 is smaller than a shoebox but is still equivalent in complexity to a standard space mission.

http://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2020/06/Testing_for_Ireland_s_first_satellite
 

Notebook

Addon Developer
Addon Developer
News Reporter
Donator
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Messages
11,813
Reaction score
640
Points
188
The first artificial intelligence to be carried onboard a European Earth observation mission will be launched this week from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The pioneering artificial intelligence technology named ɸ-sat-1, pronounced PhiSat-1, will be the first experiment to improve the efficiency of sending vast quantities of data back to Earth.

http://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Ph-sat/FSSCat_F-sat-1_ready_for_launch

An A.I. in orbit, what could possibly go wrong?
 

Notebook

Addon Developer
Addon Developer
News Reporter
Donator
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Messages
11,813
Reaction score
640
Points
188

Notebook

Addon Developer
Addon Developer
News Reporter
Donator
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Messages
11,813
Reaction score
640
Points
188
A new sensor to identify lunar volatiles is being assembled in a clean room at The Open University, UK ahead of some exciting missions to the Moon.

The Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer (ITMS) imaged above is a part of an instrument that will detect lunar volatiles from both the extremely thin atmosphere of the Moon and from the lunar soil.

 

Notebook

Addon Developer
Addon Developer
News Reporter
Donator
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Messages
11,813
Reaction score
640
Points
188

North of Sweden and the Arctic Circle, ESA’s Kiruna ground station is celebrating 30 years looking skyward, connecting us to many of our beloved and most pioneering space explorers.
The station, equipped with two dish antennas 15 m and 13 m in diameter, is a crucial space gateway, bringing data down to Earth that lets us study our planet's oceans, water and atmosphere, understand weather patterns and the rapid advance of climate change.
 

Notebook

Addon Developer
Addon Developer
News Reporter
Donator
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Messages
11,813
Reaction score
640
Points
188

Meet the people behind the third European Service Module that will power and propel the next astronauts to land on the Moon in decades. The team at Thales Alenia Space in Turin, Italy pose with the now completed structure that acts as a backbone to the Service Module of the Orion spacecraft.
 

Notebook

Addon Developer
Addon Developer
News Reporter
Donator
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Messages
11,813
Reaction score
640
Points
188
 

4throck

Enthusiast !
Joined
Jun 19, 2008
Messages
3,502
Reaction score
1,008
Points
153
Location
Lisbon
Website
orbiterspaceport.blogspot.com

Made me laugh... demonstrates nothing because a jet engine is not a rocket.
They ignore changing fuel mass and COG (as fuel gets consumed), rocket throttle control, etc.
Essentially they demonstrated the same control you have on a 30€ drone. Useless for rockets.

If this is news for ESA then things don't look bright.
 

Notebook

Addon Developer
Addon Developer
News Reporter
Donator
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Messages
11,813
Reaction score
640
Points
188
Probably helping Romania along the engineering path?
If I was a student there, I'd enjoy it.
 

4throck

Enthusiast !
Joined
Jun 19, 2008
Messages
3,502
Reaction score
1,008
Points
153
Location
Lisbon
Website
orbiterspaceport.blogspot.com
Sure, but that's not what they highlight on the article. They specifically mention booster recovery (meaning SpaceX style landing).
As a student / engineering project of course it's great! :) But not comparable at all to SpaceX...
 

Urwumpe

Not funny anymore
Addon Developer
Donator
Joined
Feb 6, 2008
Messages
37,588
Reaction score
2,312
Points
203
Location
Wolfsburg
Preferred Pronouns
Sire
But not comparable at all to SpaceX...

For copying SpaceX, we have Callisto and RETALT.... RETALT is even specifically investigating a Falcon 9 configuration...

 

Urwumpe

Not funny anymore
Addon Developer
Donator
Joined
Feb 6, 2008
Messages
37,588
Reaction score
2,312
Points
203
Location
Wolfsburg
Preferred Pronouns
Sire
You can now find all Mars Express VMC AKA "Mars Webcam" pictures in the Planetary Science Archive:

 
Top