Spaceport Colorado is America's hub for commercial space transportation, research and development.

Horizontal launch spaceports are developing around the world and will become the foundation for a global suborbital transportation network. The U.S. is at the forefront of this next generation of connectivity. Located just 18 minutes from Denver International Airport (DIA), the 11th busiest airport in the world, Spaceport Colorado is conveniently accessible from anywhere. Colorado companies already conduct business with Europe in the morning, Asia in the evening and South America in the same business day. Future suborbital trips will reduce flight times to these destinations to a few hours. Locally, Spaceport Colorado offers hundreds of acres of development opportunity just 40 minutes from downtown Denver and less than an hour from major research universities and laboratories.

TeraComp is an EU-funded project with the objective to develop Terahertz heterodyne receiver components for future European space missions.

Objective

Sub-millimeter wave or terahertz heterodyne receivers are key instruments for many space applications. For example, they are required for monitoring of the earth s atmosphere or detection of molecules that might be tracers of life on other planets or moons. However, key components of these systems are currently supplied from outside Europe and performance as well as mass and power requirements often prohibit the implementation.

The TeraComp project aims at developing European industrial level capability to design and manufacture terahertz front-end electronics based on high frequency Schottky diodes, Hetero-structure Barrier Varactor (HBV) diodes and mHEMT MMICs for space and other applications. The prototype components will be integrated into a compact 557 GHz heterodyne receiver and evaluated for space instrument applications.

This development will significantly contribute to mass and power reduction and it will improve the performance of terahertz heterodyne receivers. In addition, the dependence on critical technologies and capabilities from outside Europe for future space applications will be reduced.

see also: TeraComp on Chalmers website.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), is an agency of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

JMA is charged with gathering and providing results for the public in Japan, that are obtained from data based on daily scientific observation and research into natural phenomena in the fields of meteorology, hydrology, seismology and volcanology, among other related scientific fields. Its headquarters is located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan.

Omnisys Instruments main operations are development and production of high performance electronics hardware, mainly for space industry but also for other scientific, security and medtech applications.

Omnisys two major business areas are:

• Power systems for satellites.
• THz range scientific radiometer instrumentation.

Multifunctional Transport Satellites (MTSAT) are a series of weather and aviation control satellites.

They are geostationary satellites owned and operated by the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), and provide coverage for the hemisphere centred on 140° East; this includes Japan and Australia who are the principal users of the satellite imagery that MTSAT provides.

They replace the GMS-5 satellite, also known as Himawari 5. They can provide imagery in five wavelength bands — visible and four infrared, including the water vapour channel. The visible light camera has a resolution of 1 km; the infrared cameras have 4 km (resolution is lower away from the equator at 140° East). The spacecraft have a planned lifespan of five years. MTSAT-1 and 1R were built by Space Systems/Loral. MTSAT-2 was built by Mitsubishi.

• MTSAT-1R (140 ° E), also known as Himawari 6, was launched February 2005 and is now (Oct. 2013) in standby. It performed 5 years operations.
  
  
• MTSAT-2, also known as Himawari 7, successfully launched 18th February 2006, is operational since 2010  (text dated Oct. 2013). 
  

The ground stations for both satellites are located in Kobe and Hitachiota, Japan.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it.

The organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The USGS is a fact-finding research organization with no regulatory responsibility. The USGS employs approximately 8,600 people and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia, USA. The USGS also has major offices near Lakewood, Colorado, at the Denver Federal Center, and Menlo Park, California.

The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), a nonprofit organization,  is the sole manager of the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory.

The mission of CASIS is to maximize use of this unparalleled platform for innovation, which can benefit all humankind and inspire a new generation to look to the stars.

The organization has been awarded by NASA the responsibility of inciting the imagination of entrepreneurs and scientists alike, accelerating and facilitating space-based research as well as creating public awareness of National Lab research and making space science more accessible to the world.

The High Altitude Drop Test - Balloon Flight Services Program (HADT-BFS) is a project setup to test the parachutes of the future ExoMars program. This project is performed by the Romanian company ARCAS. 

The ExoMars program, consisting of two missions, will be pursued as part of a broad cooperation with the Russian Space Agency ROSCOSMOS. Two missions are foreseen within the ExoMars program for the 2016 and 2018 launch opportunities to Mars.

In order to test the ExoMars concept, ESA will design and build a spacecraft composite named ESA EDL Demonstrator Module. The EDL demonstrator will test the technology of the European Space Agency for landing on the Mars planet surface and will carry out several scientific experiments.

ARCA's role and HADT-BFS objective is testing the atmospheric deceleration parachutes of the EDL module in conditions similar to the ones in the Martian atmosphere. The parameters to be analysed will be parachute deployment speed, parachute stability, the drag coefficient and the overall system stability.

Galactic Suite is a concept of space hotel designed for outer space.

The 'space resort' is designed to orbit the earth at a distance of 450 km, and at a speed of 30,000km, and will accommodate a maximum of four guests and two astronaut-pilots. The first Galactic Suite is due for completion in 2015. The project will establish an integrated space-based tourism concept. It will consist of three pillars; spaceport, spaceship and the space hotel. 

Galactic Suite Group is a Barcelona based company, Spain, which creates oportunities around technology and people to promote a private access to Space. Founded in 2007, the company creates and promotes cutting-edge concepts to foster alliances and help creating relationships among companies and research centres.

Galactic Suite Group is actively involved in the development of a change of paradigm in the space business, where public actors and traditional large contractors will share scenario with smaller private entrepreneurial initiatives, including

• (1) private suborbital flights with reusable spacecrafts able to fly up to 100km and reenter in controlled gliding flights, and staying some minutes in microgravity;
• (2) private spaceports developed by private owners as first stones for complex real state and commercial operations;
• (3) private manned orbital stations to be used as space hotels or scientific private platforms;
• (4) private communications, global positioning systems, remote sensing satellites, provided with reduced sized satellites;
• (5) private access to the Moon or other bodies for mining, responsible exploitation of planetary resources, etc.