Copernical Team
Pennsylvania Invests Millions in Astrobotic Technology
Astrobotic Technology, a leading space exploration company, is expanding its presence in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with an ambitious plan to create a 'space campus'. This move is set to bolster the region's reputation as a hub for innovation and space technology.
The company, which was spun out of Carnegie Mellon University in 2007 by William "Red" Whitaker, has acquired a five-story, 46,0 MDA initiates work on a new digital satellite constellation
MDA Ltd. (TSX: MDA), a leading provider of advanced technology and services to the rapidly expanding global space industry, has received an Authorization to Proceed (ATP) contract from an undisclosed customer to start work on a new Non-Geostationary Orbit (NGSO)* satellite constellation. The ATP, valued at approximately $180 million, is to immediately commence engineering and programmatic activi Korean space race? North and South chase spy satellites
North Korea claimed Wednesday to have successfully put its first military surveillance satellite into orbit, with the South also preparing to send up its first spy satellite later this month.
The two launch attempts, set to come in such quick succession, appear to be the beginnings of a space race on the Korean peninsula.
Here, AFP takes a look at what we know about the new competition b Spaceflux and UK Space Command to boost GEO monitoring
Spaceflux, a notable UK space technology company established in 2022, has recently been awarded significant contracts by the UK Space Command and the UK Space Agency. This collaboration is set to significantly enhance the United Kingdom's Space Domain Awareness (SDA) capabilities, focusing particularly on monitoring satellites in the strategically crucial geostationary orbit (GEO).
The com Tracking an errant space rocket to a mysterious crater on the moon
In March 2022, a defunct part of a space rocket hurled toward the moon's surface and impacted near the Hertzsprung Crater, an enormous impact feature on the far side of the moon that is never directly visible from Earth.
Curiously, and unlike any other space hardware that ended up on the moon's surface, this one left behind not one but two craters, causing speculation about what exactly it was that found its final resting place on the moon's surface, according to Tanner Campbell, a doctoral student at the University of Arizona Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering in the College of Engineering and the study's first author.
Paper explores ideal orbits for space-based interferometers
Ever since the telescope was invented in 1608, astronomers have striven for bigger and better telescopes. When it comes to instruments to observe the sky, bigger really is better whether you are observing faint galaxies or planets a larger collector gives higher resolution and brighter images. A paper by Takahiro Ito from the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science in Japan recently posted to the arXiv preprint server looks into different kinds of orbits around Earth which support multiple telescope systems known as interferometers at different orbits.
There is a limit to the size of telescopes based on Earth, they can become so large that they warp under their own weight so it is a constant battle to keep images sharp. An alternative solution is to hook up multiple telescopes so they work together. These interferometers work well on Earth but space-based instruments offer further challenges. In Ito's study, which looks into different types of orbits, it seems there is one orbit in particular that favor the space-based interferometer.
Understanding a satellite's death spiral
Down on the ground, death equals stillness—but not in space. Abandoned satellites are prone to tumble in unpredictable ways, and an ESA project with the Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern sought to better understand this behavior.
ESA's Clean Space initiative has plans to remove dead satellites from highly trafficked orbits. The preferred method of "Active Debris Removal" involves grabbing the target object, in which case knowledge of its precise orientation and motion will be vital. So the need to understand the tumbling that almost all satellites and rocket bodies undergo after their mission end-of-life is clear.
The project combined optical, laser ranging and radar observations to refine an existing "In-Orbit Tumbling Analysis" computer model, aiming to identify, understand and predict the attitude motion of a fully defunct satellite within a few passes. More than 20 objects were observed during a two-year campaign.
The long list of perturbation triggers includes "eddy currents" as internal magnetic fields interact with Earth's magnetosphere, drag from the vestigial atmosphere, gravity gradients between the top of an object and its bottom, outgassing and fuel leaks, the faint but steady push of sunlight—known as "solar radiation pressure"—micrometeoroid and debris impacts, even the sloshing of leftover fuel.
How NASA keeps Ingenuity going after more than 50 flights
More information is always better when it comes to publicly funded space exploration projects. So it's welcome when a NASA engineer takes time out of the assuredly busy work lives to provide an update on everyone's favorite helicopter on Mars. Ingenuity has been having a rough few months, and a new article entitled "The Long Wait," posted by Travis Brown, Chief Engineer on the Ingenuity project, on NASA's website, provides a good amount of detail as to why.
The problems started when Ingenuity took off for flight #52 on April 26th. When the helicopter landed, it was out of range Perseverance, its rover companion, and the helicopter's radio link back to its controllers on Earth. This was intentional, but it meant that Ingenuity's minders didn't know whether the flight had been completed successfully.
Dr. Brown explains why the team would intentionally choose to land the helicopter out of range of Perseverance and details the four main mission priorities for the helicopter's secondary mission.
Collaboration is key to providing security during crises
Representatives of the space industry came together with individuals from ESA member states, user communities and academia on 22-23 November to discuss how space data are being made more secure and accessible in response to an increasing number of crisis situations, such as climate-change related natural disasters.
Watch live: Launch of EIRSAT-1
Watch the live launch broadcast of Ireland’s first satellite EIRSAT-1 on ESA Web TV Channel 2 and ESA YouTube, currently scheduled for 29 November. Coverage of this historic moment is set to begin shortly before 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET) (times to be confirmed).