Video: European Robotic Arm ready for space
Thursday, 08 July 2021 12:55
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The European Robotic Arm (ERA) will be launched to the International Space Station together with the Russian Multipurpose Laboratory Module, called 'Nauka'. ERA is the first robot able to 'walk' around the Russian segment of the Space Station. It has the ability to anchor itself to the Station and move back and forward by itself, hand-over-hand between fixed base-points. This 11-metre intelligent space robot will serve as main manipulator on the Russian part of the Space Station, assisting the astronauts during spacewalks. The robot arm can help install, deploy and replace elements in outer space
ERA is 100% made-in-Europe. A consortium of European companies led by Airbus Defence and Space Netherlands designed and assembled it for ESA. The robotic arm is largely funded by the Dutch government.
Image: Protecting the Meteosat Third Generation–Imaging satellite from the sun
Thursday, 08 July 2021 12:45 Write a comment
From ESA's Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory—one of a suite of labs based at the ESTEC technical center in Noordwijk, the Netherlands—a view from an intricate test campaign for the next generation of European weather satellites.
The near infrared detector assembly of the Flexible Combined Instrument (FCI) imager aboard the Meteosat Third Generation—Imaging (MTG—I) satellite was found to be susceptible to unwanted "stray light" from the sun.
A solution was proposed to reduce this vulnerability: a very thin metal mask would be glued atop the assembly, with carefully designed slits that would allow light to penetrate only in the desired areas, minimizing the entry of stray light.
But the feasibility of this solution needed to be tested, in order to demonstrate if the alloy cover would remain securely in place as incoming direct sunlight heats it up repeatedly during moments of sun intrusion.
Accordingly, a new feature was added to the Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) facility, part of the Materials and Electrical Components Lab. Originally designed as a vacuum chamber to expose samples to mono-energetic electrons down to cryogenic temperature, the ESD was upgraded to host an optical rack to hold a light source to simulate sunlight exposure onto the sample.
NASA Selects Moog to Power and Control VIPER Lunar Rover
Thursday, 08 July 2021 12:24 Write a comment
Moog Inc. report sthat the company's space products have been selected for an upcoming NASA mission to explore the Moon's South Pole. The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, is NASA's first mobile robotic rover mission to the Moon.
VIPER will rely on Moog's radiation-hardened avionics technology to control the rover during its 100-day mission. The Integrated Avionics First Astranis satellite in final phase of assembly
Thursday, 08 July 2021 11:07 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Astranis announced that the first in its line of very small geostationary orbit satellites is entering its final assembly phase for launch in early 2022.
The San Francisco-based company said July 8 that the communications payload for the satellite it’s building for Pacific Dataport Inc.
Supply chain, Artemis program limits SLS use for science missions
Thursday, 08 July 2021 10:30 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — A limited supply chain and the demands of the Artemis program will prevent the use of the Space Launch System for alternative roles, such as launching science missions, until at least late this decade.
In a briefing about the SLS to the steering committee of the planetary science decadal survey July 7, Robert Stough of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center said that if scientists are contemplating missions that require the use of the SLS, they should be talking with NASA now to secure manifest slots no earlier than the late 2020s or early 2030s.
Supply chain, Artemis program limit SLS use for science missions
Thursday, 08 July 2021 10:30 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — A limited supply chain and the demands of the Artemis program will prevent the use of the Space Launch System for alternative roles, such as launching science missions, until at least late this decade.
In a briefing about the SLS to the steering committee of the planetary science decadal survey July 7, Robert Stough of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center said that if scientists are contemplating missions that require the use of the SLS, they should be talking with NASA now to secure manifest slots no earlier than the late 2020s or early 2030s.
How does satellite communication work? ROBert explains all!
Thursday, 08 July 2021 08:00 Write a comment
Trying to explain satellite communication to children is no easy task, so why not let robot host ROBert help? In the third of the ROBert Knows videos created by ESA and PLAYMOBIL, ROBert examines how satellite communication works with a little help from our own expert Director of TIA, Elodie Viau.
Link to Webb launch kit
Thursday, 08 July 2021 06:01 Write a comment
Webb launch kit
Interactive infographics and background information to prepare for Webb's launch
Sea to stars: first Arab woman astronaut in training
Wednesday, 07 July 2021 16:14 Write a comment
The UAE's Nora al-Matrooshi is the first Arab woman to start training to be an astronaut, one of two Emiratis picked from thousands of applicants as the Gulf nation looks to the stars.
The 28-year-old mechanical engineer from Sharjah—one of the seven emirates that make up the UAE—has dreamt about space since she was a girl, learning about planets and stars at school.
And while there are no space missions scheduled, she hopes to have the opportunity to one day visit space, continuing the tradition of exploration begun by her sailor ancestors.
Planet valued at $2.8 billion in SPAC deal
Wednesday, 07 July 2021 14:46 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Planet announced July 7 it will go public in a $2.8 billion deal with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), the second SPAC deal in the Earth observation sector in as many days.
Small amount of lithium production in classical nova
Wednesday, 07 July 2021 12:42 Write a comment
A new study of lithium production in a classical nova found a production rate of only a couple of percent that seen in other examples. This shows that there is a large diversity within classical novae and implies that nova explosions alone cannot explain the amount of lithium seen in the current universe.
Image: The heart of a lunar sensor
Wednesday, 07 July 2021 12:00 Write a comment
The heart of the Exospheric Mass Spectrometer (EMS) is visible in this image of the key sensor that will study the abundance of lunar water and water ice for upcoming missions to the Moon.
This spectrometer is being delivered to NASA today as part of the PITMS instrument for its launch to the Moon later this year.
EMS is based on an 'ion trap', an ingenious detector device that allows researchers to identify and quantify sample atoms and molecules in a gas and allows to establish a corresponding mass spectrum. Scientists at The Open University and RAL Space are developing EMS under an ESA contract.
Lunar molecules entering the sensor are bombarded by electrons emitted by a heated wire to create ions. The resulting ions are stored within an electric field formed by a set of precisely-shaped electrodes. The ions are then released from this 'trap' in order of increasing mass/charge ratio into the detector that identifies and quantifies their chemical makeup.
This will allow the instrument to measure water and other molecules in the very thin atmosphere of the Moon throughout the lunar day to study a lunar 'water cycle' concept.
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A touch of sun New satellite data techniques reveal coastal sea-level rise
Wednesday, 07 July 2021 09:15 Write a comment
For the hundreds of millions of people living in coastal regions around the world, rising seas driven by climate change pose a direct threat. In order for authorities to plan appropriate protection strategies, accurate information on sea-level rise close to the coast is imperative. For various reasons, these measurements are difficult to get from satellites. However, new ESA-funded research demonstrates how a specific way of processing satellite altimetry data now makes it possible to determine sea-level change in coastal areas with millimetre per year accuracy, and even if the sea is covered by ice.
NOAA to take first step toward a small satellite constellation
Wednesday, 07 July 2021 08:00 Write a comment
It’s a good thing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has plenty of time to prepare for its next generation of polar-orbiting weather satellites — because the changes the agency is contemplating are dramatic.
Instead of flying satellites the size of pickup trucks like the current Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), NOAA is exploring the benefits of feeding data supplied by a constellation of small satellites in low Earth orbit into weather forecast models.