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Romania it was onece a communist state under military and economic control of the USSR
Romanian cosmonaut's 25th space anniversary taken as occasion to launch SURE initiative
8 March 2006
An overwhelming response to the SURE initiative awaited the SURE team in Romania: 80 participants from the industrial and science sector attended the information workshop in Bucharest.
http://www.esa.int/esaHS/SEMTM9NVGJE_business_0.html
The president of the Romanian Space Agency, Marius Ioan Piso, explained the importance of the SURE announcement of opportunity: “Romania is the third ex-communist country, after the Czech Republic and Hungary, to sign a cooperation agreement with the European Space Agency. Right now, the European Space Agency counts 15 EU member states and soon there will also be Romania. ESA and the European Union proposed the participation of Romanian scientists and industry to scientific experiments, applications and technology development for the market on board the International Space Station (ISS). There are certain high-tech products that can only be achieved in microgravity conditions. These conditions that do not exist on Earth, are made available by ESA and the ISS.”
The day after the SURE workshop, Romania signed the European Cooperating States Agreement, a bilateral engagement between Romania and ESA, which allows Romania to participate indirectly in all ESA procurements and activities.
Kill the ISS now?
I totally agree that ISS has been over-priced and very badly managed, but there are worse programs.
However all the ISS burden isn't on NASA, Russia has built iss modules and airlocks and laucnhed many payloads, the ESA have given money to the ISS for experiments, Olsen paid for his trip, the Canadians have built the arm to the station and Japan has invested in the ISS.
The ISS is a total mess and costs have over run,
however some good science might come out of it yet. Studies in material science, Microgravity experiments, investagation of long duration space flight, building a fully functional space station that we can use as a test bed for human Mars missions, there are plans for Multipurpose Labs and the Japanese Kibo module, the next astronaut/cosmonaut fom Brazil may be doing experiments in nano-tech.
Shuttle started good - it had done great missions in the past and has been a complex vehicle, however it is not safe and hasn't met the goal of greatly reducing launch costs. Counting up the cost of building Shuttle, training and facilities...we discover Shuttle costs $1 billion per launch
and unlike the Space station ( international burden ) only NASA/USA are paying for Shuttle
the advent of adaptive optics telescopes on the ground.
Adpative Optics are sooo over-hyped ever since those guys at Keck published that pretty Uranus picture
I do agree that ground based telescopes and adpative optics can take some great photos and do some very important science
but the problem is many of the anti-Space lobby are using the 'Adpative-Optics' excuse to keep us stuck on the ground.
Space telescopes are highly important, that's why Russia, NASA, the ESA, China and Japan all have had plans for observations and telescopes in space. However - Adaptive optics are totally over-sold and over-rated by ground based guys that say it is a magic tool or wrongly fear funding may taken away be put into space. Plus 'adapative optics' is not some magic wand, otherwise people wouldn't be lauching space telescopes and people wouln't be talking about saving Hubble.
The Space telescope will remain a very important part of science and go out in space for a long time to come. A ground scope can't look at one point in the sky for 30 hours straight. Telescopes on the ground have the Earth blocking much of their view and the night and day sequence dispurts viewing
Ground based scopes can't image the atmosphere of exo-planets..something that may be done by NASA's TPF and ESA's Darwin...
ground based adaptive optics can't do sqaut here we need a space mission for this.and some Apaptive Optics fans don't want to build a TPF or telescope on the Moon
Our atmosphere blocks much of the spectrum, we have a window in visible light, almost no real UV, a small window in infrared IR, and a big window Radio frequency
adaptive optics can't view a spectrum that is already invisble from Earth.
There are also issues of protection, vandalism, theft, terrorism and security to deal with on earth based observatories. Hurricane systems produce bad cloud over over the ground and bad weather plays a role, this is perhaps why scopes like Chandra XMM-Newton, Spitzer can do better work on missions like Deep impact.
Ground scopes can not probe 'Blind Spot' there could be many potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) out there but there is a notorious 'blind spot' that telescopes on Earth can never peer into.
But they have announced a new LV with the Russians--the Oural. I would like to see Ariane M myself--or this concept:
Yes Publiusr,
I have some ideas about what's going on in the background from people I know but I'd like to ask a few more questions directly on this issue, does anyone here work for European space or work at the ESA ?
Here's what I think about it - ever since the tragic Columbia disaster where the Shuttle became fireball over Texas, things have changed the Canadians, ESA and Japanese have become worried about their experiements on the ISS ( which depended on the STS-Shuttle ) and the Russians and China have been pushing forward with their manned missions. Foreign space plans have started to change, the ESA no longer uses Shuttle to launch its joint NASA/ESA projects and a future JWST will likely be lifted by the Ariane. European plans to develop a more powerful launcher and deploy next-generation manned spacecraft appear to have accelerated
In the background I have seen plans for future launcher like Russia's Angara-100 or an Ariane-6 or ESA's Ariane M -
None of these Heavy launchers seem serious yet as they are only proposals or in the study/design phase ( and it seems both projects might become a joint mission down the road )
If ESA/Russia are going to do a joint rocket two important things must happen first
-
ESA must launch their latest Ariane to lift the ATV ( even though ATV is not a manned flight this will help them gain experience in manned support vessels for cosmonauts & astronauts )
-
Russia must first launch their latest Soyuz launcher from French Guiana, the Russians have already launched European probes by Baikonor/Soyuz and lately Arianespace with Roscosmos have already signed contracts for Soyuz operation at Kourou.
I would think French and ESA's Ariane-6 plans or Angara100 designs likely to be shelved or re-named the Oural/URAL program this program has already started with the study of technology needed for a launcher in co-operation with Russia, however this launcher might lift 100 tonnes to orbit with power like a Saturn-V. The French Space Agency (CNES) and Roscosmos have already agreed to collaborate on the design of future Heavy Lift. This will be part of a 5-year program ( 2005-2010 ? 2006-2011 ? ). This has been named Oural - it seems French are to provide millions of Euros in funding so France/Russian tech can work in harmony for heavy lift. Part of the project will be production of new cryogenic tank material, testing technology on the upcoming Soyuz-Guiana flight, building of experimental liquid oxygen-methane engines, plus a demonstrator re-entry gliding vehicle called Pre-X ( however this Pre-X might be shelved in favour of Kliper ). It appears several studies have already come forth in order to determine if it is right for ESA to develop a new Ariane-6 or would it be better to do a joint Oural/Ural launcher with the Russians.
some more sad news
Dawn mission is over
We already heard in other threads that research on the Red-planet has been cut by $243.3 million to $700.2 million
NASA Science in Free Fall By Jonathan McDowell
http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1691_1.asp
...
The 2007 budget also axed the Terrestrial Planet Finder, delayed the SIM interferometry testbed, and slated the SOFIA airborne infrared observatory for almost-certain cancellation. SOFIA was in the final stages of construction. The Beyond Einstein series of high-energy missions, including Constellation-X and the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), is being kept alive with only a trickle of funding. Even ground-based projects such as the long-planned Keck Interferometer outrigger telescopes have been sent to a premature grave.
http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1691_1.asp
Morale is plummeting in the US space science community as senior scientists see years of work evaporate with a stroke of the financial pen, and young astronomy PhDs are wondering whether a career in the field is even possible. How US astronomy will take shape in the coming months and years remains in question as the food fight over how to reslice the shrinking funding pie begins.
Mars is not an easy planet but China should send a robot craft to Mars
China Start Mars Exploration?
http://www.china.org.cn/english/scitech/69510.htm
You don't need to tell people here how space is important - we are all space fans here !
NASA does however depend on current US economics and general public support from non-space fans, NASA has done some of the greatest things in Space and wonderful missions is the past like Viking, Apollo and Voyager but today's Shuttle is eating NASA's budget and missions like MTO getting cancelled has some worried.
Dawn: To Ceres & Vesta
http://www.newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1503
mission shut down, due to budget cutting it never was allowed take-off
What's Killing JWST
March 7, 2006
The primary reason JWST is having trouble is NPOESS (National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System). Much of JWST software and hardware development is tied to NPOESS. Some overruns in NPOESS have been fixed by moving the development of common or hardware and software from NPOESS to JWST, then back to NPOESS.
http://www.usspacenews.com/
This has had the effect of moving the overruns from one program to a second. JWST is considered harder to kill than NPOESS so better able to absorb the overrun. JWST is critical to understanding the universe. NPOESS should not be allowed to drag it down. Sources tell us NASA is considering cancelling JWST and restarting the mission in FY 2008-2009
see also
'The vision of the James Webb Space Telescope, the future successor to Hubble, should be dimmed to cut cost overruns', say the astronomers forming the telescope's Science Assessment Team.
http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/dn7908
The JWST, set to launch no earlier than 2011, will primarily study infrared wavelengths. But it was also designed to probe shorter wavelengths, reaching down to 0.6 microns. That falls into the range of visible light and overlaps with the Hubble Space Telescope, which is likely to fail as early as 2007 unless it receives new gyroscopes and batteries.
But the JWST is already $1 billion over its budget and this week a panel of scientists recommended reducing the shorter wavelengths that Webb can readily see. The change would mean the telescope could see clearly down to wavelengths of about 1.7 microns, in the infrared band of the spectrum. But it would not be able to view the visible range down to 0.6 microns unless it spends 50% longer on its observations.
Cost cuts likely to dim space telescope’s vision
Europe has gone through a number of launch sites and a number of rockets over the years, the Swedish test sounding rockets at Esrange, the British did small launches from Australia, France had a rocket base in Algeria, the Spanish studied a Capricornio launcher and the Italian ASI have tested rockets at San Marcoin Kenya but the most important European lifter has been the Ariane. The French started Ariane back in the 70s with an attempt for Europe to develop its own launcher. From the year 1979 to 1988 the Europeans have launched models Ariane 1,2,3 and Ariane 4. The Ariane-V is their latest launcher there are future plans for an Ariane-ES-ATV, the Ariane has launched many important missions such as the Smart-1 spacecraft, Giotto, XMM-Newton, ISO, Rosetta....howeevr as powerful as the Ariane is it can not be compared to the giants like Saturn-V or Energia. The future Euro-HLLV would launch massive payloads into orbit, but I think Ariane-M would need a massive change in European space policy for it to be built.
another item here
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/500/1
Making the case for Ariane 6
another mention here PDF
http://staging.snapmedia.com:8080/docs/document3.pdf.
race to Mars and Ariane-M
*Sweden joins. Italy increases its involvement. :up:
Canada is a "Cooperating State" and is increasing its contribution.
I decided to start a new thread for this. One pertaining to this program is in the wrong folder (Unmanned Probes), the other deals more with launch capabilities and technical issues -- then went off-topic.
Anyway...nice to know the competition is out there and growing.
--Cindy
Aurora is ESA’s first step in human space exploration outside the low Earth orbits used for the Russian space station MIR and the International Space Station (ISS).
http://www.aurora.rl.ac.uk/Aurora_info.htm
European Mars
http://www.martiansoil.com/archives/cat_esa.php
ESA Programs Discussion
http://marsdrive.com/node/187?PHPSESSID … 179d95e518
ESA's Aurora
http://lunartech.org/aurora/aurora.html
check out this video
http://a1862.g.akamai.net/7/1862/14448/ … _small.mov
detailed clip on Aurora
Ulysses Status Report - February 2006
15 Feb 2006 13:22
Mission Status
All spacecraft subsystems are operating nominally. On 1 February 2006, Ulysses will be at a radial distance of 4.35 AU from the Sun, and heliographic latitude 40° south of the solar equator.
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object … ctid=38804
As reported earlier, Ulysses was one of the missions reviewed by NASA's Sun-Solar System Connections Senior Review panel at its meeting on 14-15 November. The formal recommendations from the Review are expected to be made known early in this year.
Integral looks at Earth to seek source of cosmic radiation
http://www.brightsurf.com/news/headline … leID=23039
http://www.bnsc.gov.uk/default.aspx?nid=5524
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/ … 021306.php
more on ESA's Integral here
http://www.newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3901
Cosmic space is filled with continuous, diffuse high-energy radiation. To find out how this energy is produced, the scientists behind ESA’s Integral gamma-ray observatory have tried an unusual method: observing Earth from space.
During a four-phase observation campaign started on 24 January this year, continued until 9 February, Integral has been looking at Earth. Needing complex control operations from the ground, the satellite has been kept in a fixed orientation in space, while waiting for Earth to drift through its field of view.
Unusually, the main objective of these observations is not Earth itself, but what can be seen in the background when Earth moves in front of the satellite. This is the origin of the diffuse high-energy radiation known as the ‘cosmic X-ray background’.
Until now with Integral, this was never studied simultaneously with such a broad band of energy coverage since the 1970s, and certainly not with such advanced instruments.
Astronomers believe that the ‘cosmic X-ray background’ is produced by numerous supermassive and accreting black holes, distributed throughout deep space. These powerful monsters attract matter, which is then hugely accelerated and so emit high energy in the form of gamma- and X-rays.
X-ray observatories such as ESA’s XMM-Newton and NASA’s Chandra have been able to identify and directly count a large number of individual sources – likely black holes – that already account for more than 80 percent of the measured cosmic diffuse X-ray background.
COROT was delivered at the start of the new year and is undergoing validation to prepare it for launch in October. This Corot exoplanet mission will use its telescope to monitor closely the changes in a star’s brightness that comes from a planet crossing in front of it. In each field of view there will be one main target star for the asteroseismology as well as up to nine other targets. Simultaneously, it will be recording the brightness of 12,000 stars brighter than apparent magnitude 15.5 for the exo-planet study. The COROT project will contribute to the search for habitable, Earth-like planets around other stars.The mission was first started by the French back in 1996, and later the European members of ESA joined the mission, the Russians will help launch it by Soyuz-Fregat at BaikonurCorot is an astronomy satellite and is part of the CNES/French missions programme and has two scientific goals - to investigate the internal structure of stars by observing their natural oscillation modes, and to seek planets similar to Earth around nearby stars.
http://www.newmars.com/forums/viewtopic … c&start=20
COROT (COnvection ROtation and planetary Transits) is a mission led by the French National Space Agency, CNES. It is a 30-centimetre diameter space telescope designed to detect tiny changes in brightness from nearby stars. Launch is scheduled this year from Russia - occultation method searches for planetary transits when the planet passes in front of its parent star.
COROT has two scientific objectives :
The stellar seismology Central Program
5 fields observed during 150 days each. Each field holds 1 primary target (Spectral types F, G, K or Scuti brighter than mv = 6) and additionnal targets (maximum 9 by field).
Exploratory Program
They are shorter programs (30 days). There will have 5 of them during the mission. They will study stars with magnitude mv < 9 of varied spectral types.
The search for exoplanets (telluric)
Method
Occultation determination.
Simultaneous observation of 12000 stars with a magnitude < 15.5 "
That's a total of 60,000 stars which will be searched throughout the primary mission.
COROT, is an important stepping stone in the European effort to find habitable, Earth-like planets around other stars. ESA joined the mission in October 2000 by agreeing to provide the optics for the telescope and test the payload at its European Space Research and Technology Centre in the Netherlands.
The Indian space agency is almost set to send an unmanned spacecraft to the Moon which will then take a polar orbit. Space technology has allowed the nation of India to move into the world of high technology, a place previously occupied only by more-developed nations. Indian launch vehicles include the Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV), the Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV), the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). Indian cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma spent eight days in 1984 aboard the USSR's space station Salyut-7. India will be launching ist moon missions, ISRO's 525-kg Orbiter, scheduled for launch by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in 2007, would hover at 100 km over the moon to gather data on mineral resources and water.During two years, it is supposed to survey the lunar surface to produce a complete map of its chemical characteristics and 3-dimensional topography.
http://www.newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2137
India to launch lunar exploration vehicle Chandrayan-I in 2007-08
Planck is the first European mission to study the birth of the Universe, Planck will look back at the dawn of time, close to the Big Bang, and will observe the most ancient radiation in the Universe, known as the 'cosmic microwave background'. More than 40 European and some US scientific institutes will participate in the construction of the instruments. An Ariane-5 launcher will carry Planck into space in July 2007. Saab Ericson Space in Sweden will give the Attitude Control Computer its Central Data Management Unit, Ametek United States will give Planck the Reaction Control System's Latch Valves, Northrop Grumman United States provides the Attitude Control Management System - Gyroscope, Datasat United Kingdom will provide the Electrical Engineering Support, Alcatel Espacio in Spain will build the Radio Frequency Distribution Network's X-Band Transponder.Planck's objective is to analyse, with the highest accuracy ever achieved, the remnants of the radiation that filled the Universe immediately after the Big Bang, which we observe today as the Cosmic Microwave Background.
http://www.newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3903
Planck is scheduled to fly in 2007, It seems Planck and Herschel will be launched together to save money.
This Lisa-Pathfinder-2009 is part of Europe's 'SmallMissions-for-Advanced ResearchTechnology' , there are other gravitational wave telescopes already in operation on Earth, but their science is limited by practical arm interference from moving masses on the planet e.g., ships, logging operations, aircraft and highway traffic around the telescope interfere with the results and produce gravational noise .ESA's mission Lisa-Pathfinder-2009 will test out tech needed for NASA's future mission 'LISA- 2015'
http://www.newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3212
Status for NASA's 2015-LISA is uncertain, the recent NASA budegt caused the mission to be "delayed indefinitely".
Don't jump the gun yet, most NASA projects do become cost over-runs because they require difficult new designs and invention of non-existing equipment and ground breaking tech, most NASA missions are cutting-edge detectors and craft are usually behind schedule because nothing like them had been built.
Today we see budget cuts but these type of cuts could spread to other missions
2006 budget supports the CEV, but they already made a threat to cut down Voyager, NuSTAR was knocked back, plans for new EELVs have been dumped, SOFIA cut, beancounters at NASA work that with SDLVs there might not be enough demand to fly a heavy-lift vehicle on a daily basis, Constellation & CEV were in danger during the 35th anniversary of the Apollo 11 as the panel thought about a slash to funds, also MTO got axed plus there are many more problems such as getting the Shuttle to return, in the recent state of union address Bush did not utter the 'NASA' word once.
Under the current climate with rising debts from Iraq, the Katrina fiasco and large deficts people could ask what mission really is safe ?
Don't worry Gordon I was talkig with a few of my mainland pals and humanity will be forced to evolve sooner or later despite the Katrina blunder and Iraq fiasco, pathetic earthlings it's such a pity the American flame has burnt out so sudden becuase they had such great potential.
ESA Venus Express Status: Payload Check-out Activities
http://www.venustoday.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=19746
STATUS REPORT
Date Released: Saturday, February 25, 2006
Report for Period 17 February to 23 February 2006
After the successful calibration test of the Main Engine flight activities have focused on payloads check-out activities. The ground segment and industrial teams are busy with the processing of the data acquired during the Main Engine test and are preparing the trim manoeuvre that shall put the spacecraft on the final trajectory to the target point.
Spacecraft Maintenance
20 Feb 2006 13:51
Report for Period 27 January - 17 February 2006
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object … ctid=38825
The reporting period covers three weeks of passive cruise, during which important maintenance activities and a test with the RPC instrument were carried out.
Griffin has stated that he will consider the possibility of a manned servicing mission.
HST has been used in a gyroscope preservation mode, and may be serviced in 2008 or 2009, depending on how well the redesign of the Space Shuttle goes.
Making the case for Ariane 6
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/500/1
European Launcher for Manned Mars Missions
http://www.marssociety.de/html/index...00000000000000
very heavy launch vehicle based on Ariane 5 elements to perform a European Manned Mars Mission
Crater Billy
Date: 16 Feb 2006
Satellite: SMART-1
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object … ctid=38821
Crater Billy, located at 50.1° W, 13.8° S on the lunar surface at the southern edge of Oceanus Procellarum, has a diameter of 46 km and is up to 1.3 km deep.