Space fairing Nations - The ever changing view

SpaceNut · 2005-04-18 05:22:19

Here is a wrapup of the Dart project:

The technology is deemed crucial to NASA's plans for new spacecraft and perhaps returning to the moon or going to Mars. Automated spaceflight would allow spacecraft to be assembled in space from several rocket launches by using machines to avoid risking astronauts' lives. Also, NASA engineers believe automated systems might take the pressure of space docking off a spacecraft's pilot.

A NASA robotic spacecraft equipped with navigational computers and sensors was launched into orbit Friday to rendezvous with a Pentagon satellite without the help of astronauts or human controllers.

If the $95 million now $110 million mission after a 6 month delay is successful, it could lay the groundwork for future projects like robotic delivery of cargo to space shuttles and automated docking and repair between spacecraft in orbit.

The DART spacecraft — short for Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology — was mounted and launched from a Stargazer L-1011 aircraft at 10:25 a.m. PDT. The mission originated from Vandenberg Air Force Base.

The aircraft carried the 800-pound DART, which was mated to a Pegasus winged rocket, over the Pacific Ocean and released it at an altitude of about 30,000 feet.

DART was designed to catch up with the Pentagon satellite flying 472 miles above Earth. The satellite was launched in 1999 and carries special reflectors for use in guidance systems similar to the one aboard DART.

DART is expected to run through about 50 preprogramed sets of rendezvous maneuvers, including flying around the satellite, moving in close, backing away and descending from above the spacecraft. For its debut test flight, DART will not come closer than about 16 feet to Multiple Paths Beyond Line-of-Site Communications (MUBLCOM).

Before its battery power runs out, DART will put itself in position to re-enter Earth's atmosphere and fire its engines. The spacecraft will be incinerated to avoid becoming another piece of space junk orbiting Earth.

DART safely reached its planned 300-mile-high parking orbit. A systems checkout was scheduled before DART fires its own booster to climb another 170 miles.

At that point, the spacecraft will begin tracking its target, which should be about 24 miles in front of and 4 1/2 miles above DART.

The 800-pound DART successfully met its target satellite and approached within about 300 feet, but managers noticed it was using fuel too fast.

The guidance system sensed the emptying fuel tank and commanded the spacecraft to retreat and enter the safe orbit that should lead it to burn up in the atmosphere within 10 years or possibly 25 as noted in other sources.

This DART's flight comes on the heels of another autonomous satellite, XSS-11, launched Monday, April 11, also from Vandenberg. XSS-11 was built by the U.S. Air Force to rendezvous with and inspect other satellites and space debris. Observers have also noted that its mission could be altered to include intercepting and damaging or destroying other satellites — although the Air Force officially has not acknowledged offensive satellite weapons.

SpaceNut · 2005-04-20 05:34:27

While some would say that the dart program was a success based on the fact that it was launched on a pegasus rocket which caused it to no nearly have enough fuel to complete its mission.

DART Team Hopes To Validate Technology With Ground Tests

Hopefully, further tests will provide "a high degree of confidence that it would have done what it was supposed to do," according to Jim Snoddy, DART project manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. "The same [guidance] box that flew was tested on the ground. We knew all that worked, we just wanted to prove it in the environment of space."

I for one am still wondering what caused the excess fuel consumption? Seems the article has the answer to my question. But where did the niose come from?

Following launch, the Orbital Sciences-built DART spacecraft used Global Positioning System (GPS) data to approach another Orbital satellite, the Multiple Paths Beyond Line-of-Sight Communications (MUBLCOM) spacecraft, roughly 500 miles away. "I don't think anybody has ever autonomously gone up and found an object in space without any [human] intervention," Snoddy told The DAILY.
However, due to "noise" in the GPS data, DART's thrusters made many more small course-correction firings than had been expected, depleting the spacecraft's fuel early, Snoddy said. A mishap investigation board is being formed at Marshall to probe the fault.

There is a follow on mission other than the previously mentioned military unit. To test out p[ossibly more of the automated navigation system.

A similar video guidance sensor will be used for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Orbital Express program, which in 2006 will launch two mated spacecraft that will separate and then re-dock in orbit. "There's a few small differences, but [95 percent of] that box will be the same as this one," Snoddy said. "We're hoping to prove that this one works so we'll know what to tell them to do better."

Palomar · 2005-04-22 11:01:18

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/05 … e.html]The spin is in?

*I'm skeptical. Sounds like "spin" to me.

--Cindy

SpaceNut · 2005-04-22 11:16:14

Sounds like there sensing system was way off.
Any way they can they will say that they were successful but IMO they failed due to budget pressure.

SpaceNut · 2005-05-06 10:22:00

It appears that others are pointing blame on a software change that occurred just prior to launching the unit.

NASA Announces DART Mishap Investigation Board Members

Nasawatch page quote:

Did Bad Software Botch DART's Mission?
Editor's note: Word has it that one of the things being pursued by NASA MSFC's DART Mishap Investigation Board in its investigation of what went wrong with DART is a software change that NASA MSFC managers forced on the mission's contractors just 2 weeks before launch. The change supposedly had to do with the software that recalculates cold gas depletion based on usage during the mission. It would seem that when DART's computer thought there was not enough gas left it actually still 30%. Stay Tuned.

SpaceNut · 2005-05-13 05:20:24

While we hear little from the UK other than the ocasion blurb about the retiring of the Skylark. They have not sat idlely by. Starchaser To Unveil UK's Most Powerful Rocket Engine a design thrust of 147,000 Newtons (33,000lbs), fueled by a combination of JetA1 aviation fuel and cryogenic liquid oxygen.

SpaceNut · 2005-05-20 10:35:02

China continues to make strides in space flight as it is developing the means for lunar landing.
Laser altimeter developed for lunar orbiter

Wang Jianyu, head of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, announced on Monday that after two years' research, his institute has finished developing a laser altimeter for Chang'e 1, China's first lunar orbiter, due for launch in 2007.

The device will measure the distance between the satellite and the lunar surface through remote sensing technology. It can function over a range of about 200 kilometers, with a five-meter error and one-meter resolution

I think even the LRO is to get images with that resolution.

GCNRevenger · 2005-05-20 13:45:24

Um... the Pentagon has one of those for years, accurate enough to guide missiles. Big deal.

SpaceNut · 2005-06-01 10:47:04

Well there goes the neighborhood.
Iran Makes Ballistic Missile Breakthrough

Iran announced Tuesday it had successfully tested a new solid fuel motor for its arsenal of medium-range ballistic missiles, a technological breakthrough that sparked fresh alarm in Israel.

So we say suborbit is easy.. I would hope not but that does not seem to be the status..

Fledi · 2005-06-01 16:21:51

Yes, the situation is growing hotter every day. We should really get the colonization going before it's too late. It is an ironic coincidence that the same tech that can get us to other worlds is one of the greatest dangers to this.

Grypd · 2005-06-04 15:40:51

India and the Ukraine sign a treaty to promote civilian space between the two countries.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/00 … .htm]Hindu times

For India this gives them a further advance in there unofficial race with China.

SpaceNut · 2005-07-07 10:57:42

Well the steady progress of china is leading to another manned flight.
China Counting Down To Next Men In Space

China has begun training six pilots for spaceflight, two of whom will enter orbit on September's Shenzhou VI mission, domestic media said on Monday, in the next step in the country's lofty space ambitions.

Its only a matter of time and they will be knocking on the ISS door or even launching a mission to the moon.

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2005-07-13 23:40:57

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMF9DLY17E_index_0.html] Vulcain 2 engine now in full production designed for the new Ariane 5 ECA and Ariane 5 ES ATV launchers.

this could become important

Austin Stanley · 2005-07-14 02:00:12

I wish the China good luck, but they have a long hard road infront of them. It took NASA a good 10 years to go from man in space to man on the moon, and that was with the US devoting a much more signifigant portion of it's budget (a not insifigiant portion of the US's GDP realy) then either the US or China is now.

Now while the Chinese have the ground already broken in for them the engineering obsticles bettwen them and the moon are no diffrent then they were for the US. An incredibly difficult challange. Best case scenarior they are another 10 years out at which point hopefully the US will be nearing fruition with it's return to the moon plan. More realisticly it will probably take both the US and China a little longer than that. We could end up seeing a secound space race though. I'm all for it, a little compatition is a good thing.

SpaceNut · 2005-09-28 09:02:52

Well the ever changing face has now a new agreement with Moscow, Seoul To Cooperate In Space Exploration

Korean newspapers said the space center was being built on the South Korean island of Wenarado in the straits that separate Korea from Japan. Korea's KSLV-1 rocket will launch a satellite weighing up to 100kg (220lbs) into orbit. South Korea will continue research to build updated models KSLV-2 and KSLV-3.

Seems Russia is doing a better job of creating real partnerships for space business. Even though there ships are of old technology based from the cold war era but however they are still flying. I can not say that about Nasa as it stands.

publiusr · 2005-10-07 09:35:45

They are passing us.

EuroLauncher · 2005-10-20 08:41:31

Iran remains on cusp of entering satellite club
http://www.janes.com/defence/air_forces … _1_n.shtml

Russian company, which is currently producing the new GLONASS satellites, also recently produced a new satellite for Iran.
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?focu … 448&acat=5

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on the first full day of a politically groundbreaking first visit to Moscow Tuesday signed a 20 million dollar deal to send one of his compatriots into space on a joint Russo-Brazilian mission.
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/iss-05zzzzp.html
Brazil's President In Moscow Signs Deal For Joint Space Mission

Brazil will pay Russia $20 million to take Pontes up into space. Russia has taken other paying customers abroad is rockets including millionaire space tourists
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9737783/
A Russian rocket will take Brazil's first astronaut into space next year for a fee of up to $20 million, representatives of the two countries announced Tuesday.

SpaceNut · 2005-10-25 10:53:52

Say who would have thought that Wisconsin May Open Private Spaceport

federal government appears to have lost interest in NASA, creating space, as it were, for the private sector.

SpaceNut · 2005-11-01 10:07:34

Well Russia and china seem to be interested in joining in on future possible moon missions. Is this just boasting or is it for real.

Russia, China Could Create Spacecraft To Explore Mars, The Moon

How interestingly they talk of mars missions but want the moon.

Russia proposed that both countries develop a small satellite to orbit Mars and that the 2008-2009 Mars exploration program proposed launching one or two light satellites into Mars' orbit to transmit data to earth.
Russia plans to create a satellite to study the Moon by 2012 and proposed that China participate in the project. A final stage in the Moon's exploration could be the creation of conditions for sending cosmonauts there

SpaceNut · 2005-11-03 08:00:25

Short article:

Ukraine is interested in participating in NASA programs, the country's prime minister said Wednesday. "We want to join the current NASA programs," Yuriy Yekhanurov said during a meeting with heads of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in Washington.
He said Ukraine could gain access to NASA projects, including future flights to the Moon, after signing a relevant framework agreement and a memorandum.
Yekhanurov also said a NASA delegation could visit Ukraine in late spring 2006

Does Nasa really need more space partners or is there something more to this?

Grypd · 2005-11-13 07:35:11

The planned lauch of the Arianne 5 ECA has been postpones after a fault was found. The French authorities hope to reschedule the launch today.

Arianne lauch delayed

The Arianne 5 ECA is the largest of the Arianne family and has been prone to technical faults. This was to be the largest launch of satelites that Arianne space has ever accomplished. Its maiden flight in 2002 resulted in an off course rocket and a big delay before it was able to launch again in feb 2005.

It is a modified Arianne 5 that will be used to launch the Jules Verne ATV to supply the ISS

Grypd · 2005-11-13 17:55:56

The latest news is that it was not a fault with the Arianne 5 ECA that caused the recent launch to be scrubbed but that of the actual launch platform/ground station. Still no date or time for a retry.

SpaceNut · 2005-12-05 11:55:26

This thread contains more references on the up coming ISRO lunar mission.
India Awaits Approval For Chandrayan Lunar Mission

India is awaiting clearance from the Bush administration for finalising an American payload on top of India's first ever unmanned moon mission, Chandrayan,

One would have thought that would have already been given otherwise why is nasa in direct contact to fligh our mini-synthetic aperture radar (MSAR). A spectrometer with cpability to measure 0.3 micron to 0.9-micron would be the Nasa contributions to this probe.

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.
The scientific data would also help address questions on life in other parts of the universe and the origin of the universe.
The $89 million project is India's first unmanned moon mission the orbiter is expected to last two years.

EuroLauncher · 2006-03-06 13:38:36

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

Iran is planning to modify one of its powerful Shahab-3 ballistic missiles and use it to blast a satellite to space

South Korea decided to speed up development by joining with Russia, and cooperation began in 2004. South Korea first gained experience with missiles provided by the United States to counter North Korea. KARI is now developing the Korea Space Launch Vehicle, whose first-stage is based on the Angara rocket. First launch of the KSLV is expected in 2007. Russia is also helping to build a spaceport in Goheung County.

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2006-03-09 15:43:07

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.

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#126 2005-04-18 05:22:19

Re: Space fairing Nations - The ever changing view

#127 2005-04-20 05:34:27

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#128 2005-04-22 11:01:18

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#129 2005-04-22 11:16:14

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#140 2005-09-28 09:02:52

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