Laser radar illuminates the way to deep space

Lidar test image

22 February 2012
 
This car was not snapped with a camera but scanned by a 3D imaging lidar, the laser equivalent of radar. ESA is developing the sensor as a navigation aid for exploring deep space.
 
Lidar stands for ‘light detection and ranging’, with a pulsed laser beam scanning targets by measuring the time it takes for the light to bounce back.

The wavelength of light is so much shorter than that of radio waves – measured in billionths of a metre rather than centimetres – so lidar gives much more precise measurements.

 
 

ABSL prototype lidar

Laser ranging is already used for rendezvous and docking in orbit. When ESA’s ATV cargo ferry docks with the International Space Station it bounces laser beams off reflectors on the orbital outpost to judge the distance to within a couple of centimetres.

For missions deeper into our Solar System, ESA hopes to use 3D imaging lidar to build up a complete picture of targets such as a boulder-strewn surface.

This would be like a stereoscopic imager but it would also work in total darkness or blinding sunlight.

“The 3D imaging lidar we’ve been working on has three main potential applications,” explains Joao Pereira Do Carmo, overseeing the project for ESA.

 
 

	ATV uses lasers for docking

“The first is for the guidance, navigation and control of planetary landers, in particular in selecting a safe landing site.

“The second is for steering rovers on planetary surfaces, and the third is for docking in planetary orbit. That would be essential for the proposed Mars Sample Return Mission, for example, when the ascent module carrying material off the martian surface will have to be tracked and captured by its mother craft waiting in orbit.

“Terrestrial imaging lidars already exist, typically used for scanning buildings or industrial sites, but they are much too bulky for use in space.

 
 

Lidar test 5km across the Saale Valley

“The challenge is to produce a new class of imaging lidar, much smaller and needing less power.”

Reflecting the technical difficulties involved, separate designs were developed in parallel by two consortia, one led by Jena-Optronik in Jena, Germany and the other by ABSL in Culham, UK.

The shoebox-sized imaging lidars rely on a steerable scan mirror that flicks the laser beam across the target, with a highly sensitive light detector capable of measuring the returning beams from up to several kilometres away.

 
 

	Jena-Optronik prototype lidar

The two designs aim at different guidance and navigation applications. The German-led unit demonstrates a future rendezvous sensor, while the British-led design is intended to help a lander touch down safely on a planet, detecting and avoiding hazards.

The Imaging Lidar Technology project was supported through ESA’s Basic Technology Research Programme aimed at prototyping promising new engineering concepts.

 
 

ESA Lunar Lander

Building on this progress, a landing lidar is now being designed for ESA’s Lunar Lander, planned to touch down at the lunar south pole in 2019.

The engineers are also looking at ways of making the lidars even smaller perhaps by using new types of detectors and micro-mechanical optical mirrors.

“It is expected that we can reduce the mass and power consumptions of current commercial imaging lidar systems by at least 70%,” Joao concludes.

Space oddities to teach science

André with convection experiment

22 February 2012
 
When liquids and bubbles are in space, odd things start to happen. ESA astronaut André Kuipers is taking schools across Europe on a microgravity waltz to learn what is behind seemingly simple phenomena such as convection and foams.
 
Space oddities on the International Space Station will help thousands of schoolchildren to realise that the consequences of the laws of physics running our Universe can be complex – and on Earth they are not the same as in the Station’s weightlessness.

Armed with two ESA educational experiments during his PromISSe mission, André is inviting students aged 10–14 to share his scientific adventure.

 

Video

Children across Europe have the chance to follow these ‘Take Your Classroom into Space’ experiments with André as part of the ‘Spaceship Earth’ educational programme.

 
 

	André with foam experiment

Playing with microgravity
 
Young scientists on Earth can run their own identical experiments on the ground and make their observations while André does his on the Station.

‘Convection’ illustrates how thermal gradients drive convective currents. On the scale of a planet, this is how temperature gradients influence density-driven convection and create currents in the atmosphere and oceans.

A simple device shows how heat affects the density of liquids and the role that gravity plays in distributing the heat.

By grasping the convection loop on one side, heat from the hand is enough to drive a convective current within the loop in Earth’s gravity.

On the Space Station, though, things might be different.

‘Foam Stability’ highlights the properties of wet foams and how gravity influences their stability.

On the Station, foams are free of gravity’s effects. Up there, it is possible to form very stable foams from pure water – rarely seen on Earth.

André will show students how foam is created from pure water in microgravity. He will also play with a beer-like sample and oils.

Understanding how foams form and collapse helps us to improve products on Earth, such as making tastier foods and drinks, or creating stronger and lighter metal foams.

 
 

André with foam experiment

Get your space kit
 
Teachers are invited to join the space waltz with André’s oddities. The results of André’s experiment will be accessible on the PromISSe website in May. The school kits with the Take Your Classroom into Space experiments can be ordered here now and delivered free of charge. Dutch schools should get them from www.ruimteschipaarde.nl

The kits are shipped free of charge to ESA* member state schools on a first-come first-served basis. Lessons attached to these two experiments will also be available online.

*ESA Member States: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania. Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom.

ISS Expedition 30 Cosmonauts Perform Spacewalk

This image of Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Anton Shkaplerov, both Expedition 30 flight engineers, was taken during a spacewalk on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012. During the six-hour, 15-minute spacewalk, Kononenko and Shkaplerov moved the Strela-1 crane from the Pirs Docking Compartment in preparation for replacing it in 2012 with a new laboratory and docking module. The duo used another boom, the Strela-2, to move the hand-operated crane to the Poisk module for future assembly and maintenance work. Both telescoping booms extend like fishing rods and are used to move massive components outside the station. On the exterior of the Poisk Mini-Research Module 2, they also installed the Vinoslivost Materials Sample Experiment, which will investigate the influence of space on the mechanical properties of the materials. The spacewalkers also collected a test sample from underneath the insulation on the Zvezda Service Module to search for any signs of living organisms. Both spacewalkers wore Russian Orlan spacesuits bearing blue stripes and equipped with NASA helmet cameras.

Image Credit: NASA

 

John H. Glenn 50th Anniversary First American to Orbit Earth

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, seated right, and Sen. John Glenn address questions from the press during a briefing at Ohio State University as John Glenn’s wife Annie Glenn, seated in red, looks on Monday, Feb. 20, 2012, in Columbus, Ohio. Today marks the 50th anniversary of Glenn’s historic flight. Glenn was the first American to orbit Earth.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

 

Sen. John Glenn Revisiting Discovery

Sen. John Glenn and Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana reminisce inside the flight deck of space shuttle Discovery in the Kennedy Space Center’s Orbiter Processing Facility-1. Glenn flew on Discovery (STS-95) as a mission specialist in 1998 and Cabana served as pilot for Discovery during a mission in 1990 and another in 1992.

Image Credit: NASA

John Glenn business suit portrait

John Glenn STS-95 era portrait

John Glenn Friendship 7 – 50 Years Anniversary

An Historic Meeting

John Glenn, standing next to his Friendship 7 capsule in which he made his historic orbital flight, meets with President John F. Kennedy. Mrs. Glenn stands next to her husband. Earlier that day, President Kennedy presented the NASA Distinguished Service Award to Glenn.

Image Credit: NASA

Swarm constellation heads north – ESA

Swarm constellation in IABG cleanroom

The three satellites that make up ESA’s Swarm magnetic field mission were presented to the media today. Following a demanding testing programme, the satellites were displayed in the cleanroom before they are shipped to Russia for their July launch.
 
Swarm is ESA’s first constellation of Earth observation satellites designed to measure the magnetic signals from Earth’s core, mantle, crust, oceans, ionosphere and magnetosphere, providing data that will allow scientists to study the complexities of our protective magnetic field.

The magnetic shield protects the planet from charged particles that stream in as the solar wind. Without this shield, life on Earth would be impossible.

This shield is generated mainly deep inside Earth by an ocean of swirling iron in the liquid outer core. How the magnetic field is created and how it changes over time is complex and not fully understood.

 
 

	Swarm to study Earth’s magnetic field

This force is constantly changing – at the moment, it shows signs of significant weakening.

But with a new generation of sensors, the Swarm constellation will provide greater insight into these natural processes and the ‘weather’ in space.

Swarm will be ESA’s fourth Earth Explorer mission in orbit, following GOCE, SMOS and CryoSat.

In five months, the trio of satellites will be launched together on a Rockot launcher from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.

Two will orbit very close together at the same altitude – initially at about 460 km – while the third satellite will be in a higher orbit of 530 km.

 
 

Swarm

The different near-polar orbits, along with the various Swarm instruments, improve the sampling in space and time. This helps to distinguish between the effects of different sources of magnetism.

At the press event at the IABG centre in Ottobrunn, Germany, where all three satellites have just completed an intensive testing programme, representatives from ESA, the industrial team, the scientific investigator team and other experts from the scientific community gave presentations on the satellites and the mission’s scientific objectives.

It was the last chance to see the satellites before they are packed up and shipped to Russia in May.

ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Volker Liebig, said, “Swarm is the next mission in our Earth Observation Envelope Programme.

 
 

	Swarm constellation

“We expect the innovative Swarm constellation of three satellites orbiting in formation to deliver the best-ever survey of Earth’s magnetic field.”

Since 2010, engineers from EADS-Astrium, who lead the consortium building the satellites, have testing them against the harsh environment of space by exposing each satellite to different temperatures, vibration and shocks.

 
 
The satellites and instruments have their own magnetic properties and therefore influence the measurements they make. The origins of all the magnetic signals stemming from different parts of the satellites were accounted for so that the measurements taken in orbit are not misinterpreted.

The tests were carried out in a ‘magnetically clean’ environment at IABG, and the instruments on all three satellites performed well.

“This period of the project is really exciting,” said Yvon Menard, ESA’s Swarm Project Manager.

“We collected excellent test results and the team is eager to verify the performances of the constellation in orbit in order to confirm the promises from the ground test campaigns.”

NASA Events And Future Forum Mark 50 Years Of Americans In Orbit

WASHINGTON — Feb. 20 marks the 50th anniversary of the day in 1962 when U.S. Sen. John Glenn piloted his Friendship 7 spacecraft on the first U.S. orbital flight. In the next two weeks, NASA Television will broadcast a series of live events and special programming to commemorate 50 years of Americans in orbit, including the premiere of a new documentary and special interactive online features.

Here is a list of scheduled activities, all of which will be broadcast on NASA Television:

Thursday, Feb. 16
8-8:30 p.m.: Premiere of “Friendship 7: 50th Anniversary of Americans in Orbit” on NASA TV, a documentary on Glenn’s historic mission featuring new interviews with Glenn and fellow Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter.

Friday, Feb. 17
10-11 a.m. EST: Glenn and Carpenter, the first two Americans to orbit Earth, will join NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Kennedy Space Center Director Robert Cabana for a presentation about NASA’s past, present and future. The event is open to employees at the space center in Florida.

3-3:30 p.m. EST: Glenn and Carpenter will conduct a news conference in the Mercury Mission Control exhibit of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

Saturday, Feb. 18
6:30 p.m. EST: Glenn and Carpenter will participate in “On the Shoulders of Giants,” a ceremony at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex honoring all who made NASA’s Project Mercury possible. The program will include remarks from Cabana, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and astronaut Steve Robinson, who flew with Glenn on his second trip into orbit on space shuttle Discovery’s STS-95 mission in 1998.

Monday, Feb. 20
1:30-3:15 p.m. EST: Glenn and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will speak live with the crew on board the International Space Station to kick off the agency’s two-day Future Forum at Ohio State University in Columbus. Glenn also will participate in a panel session, “Learning from the Past to Innovate for the Future,” at the event.

Tuesday, Feb. 21
3-3:15 p.m. EST: Glenn will deliver closing remarks at the NASA Future Forum.

Friday, March 2
1-2 p.m. EST: Glenn will deliver the keynote address at “Celebrating John Glenn’s Legacy: 50 Years of Americans in Orbit” a special event hosted by NASA’s Glenn Research Center at Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center, 2000 Prospect Ave., in Cleveland. The tribute will be included in a Tweetup which the research center is hosting for its Twitter followers on the same day.

An interactive online feature about the Mercury program and Glenn’s flight is available on the agency’s Internet homepage at:

http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/glenn50/

 

 

John Glenn, left, and his wife Annie are seen at a Senior Manager luncheon, Friday, Feb. 17, 2012, inside the Operations Support Building II (OSBII) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Friday marked Annie’s 92nd birthday.

Image Credit: NASA

 

Fifth ATV named after Georges Lemaître -ESA

ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATVs) are an essential contribution by Europe to running the International Space Station. Naming the fifth after Belgian scientist Georges Lemaître continues the tradition of drawing on great European visionaries to reflect Europe’s deep roots in science, technology and culture.

The first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), which made a flawless flight in 2008, was named after French science fiction writer Jules Verne.

It was followed in 2011 by ATV-2, named in honour of German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler.

It will be the turn of the third ATV, named after the Italian physicist and space pioneer Edoardo Amaldi, to head towards the Space Station on 9 March.

ATV-4, aiming for launch in early 2013, carries the name of Albert Einstein.
Naming the last vehicle of the family, ATV-5, after Belgian physicist Georges Lemaître, father of the Big Bang theory, continues this approach.

The name, proposed by Belgium’s delegation to ESA, was endorsed on 14–15 February by the ESA Programme Board responsible for Space Station matters during a meeting at ESA Headquarters in Paris.

On that occasion, ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain said: “Belgium has been a key participant in the European space adventure since its very beginning.

“Its contribution to ESA programmes and activities in general, and to the International Space Station in particular, has been a success for both Belgium and ESA.

“By naming ATV-5 after Georges Lemaître, we honour a world-class Belgian scientist who was instrumental in expanding our knowledge of the origins of the Universe.”

The Belgian Minister responsible for Space, Paul Magnette, noted: “I am extremely happy that the great Belgian scientist George Lemaître, born in my hometown, is honoured in this way.
“This shows that his work and achievements have not been forgotten and are still relevant so many decades on.

“Clearly, Belgium’s involvement in space in Europe has deep roots and is based on a long tradition. “The ATV “Georges Lemaître” will carry supplies to the ISS, allowing today’s – equally excellent – Belgian researchers to carry out experiments and research on the ISS, thus pushing the boundaries of human knowledge forward in the tradition of Georges Lemaître.”

The Space Station depends on regular deliveries of experiment equipment and spare parts, as well as food, air and water for its crew.

Since 2008, every year and a half, an ATV has delivered about 6 tonnes of cargo some 400 km above Earth.

After launch on an Ariane 5 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, ATV automatically navigates to a precision docking with the Station’s Russian Zvezda module. It remains attached to the ISS for up to six months before reentering the atmosphere and deliberately burning up together with several tonnes of Station waste.

Note for Editors:
Georges Lemaître was born on 17 July 1894 in Charleroi, Belgium. He obtained his doctorate in physics and mathematics in 1920 and was ordained a priest in 1923.

He then became a graduate student in astronomy at the University of Cambridge in England studying cosmology, stellar astronomy and numerical analysis.

In 1925, after two years of studies at Harvard and MIT in the USA, he returned to Belgium and became a full-time professor at the Catholic University of Leuven, where he remained for the rest of his career.

In 1927, he discovered a family of solutions to Einstein’s relativity equations that described an expanding Universe rather than a static one, and provided the first observational estimation of the Hubble constant. The theory later became much better known as the Big Bang theory .
Lemaître was awarded the highest Belgian scientific distinction and was appointed a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 1936, remaining active there in until his death in 1966, shortly after having learned of the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation that provided further proof of his theory about the birth of the Universe.

ATV-4 to carry name Albert Einstein

I somehow missed this announcement last year and present it here, with news of ATV-5 in the next post.

 
With ATV Johannes Kepler in space and ATV Edoardo Amaldi almost built, the next Space Station supply craft coming off the production line has been named after the most famous scientist of all time: Albert Einstein. Launch is expected in early 2013.
 
With relativity and E=mc², Albert Einstein is a major icon of 20th century science.

His theories have been stringently tested in space and his work is used to guide spacecraft to other planets – and now he will fly into orbit. ESA has decided to name the fourth Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) after Albert Einstein.

 
 

	ATV-2 docking with ISS on 24 February 2011

ATVs are an essential contribution by Europe for supplying and maintaining the International Space Station.

The vessels are named after great European scientists and visionaries to highlight Europe’s deep roots in science, technology and culture.

Naming ATV-4 after Albert Einstein, as proposed by the Swiss delegation to ESA, reflects this approach. Einstein’s contributions to humanity and, in particular, science overturned our perception of the Universe.

ATV is also strongly linked to Switzerland: its structure is built by Swiss industry.

 
 

World citizen with roots in Switzerland
 
Albert Einstein was born in 1879 in Ulm, in Germany, but studied and spent his early career in Switzerland.

His job at the patent office in Bern gave him time to develop his revolutionary ideas. His annus mirabilisof 1905 – year of wonder – saw him publish four fundamental scientific papers on the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity and the equivalence of matter and energy.

In 1908 he moved to an academic career in Bern and went on to Zurich, Prague, Berlin and, finally, after emigration to the USA before World War II, Princeton University.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. He died in the USA in 1955 at the age of 76.

 
 
Next two ATVs on production line
 

Pressurised module for Albert Einstein

After launching ATV Johannes Kepler to the Space Station this February, ESA plans to maintain a steady cadence of one vessel per year.

The next, Edoardo Amaldi, is already assembled and is being tested in Bremen, Germany. ATV-3 will be shipped to Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, in August for dispatch to the Station in February 2012.

 
 

	Equipped External Bay of the ATV-4

The three main parts of ATV-4 are being built. The Integrated Cargo Carrier, designed to carry water, gas, refuelling propellants and dry cargo, is in Turin, Italy, and will be shipped in December to Bremen.

The Equipped Propulsion Bay, housing the engines and propellant tanks, is built in Bremen.

The Equipped Avionics Bay – ATV’s ‘brain’ – will be mated at end of the year with the propulsion section.

The plan is to launch Albert Einstein to the Station at the beginning of 2013.