Designing the interplanetary web

Networking in space: Mars Express

13 April 2012
 
Reliable Internet access on the Moon, near Mars or for astronauts on a space station? How about controlling a planetary rover from a spacecraft in deep space? These are just some of the pioneering technologies that ESA is working on for future exploration missions.
 
What do observation or navigation satellites orbiting Earth have in common with astronauts sending images in real time from the International Space Station? They all need to send data back home. And the complexity of sharing information across space is set to grow.

In the future, rovers on Mars or inhabited bases on the Moon will be supported by orbiting satellite fleets providing data relay and navigation services. Astronauts will fly to asteroids, hundreds of millions of kilometres from Earth, and they’ll need to link up with other astronauts, control centres and sophisticated systems on their vessels.

All of these activities will need to be interconnected, networked and managed.

 
 

	Cebreros 35 m deep space antenna

Supporting future exploration
 
“We are researching how today’s technical standards for devices like mobile phones, laptops and portable computers can be applied to a new generation of networked space hardware,” says Nestor Peccia, responsible for ground segment software development at ESA’s Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany.

“But our future focus goes well beyond just networking; we’re looking at how agencies like ESA and NASA cooperate in orbit and how to interchange data in real time between different organisations’ spacecraft and ground stations, as well as reliable technical standards for spacecraft navigation and flight control.”

 
 
Open technical standards through cooperation
 
Since 1982, experts from ESA, NASA and other major space organisations and industry have met periodically to develop new, open data communication standards as part of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems.
 
 
Developing standards for space hardware and data interchange for space agencies, commercial spaceflight companies and satellite manufacturers promises to pay off even in the short term.

In the future, inter-satellite communication requirements are predicted to grow, and spacecraft should be capable of establishing powerful radio links with each other – even while orbiting Mars at thousands of kilometres per hour.

 
 
In May 2008, ESA’s Mars Express served as a crucial data relay node for NASA’s Phoenix lander during descent and landing on the Red planet. Mars Express is set to repeat the feat in August with NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory.

ESOC profile video clip

 

In December 2011, ESA’s worldwide tracking station network was recruited to provide three hours’ daily data contact for Russian mission controllers operating the Phobos–Grunt mission en route to Mars (the probe failed soon after launch for unrelated reasons).

 
 
Astronaut–machine interfaces at Mars
 
In October, ESA astronaut André Kuipers on the International Space Station will practise remotely controlling a test rover located at ESA’s Operations Centre to simulate orbiter–rover communication links at a planet like Mars.
 
 

	Eurobot giving a hand to astronaut

This, too, requires robust communication links to allow astronauts, robots and control centre to work efficiently together.

“Setting technical standards and communication system architecture isn’t the most high-profile part of space exploration, but it’s absolutely vital for ensuring that the high-profile efforts – like sending an astronaut to Mars – will work as planned when that time comes,” says Nestor.

 
 
These and other topics are set to be discussed at the CCSDS conference in Darmstadt on 16–19 April, which will bring together international space organisations from 20 spacefaring nations including ESA, NASA, ASI, CNES, Roscosmos, DLR and JAXA.

NASA – Pine Island Glacier

In mid-October 2011, NASA scientists working in Antarctica discovered a massive crack across the Pine Island Glacier, a major ice stream that drains the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Extending for 19 miles (30 kilometers), the crack was 260 feet (80 meters) wide and 195 feet (60 meters) deep. Eventually, the crack will extend all the way across the glacier, and calve a giant iceberg that will cover about 350 square miles (900 square kilometers). This image from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NAS’s Terra spacecraft was acquired Nov. 13, 2011, and covers an area of 27 by 32 miles (44 by 52 kilometers), and is located near 74.9 degrees south latitude, 101.1 degrees west longitude.

Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

 

Watch online: Mars500 press conference in Paris

Opening of the door

2 December 2011
 
Follow the Mars500 press conference live from Paris. After an overview of the mission, Romain Charles and Diego Urbina will talk about their experiences during the 520 days in the isolation facility. Streaming starts at 11:00 CET.

Watch online

 
 
 

•	Mars500 (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars500/index.html)
•	End of the Mars500 520-day isolation (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars500/SEM4OELUBUG_mg_1.html)
•	Mars500 quick facts (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars500/SEMGX9U889G_0.html)
•	Mars500 crew (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars500/SEMO4BU889G_0.html)
Partners
•	Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) (http://www.imbp.ru)
•	Mars500 (IMBP) (http://mars500.imbp.ru/)
Mars500 Photos
•	Gallery 1: Before (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars500/SEMY6MLZLAG_mg_1.html)
•	Gallery 2: Towards Mars (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars500/SEM3V7U889G_mg_1.html)
•	Gallery 3: Mars (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars500/SEMJALUTLKG_mg_1.html)
•	Gallery 4: Return (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars500/SEMACUISDNG_mg_1.html)
Mars500 Mission Diary
•	Previous diary entries (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars500/SEMCLKUTLKG_0.html)
•	Diary #11 – 26.1.2011 (http://www.esa.int/esaHS/SEMCWCBE8JG_index_0.html)
•	Diary #12 – 2.2.2011 (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars500/SEMF8FY1LJG_0.html)
•	Diary #13 – 10.2.2011 (http://www.esa.int/esaHS/SEMFE0MTRJG_index_0.html)
•	Diary #14 – 1.3.2011 (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars500/SEMGSIUTLKG_0.html)
•	Diary #15 – 3.6.2011 (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars500/SEMOKY58BOG_0.html)
•	Diary #16 – 3.6.2011 (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars500/SEM8LY58BOG_0.html)
•	Diary #17 – 17.8.2011 (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars500/SEM76FOT9RG_0.html)
•	Diary #18 – 13.10.2011 (http://www.esa.int/esaHS/SEM9AJGURTG_index_0.html)
•	Diary #19 – 25.10.2011 (http://www.esa.int/esaHS/SEMMJXGURTG_index_0.html)
Mars500 Video Diary
•	Previous diary videos (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars500/SEMCLKUTLKG_0.html)
•	Video #10 – 12.1.2011 (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars500/SEMAXA3UFLG_0.html)
•	Video #11 – 14.2.2011 (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars500/SEMUKA3UFLG_0.html)
•	Video #12 – 21.3.2011 (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars500/SEMZ7WE3TRG_0.html)
•	Video #13 – 26.8.2011 (http://www.esa.int/esaHS/SEM2O93UFLG_index_0.html)
•	Video #14 – 1.9.2011 (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars500/SEMU3SUTTRG_0.html)
•	Video #15 – 27.10.2011 (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars500/SEM73CHURTG_0.html)
Online video
•	ESA TV: One year inside (http://multimedia.esa.int/Videos/2011/05/Mars-500-one-year-inside)

Expedition 29 Crew Lands

Russian support personnel work to help get crew members out of the Soyuz TMA-02M spacecraft shortly after the capsule landed with Expedition 29 Commander Mike Fossum and flight engineers Sergei Volkov and Satoshi Furukawa in a remote area outside of the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, at 9:26 p.m. EST on Monday, Nov. 21, 2011 (8:26 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011, Kazakhstan time). NASA astronaut Fossum, Russian cosmonaut Volkov and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Furukawa are returning from more than five months aboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 28 and 29 crews.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

ESA: Mission accomplished: cave crew returns to Earth

 

The caving team after return to the surface on 21 September.

Take five astronauts and instead of sending them into space take them underground. ESA’s CAVES venture prepares astronauts to work in an international team under real exploration conditions. The latest ‘crew’ has returned after six days in the dark.
 
Sardinia is not only a popular Mediterranean holiday destination but also an excellent place for astronaut training. The island’s interior has isolated mountains and forest areas, rugged and savage.

ESA’s astronauts passed their survival training there, and two of them recently returned with American, Russian and Japanese colleagues.

For six days they lived and worked in the island’s complex cave systems – some of them unmapped or unexplored.

 
 

 
 
Space-like conditions
 
“Even for astronauts, life in the dark, cool, humid underground environment can be a completely new situation with interesting psychological and logistical problems,” notes Loredana Bessone, astronaut trainer at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany.
 
 

“The cave environment is isolated from the outside world. There is confinement, minimal privacy, technical challenges and limited equipment and supplies for hygiene and comfort – just like in space.”

This is not the first time she has taken a training team into the caves, but this was the first with such an international team: ESA’s Tim Peake and Thomas Pesquet were joined by Randolph Bresnik from NASA, Norishige Kanai from Japan and Sergey Ryzhikov from Russia.

 
 

“It was a rare opportunity to experience problems encountered during a space mission in a training environment,” says Tim.

“Our mission required teamwork and working through problems as a small international team where different cultures and primary languages require consideration.”

Thomas praises the team and good organisation: “Everyone was focused and we had a great time together.”

“Being in a cave was something like mountaineering, but much more challenging – with isolation, darkness and the need for full situational awareness to avoid snagging ourselves on sharp rocks or crevices.”

 
 

Real exploration
 
The daily routine was organised around timelines, as on a space mission. Planning sessions were held twice a day through a dedicated telephone line to a support team at the cave’s mouth.

“The most exciting moments were the times when we were in unknown passages and had to make decisions on how to proceed and how to organise ourselves,” explains Thomas.

“We encountered underground lakes, had to decide if we used ropes or an inflatable boat … should we continue together or divide into small groups … and so on.”

Their scientific work included mapping, photography, monitoring air flow, temperature and humidity, and taking geological and microbiological samples.

 
 

Action-packed to the last moment
 
“It took about five hours to come back from the cave to our campsite, requiring technical caving and a support team to help us,” notes Tim. “We really had a feeling of being far away.”

“When we came back, everything on the surface looked strange: the blue of the sky and other colours looked painted and all the smells of nature were so strong,” remembers Thomas. “The real world felt all-too real, exaggerated.”

At the end of the mission, the crew prepared a report, went through a final debriefing and gave a handover presentation that will be used for the next ‘cavenauts’.

Tim summarised the whole experience: “From my point of view, the most valuable part was the personal friendships that were forged between the participants.”

 
 

Astronauts go caving on their way to space

• Title Astronauts go caving on their way to space
• Produced 09/09/2011
• Length 00:04:58
• Language English
• Footage Type Interior Shot
• Copyright ESA
• DescriptionFrom tomorrow, Saturday 17 September, ESA astronauts Tim Peake and Thomas Pesquet, Randolph Bresnik from NASA, Norishige Kanai from Japan and Sergey Ryzhikov from Russia will live and work in the dark and humid underground environment for five days on their CAVES ‘mission’ – a unique underground space experience organised by ESA.The cave environment is isolated from the outside world, it has confinement, minimal privacy, technical challenges and limited hygiene and comfort. It is a completely new situation with interesting psychological issues: use of artificial light in constant darkness alters the perception of time and of colour and absence of natural time cues from daylight may alter the circadian rhythm and sleep patterns.

  As on long space missions, the daily routine is organised around timelines, decided twice daily through a phone line to a supporting ‘ground’ team at the cave’s mouth.

  Mission tasks include mapping, photography, and geological and microbiological sampling. The training might also provide valuable material for the scientists studying these caves – many of them unmapped or unexplored. Sampling methods for future planetary missions are also benefitting, along with psychological and medical studies.

  After preparing at the site this week, the team will go underground on Saturday for five days. Emerging into the daylight again on 21 September, the trainees will then go through debriefings as though after a space mission.

  Loredana Bessone, astronaut trainer at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany is explaining with geologist Jo De Waele and astronaut Tim Peake what the CAVES mission is all about.

  Video has been shot shot on location and edited by Vittorio Crobu (additional shooting by Sirio Sechi).

• Link to video

International Space Station Partners Set Tentative Launch Schedule

HOUSTON — NASA and its international partners have agreed to a tentative launch schedule with crew flights to the International Space Station resuming on Nov. 14.

The Space Station Control Board, with representation from all partner agencies, set the schedule after hearing the Russian Federal Space Agency’s findings on the Aug. 24 loss of the Progress 44 cargo craft. The dates may be adjusted to reflect minor changes in vehicle processing timelines.

“Our top priority is the safety of our crew members. The plan approved today, coupled with the conditions on orbit, allow the partnership to support this priority while ensuring astronauts will continue to live and work on the station uninterrupted,” said International Space Station Program Manager Michael Suffredini. “Our Russian colleagues have completed an amazing amount of work in a very short time to determine root cause and develop a recovery plan that allows for a safe return to flight. We’ll have a longer period of three-person operations and a shorter than usual handover between the next two crews, but we are confident that the crews will be able to continue valuable research and execute a smooth crew transition.”

The updated space station traffic plan includes Thursday’s undocking and landing of three Expedition 28 crew members: NASA’s Ron Garan and Russia’s Andrey Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyaev. Expedition 29 Commander Mike Fossum of NASA, Satoshi Furukawa of Japan and Sergei Volkov of Russia will remain aboard the station to continue research and maintenance for 61 days until the remainder of the Expedition 29 crew arrives.

According to the current plan, the Soyuz 28 spacecraft, carrying NASA’s Dan Burbank and Russia’s Anatoly Ivanishin and Anton Shkaplerov, will launch Nov. 14 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and arrive at the station on Nov.16.

On Nov. 22, Fossum, Furukawa and Volkov will undock their Soyuz 27 spacecraft and land in the northern Kazakhstan landing zone. Expedition 30 Commander Burbank, Ivanishin and Shkaplerov will work as a three-person crew for 36 days. The remainder of the Expedition 30 crew — NASA’s Don Pettit, Russia’s Oleg Kononenko and Europe’s Andre Kuipers — will launch to the station aboard the Soyuz 29 spacecraft on or about Dec. 26 and dock to the station two days later. The exact launch date is under review.

The control board also received a report on the status of supplies and spare parts aboard the station. The report shows there is sufficient logistical supplies to support crews through the summer of 2012 without deliveries from the scheduled cargo flights.

For the new tentative Soyuz and Progress launch dates in 2011, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/stationflights

For more information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station  

BepiColombo Mercury explorer to be launched on Ariane

 

BepiColombo heading towards Mercury

15 September 2011
Reaching one of the most mysterious planets in our Solar System takes enormous power and finesse. ESA has now firmly entrusted its precious Mercury explorer to Europe’s largest rocket – the Ariane 5.
 
ESA today signed the contract with Arianespace to launch its BepiColombo mission on an Ariane 5 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

Europe’s first mission to probe the Solar System’s innermost planet will depart in July 2014.

BepiColombo’s sensors will completely map Mercury at different wavelengths, charting the planet’s mineralogy and elemental composition.

It will reveal the planet’s interior structure and probe Mercury’s magnetic field.

ESA is leading the mission, flying it in cooperation with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

The mission’s two orbiters will be injected into separate orbits around Mercury: ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and Japan’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter.  
 

	BepiColombo launch contract signature

After signing, ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain said, “With BepiColombo, Europe continues to explore our Solar System.

“After Mars Express, Venus Express and the Huygens probe to Titan, we are now gearing up to explore a planet that is very close to the Sun, key to understanding the formation of our Solar System, and yet still very mysterious.

“For the European Space Agency, it’s also an excellent example of scientific teamwork, since we are sharing this experience with the Japanese space agency.

“After the successful launch of Herschel and Planck back in 2009 and before the launch of the ATV-3 and Alphasat next year, Ariane 5 again demonstrates its extreme flexibility, which will soon be complemented by Soyuz and Vega.”

Jean-Yves Le Gall, Chairman and CEO of Arianespace, added: “We are both proud and honoured to be given this opportunity to support space science and serve the European Space Agency, teaming up with JAXA [Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency] on this programme.”

STS-135 MCC Status Report #20

HOUSTON – The STS-135 flight day 11 wakeup call came from Houston, as always, but in a broader sense of the word than usual.

“Good morning, Atlantis, from all of us at the Johnson Space Center!” chorused an auditorium-full of Johnson employees in a message recorded before Atlantis’ launch. “Have a great mission!”

Johnson Space Center is home not only to the astronaut corps, but also Mission Control and the Space Shuttle Program, itself.

The message was preceded in the 9:29 p.m. wakeup call by Keith Urban’s “Days Go By,” which was chosen by Mission Specialist Rex Walheim.

Walheim and his fellow crew members – Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialist Sandy Magnus – are scheduled to close the hatches between the International Space Station and a space shuttle for the last time today, at 8:19 a.m. But before they do that, they’ll pack up the last of the cargo to come home from the station on the shuttle’s middeck and move the Raffaello multipurpose logistics module back into place inside the shuttle’s cargo bay.

The crew finished packing Raffaello on flight day 10, and now it’s just a matter of getting it – with its 5,666 pounds of returning cargo – back in place for the trip home. When it’s unpacked back on Earth, multipurpose logistic modules will have returned 20 tons of supplies and equipment to Earth, and carried another 50 tons into space since their first mission, STS-102 in 2002.

After returning to the space shuttle for the remainder of the mission, the crew will prepare for Tuesday’s undocking from the space station, checking out the tools they’ll use for that activity and setting up a camera inside the shuttle hatch.

Hatches Closed Between Station and Shuttle for Final Time

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 09:36:36 -0500
Following a poignant farewell ceremony by the crews of Atlantis and Expedition 28, hatches between the International Space Station and a space shuttle were closed for the final time at 10:28 a.m. EDT.

The hatches between the spacecraft were open for seven days, 21 hours and 41 minutes.

Atlantis’ crew will spend the remainder of today preparing for Tuesday’s early morning undocking. The station crew goes to sleep at 1:29 p.m. and the shuttle crew follows at 1:59 p.m.