The European Space Agency is in the final stages of performing an “assisted reentry” of an Earth science spacecraft, an effort that will attempt to bring the satellite down over the ocean in a little more than a week. A series of maneuvers will lower the perigee of the Aeolus spacecraft to enable a reentry, projected over the Atlantic Ocean, on July 28. The maneuvers are intended to minimize any chance that debris from the spacecraft that survives reentry would land in populated areas. The first set of maneuvers is scheduled for July 24 and will lower the spacecraft’s perigee from 280 to 250 kilometers, said Isabel Rojo, Aeolus operations director, during a July 19 briefing. A second set of maneuvers on July 27 will further lower the perigee to 150 kilometers. A final maneuver on July 28 will lower the perigee to 120 kilometers. “After the execution of that last maneuver, the satellite is then expected to reenter within five hours,” she said. That last maneuver is timed to have reentry take place during a track the spacecraft’s sun-synchronous orbit takes over the Atlantic Ocean. Limitations of the spacecraft, though, mean that ESA can’t target a specific area for the reentry. “This spacecraft was designed and developed just before any guidelines came in place” mandating a controlled reentry, said Holger Krag, head of ESA’s Space Safety Office. That led to what the agency calls an “assisted reentry” approach, which lacks the precision of a controlled reentry but avoids an uncontrolled reentry. “It will further reduce the risk, which is already small, on the ground that is posed by the reentry,”
Aeolus, launched in 2018, collected wind data using a lidar instrument through April 2023. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab
ESA expects up to 20% of Aeolus, which weigh about 1,100 kilograms excluding propellant, to survive reentry. The agency said that the assisted reentry approach, if successful, would reduce the risk of debris hitting someone, already extremely small, by a factor of 42.
Krag said this is the first time he is aware of any satellite operator attempting an assisted reentry. The closest comparison he offered is the reentry of NASA’s Skylab space station in 1979, where spaceflight controllers turned off gyros to make the spacecraft tumble in an effort to control the reentry location.
ESA officials billed the assisted reentry as part of a broader commitment to space safety by the agency. That included an announcement during the Paris Air Show June 22 that ESA would work with several European satellite manufacturers on a “Zero Debris Charter” where signatories would commit, by 2030, to deorbiting their satellites at the end of their lives or hiring companies that provide active debris removal services to deorbit them.
“I think ESA has always been a responsible actor and, with that action on Aeolus, we are demonstrating once more that we are willing to achieve anything, even with a space system that was not originally prepared for this,” Krag said.
The reentry will mark the end of Aeolus, launched in 2018 on what was originally planned as a three-year mission to demonstrate the ability of a lidar to measure wind speeds globally. Science operations of Aeolus formally ended in April.
“After almost five years, it has exceeded all the expectations and gone beyond what were the original objectives,” said Tommaso Parrinello, Aeolus mission manager. That included using Aeolus data in operational weather forecasting and filling in gaps in wind data when commercial airline traffic, also used to collect wind data, dropped significantly during the onset of the pandemic.
At ESA’s November 2022 ministerial meeting, member states approved plans for a two-satellite follow-on mission, Aeolus 2, slated to launch at the end of the decade in cooperation with Eumetsat. “This decision taken last year is the most tangible and most solid demonstration of the value of the success of this mission, which perhaps was not obvious at the beginning,” he said.
Simonetta Cheli, ESA’s director of Earth observation, said at the briefing that Aeolus was often called the “impossible mission” because of the many technical challenges it faced in development. “It’s a real success story.”
Europe’s first mission to Jupiter is ready to launch on the next to last flight of the Ariane 5 on April 13. The Ariane 5 rocket, carrying the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or JUICE, spacecraft rolled out to the pad at Kourou, French Guiana, on April 11. Liftoff is scheduled for 8:15 a.m. Eastern April 13 in an instantaneous launch window. The launch will start a long journey for the six-ton spacecraft. It will perform several gravity-assist flybys of the Earth and Venus between August 2024 and January 2029 before arriving at Jupiter in mid-2031. Once at Jupiter, it will conduct 35 flybys of the large moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto before going into orbit around Ganymede, the solar system’s largest moon. “The main goal is to understand whether there are habitable environments among those icy moons,” said Olivier Witasse, JUICE project scientist at ESA, in an April 6 briefing. “We will characterize in particular the liquid water oceans which are inside the icy moons.” JUICE will carry out those observations with a suite of 10 science instruments of which one, an ultraviolet imaging spectrograph, is provided by NASA. Several other instruments include contributions from NASA, the Japanese space agency JAXA and the Israel Space Agency. JUICE will be joined by NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, scheduled to launch in October 2024 and arrive at Jupiter in 2030. That spacecraft will conduct dozens of flybys of Europa to study the potential for life on that icy moon.
The Ariane 5 launching ESA's JUICE mission rolled out to the launch pad April 11. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique vidéo du CSG/P.Baudon
It will be “very fantastic” to have both Europa Clipper and JUICE operating at the same time in the Jovian system, Witasse said. “The two missions are very complementary,” with the potential of joint observations. One example is planned flybys of Europa by the two spacecraft just four hours apart.
JUICE will focus more on Ganymede, entering orbit around the moon in late 2034 and remaining there through the end of the mission, currently planned for September 2035. That orbit will be at an altitude of 500 kilometers, but if there is sufficient fuel left on the spacecraft, he said the spacecraft could lower its orbit to 200 kilometers.
JUICE ultimately will crash onto the surface of Ganymede. “With the current knowledge of Ganymede, we can crash on the surface” without violating planetary protection guidelines to prevent harmful contamination. “We have shown that we cannot contaminate any subsurface ocean even if we crash on the surface.”
The launch is the sixth flight of the Ariane 5 to carry ESA science missions. The rocket has previously launched the XMM-Newton X-ray observatory, Rosetta comet mission, Herschel and Planck observatories, the BepiColombo mission to Mercury and, most recently, the James Webb Space Telescope, a NASA-led mission with European contributions.
Preparations for the JUICE launch have been similar to Ariane 5 missions with the exception of enhanced cleanliness requirements, according to Veronique Loisel, JUICE project director at Arianespace. That is similar to launches of imaging satellites, she said, but with additional contamination monitoring also used for the launch of JWST.
The launch is also the penultimate flight for the Ariane 5. The vehicle is scheduled to make its final launch in late June, carrying the Syracuse 4B military communications satellite for France and the Heinrich Hertz communications satellite for the German government.
“Is it routine? Never. Is it of special significance? Yes,” said Ruedeger Albat, head of the Ariane 5 program at ESA, of the final launches of the rocket. For those final launches there is a reinforced qualification monitoring and verification program, he said, but otherwise operations are kept as close to normal as possible.
He compared those final launches to an airline pilot’s final flight before retirement. “He will fly with much attention but stick as much as possible to nominal operations.”
Europe plans to return the Vega C rocket to flight by the end of the year after concluding an eroded nozzle component caused the failure of its previous launch last December. The European Space Agency announced March 3 it had completed an independent investigation into the failed Dec. 20 launch of the Vega C on the VV21 mission, which experienced a loss of thrust from its Zefiro-40 solid-fuel second stage. The failure resulted in the loss of two Pléiades Neo imaging satellites for Airbus Defence and Space. The investigation concluded that a component in the motor called a throat insert, made of carbon-carbon material designed to withstand high temperatures, suffered “thermo-mechanical over-erosion” during the launch. That insert regulates the flow of exhaust through the nozzle, and as it eroded the chamber pressure dropped, causing thrust to decrease. By 207 seconds after liftoff, or a little more than a minute after the second stage ignited, acceleration of the vehicle became “quasi-null” and put the rocket on a ballistic trajectory, said Pierre-Yves Tissier, chief technical officer of Arianespace and co-chair of the independent investigation, in a briefing about the report. A fault tree analysis led investigators to rule out other causes of the failure. The erosion of the insert, he said, was linked to higher porosity of the carbon-carbon material, confirmed in other testing of the material but not detected earlier. “The acceptance criteria established for this material were not able to detect such a weakness,” he said. Avio procured the throat insert from a Ukrainian company, Yuzhnoye. Giulio Ranzo, chief executive of Avio, said the company went with Yuzhnoye during the design phase of Vega C in 2015 to 2017 after concluding that other European suppliers could not provide the material in required quantities “on the schedule compatible with the development program” of the rocket.
A Vega C lifted off Dec. 20, only to suffer a failure with its second stage about two and half minutes later. Credit: Arianespace webcast
The flaw, he said, was not directly linked to disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago because they were manufactured before the war. He suggested that lockdowns linked to the pandemic might have been a factor, though.
The erosion was not seen in the Zefiro-40 motor used on the inaugural Vega C launch last July, or in two earlier qualification firings. “The acceptance criteria were not the right ones,” said Giovanni Colangelo, ESA inspector general and the other co-chair of the investigation. In those earlier firings of the motor, the materials exceeded requirements.
“The one for VV21 was exactly in line with specification, so were not as good as the previous one, so that is the reason why there was a failure,” he said.
The investigation concluded that the Yuzhnoye material can no longer be used on the Zefiro-40 motor. It will be replaced with a carbon-carbon throat insert from ArianeGroup, which already produces similar components for motors used on other Vega stages.
Ranzo said that Avio had already purchased several such throat inserts from ArianeGroup last year as a hedge against potential supply chain disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine. “We have secured the next several flights by having procured this strategic stock several months ago,” he said, adding that Avio was looking at longer-term options for the component from ArianeGroup or others.
ESA said that additional analysis and testing of the Zefiro-40 is planned for the coming months, allowing a return to flight of the Vega C tentatively scheduled for late this year. The payload for that mission will be the Sentinel-1C radar imaging satellite.
“Sentinel-1C is indeed a very precious payload,” acknowledged Josef Aschbacher, ESA director general. That satellite will replace Sentinel-1B, whose radar payload failed last year. “We are putting measures in place which are very robust and we have confidence this will all succeed.”
The Zefiro-40 problem does not affect the original Vega rocket, which uses a different motor in its second stage that does not have a throat insert from Yuzhnoye. ESA plans a launch of that rocket, one of two remaining of that version, before the end of the summer.
Stéphane Israël, chief executive of Arianespace, said that Vega launch will carry two primary payloads and several smallsat rideshares. “We will give more information on these passengers in a few weeks,” he said.
In addition to fixing the problem with the Zefiro-40, there will be a broader assessment of the vehicle’s supply chain to look for other potential quality issues. “We will try to improve substantially the monitoring of the performance and supply chain management activities,” Ranzo said.
Both ESA and Arianespace leadership expressed some frustration with the Vega program, noting that the VV21 failure was the third in eight flights of the Vega and Vega C. They are also dealing with delays with the development of the Ariane 6 that have pushed its first launch back to at least late 2023, as well as the loss of the Soyuz rocket after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We are in a crisis,” Aschbacher said. “For me, this is really a moment where we need to reflect deeply how to regain independent access to space for Europe.”
Scientists at the European Space Agency’s ESTEC and visiting Chinese counterparts conducted a series of spacecraft-rocket integration tests for a joint mission. The Solar wind-Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) mission is a joint mission of ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Teams conducted docking, satellite separation and impact tests with a prototype of the SMILE satellite developed by the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites of the CAS (IAMCAS) and the payload adapter for the mission’s Vega-C rocket at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), CAS stated Feb. 13. It is the first time a Chinese team has conducted such tests at ESA facilities. Last year Airbus sent a structural thermal model of the payload module to Shanghai for integration with the IAMCAS platform and qualification of the satellite. SMILE is a Sino-European joint mission expected to be launched in April 2025, according to CAS’s National Space Science Center (NSSC). SMILE was last year slated for launch in November 2024, following a number of delays to the project. The three-year mission will study the interaction between the solar wind and the Earth’s magnetosphere and knock-on effects in the ionosphere, as well as phenomena such as coronal mass ejections. It will operate in a highly inclined, highly elliptical orbit around Earth which will take it a third of the way to the Moon at apogee. The mission was selected in 2015 from 13 joint Sino-European proposals. SMILE originally targeted launch on a Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou in 2021, but has faced a number of delays.
Satellite-payload adapter tests at ESTEC for the SMILE mission in February 2023. Credit: CAS
“SMILE was very early on in 2016 intended for launch in 2021. Following initial studies and programmatic arrangements for the mission, the launch date was revised to be towards end-2023 to mid-2024 on the basis of which it was adopted by the ESA Science Programme Committee (SPC) in 2019,” David Agnolon, SMILE project manager, told SpaceNews via email.
“Following a number of technical difficulties and programmatic evolutions, among which a significant impact due to Covid, the development faced a one-year delay. The mission is on-track for launch in 2025, which will be confirmed at the Critical Design Review foreseen to take place mid-2023.”
CAS provides the propulsion and service modules, satellite bus and takes charge of mission operations for the mission, while also providing Chinese-developed instruments. ESA will provide the payload module, launcher, AIT facilities. SMILE will carrying the SXI (Soft X-ray Imager) featuring Lobster-Eye optics and the SWCX (Solar Wind Charge eXchange) X-ray imager. The spacecraft have a wet mass of around 2,200 kg.
The collaborative project builds on earlier cooperation on the Double Star mission in the early 2000s and ESA participation in CAS’s first round of missions under the Strategic Priority Program on Space Science in the mid 2010s.
Exchanges between China and ESA with a view to sending European astronauts to China’s Tiangong space station later this decade have, however, stalled, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said last month.
SMILE may not be the only project to be realized from the joint ESA-CAS workshops which led to the selection of SMILE.
Chinese teams have gone on to conduct studies on some of the proposals including the Discovering the Sky at the Longest Wavelength (DSL) mission. DSL proposes to send an array of 10 small satellites into lunar orbit, using the moon as a shield from Earth interference to study faint signals from the early universe. It is now one of 13 candidates for acceptance under CAS’s “New Horizons” program.
As the Artemis 1 mission nears its conclusion, European Space Agency and industry officials praised the performance of the Orion spacecraft’s service module, which some see as a step towards a European crewed spacecraft. The Artemis 1 mission is set to conclude Dec. 11 with the reentry and splashdown of the Orion crew capsule, shortly after it separates from the European Service Module. That module provided power, propulsion and other services for the spacecraft since its Nov. 16 launch. “We are coming towards the end of what you might think of as a 100-meter race that’s followed a marathon,” said David Parker, ESA’s director for human and robotic exploration, during a Dec. 9 briefing. “The marathon was the 10 years of effort and preparation needed to build and prepare the first European Service Module for its journey to the moon and back again, and 100-meter race has been that actual mission itself.” During that 100-meter sprint, the service module has not broken stride. “The mission has gone really perfect from our point of view,” said Ralf Zimmermann, head of moon programs and the Orion European Service Module at Airbus, the prime contractor for the module. “We have absolutely flown a perfect mission so far.” There have been minor issues with the module, he noted, “but nothing mission critical.” One persistent issue has been with devices called latching current limiters in one part of the spacecraft’s power system. Those devices, similar to circuit breakers, have opened at least 17 times during the course of the mission without being commanded to do so, NASA officials said at a Dec. 8 briefing, but have not significantly affected spacecraft operations.
A view of the aft section of the European Service Module of the Orion spacecraft taken as the Artemis 1 mission nears its conclusion. Credit: NASA
“It’s not a big deal because they can be recommanded on,” said Philippe Deloo, ESA program manager for the service module. “We don’t have an idea of what is the root cause. We are investigating, looking at all possible options.”
One possibility, he said, is that electromagnetic interference or noise in the power system is causing the latching current limiters to open. Another possibility is they are being affected by transmissions from spacecraft antennas. Engineers are doing as much testing as they can before the end of the mission to identify the cause. “This is going to be a difficult one to troubleshoot.”
Zimmermann emphasized the issue was not serious. “When they open uncommanded, the effect on the mission is not that big,” he said, noting it affects only one of eight power lines on the spacecraft. “It is a glitch, not a mission-critical failure.”
Other parts of the European Service Module have exceeded expectations. The spacecraft is producing more power than expected, yet using less power than planned. Deloo said the reduced power consumption is, in turn, linked to the spacecraft dissipating less heat than expected, meaning it has to use heaters less frequently to maintain its proper temperature. “This is one of the major lessons learned.”
The service module has also produced many of the stunning images and video the mission has returned, thanks to GoPro cameras mounted on the tips of each of the four solar arrays. “We are calling them now four selfie sticks,” quipped Matthias Gronowski, chief engineer for the European Service Module at Airbus.
The Artemis 1 mission, and excellent performance of its service modules, comes as some in Europe advocate for ESA to develop its own human spaceflight capability. Human spaceflight was one of the long-term “inspirator” concepts endorsed by ESA member states a year ago, and remains a topic of debate in Europe.
“We have to see how far politicians are willing to look into this,” ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said in a Dec. 1 speech at a Space Transportation Association luncheon here, noting the topic would come up at a second European “space summit” scheduled for late 2023. “Does Europe want to be more independent, more autonomous in human space transportation?”
“In terms of technical capability, can Europe build a human-rated space vehicle? I don’t doubt it,” Parker said, citing the success not just of the Artemis 1 mission but work on International Space Station modules and elements of the future lunar Gateway. What would be needed, he said, was experience in end-to-end operations of a crew spacecraft and development of safety systems, like a launch abort system, as well as a human-rated launch vehicle.
During the International Astronautical Congress in September, ArianeGroup released a concept for a vehicle called Smart Upper Stage for Innovative Exploration (SUSIE). The vehicle is designed to be a new, reusable upper stage for the Ariane 6 rocket, but could be used as a cargo and crew transportation vehicle. Morena Bernardini, head of strategy and innovation at ArianeGroup, said in an interview at the conference that a cargo version of SUSIE could be ready as soon as 2030 followed by a crewed version “immediately after.”
At the briefing, Zimmerman suggested Airbus was more interested in working with others, along the lines of the existing partnership on Orion, than developing a European crewed vehicle. “We need to unite forces and share the costs,” he said, noting he was offering his personal opinion. “This is, to me, much more important than saying its Germany, France, England or Europe in total against the Americans.”
Parker said the success of the service module shows ESA is ready for the next phases of Artemis. “We learned that we can send a crew-rated capsule to the moon and back again on its first flight, and that means it gives us a lot of confidence to go forward in the next steps in Artemis.”
ESA has a contract with Airbus to produce service modules through Artemis 6, at a total value of a little more than two billion euros. ESA’s member states approved plans to produce three more service modules at November’s ministerial meeting, and Parker said the agency will get those under contract some time in 2023.
The Artemis 1 service module will end its mission about 40 minutes before splashdown when it separates from the crew capsule shortly before reentry. The service module will burn up in the atmosphere, with any surviving pieces falling into the Pacific Ocean west of Peru.
“It’s a little sad, but we’ve accomplished the mission,” Zimmerman said of the impending demise of the service module. “We are proud of all that has happened.”
“You cannot be sad when you accomplish your mission,” Deloo said. “Everything has a life. The end of the life is part of the life. As long as the life has been successful, this is a great success. So, I’m happy about it.”
With a deadline for an agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union on British involvement in, and funding for, Copernicus come and gone, the European Space Agency is pressing ahead on several missions in the hopes a deal can eventually be reached. British and European negotiators had been working toward a Nov. 30 deadline regarding British participation in the E.U. aspects of Copernicus post-Brexit, including a British contribution of 750 million euros ($850 million) to the program. That deadline passed, though, without a deal. Without an agreement, the Copernicus program faces a funding shortfall that could jeopardize work on six new Earth science missions approved at ESA’s 2019 ministerial meeting, contracts for which ESA awarded in July 2020. The issue came up at the latest meeting of the ESA Council that concluded Dec. 15. Josef Aschbacher, director general of ESA, mentioned the 750 million euro funding shortfall during a media briefing after the meeting. Several options were under consideration, he said, including simply delaying the deadline on an agreement for as long as possible. “One [option] that is most likely to be brought forward is to keep the door open and postpone the decision point into the future,” he said, specifically until the critical design review (CDR) for the missions. “We can, with some arrangements and negotiations with industry, we could push this date into 2024, which would give us three more years to negotiate and, basically, find the 750 million. The participation of the U.K. is still a priority and our preferred option.”
The Copernicus Carbon Dioxide Monitoring, or CO2M, mission is one of six Copernicus missions whose development is jeopardized by a 750 million euro funding shortfall caused by a lack of an agreement on U.K. participation in E.U. elements of the program. Credit: OHB
That would mean that the CDR, where final approval is given to move into full-scale assembly of the spacecraft, would become what he called the “break point or go/no-go decision” on proceeding based on available funding.
That plan poses complications for the companies working on those missions. “What we expect from our institutions is to come up with an agreement in between the PDR and the CDR,” said Philippe Pham, senior vice president for Earth observation, navigation and science at Airbus Defence and Space, during a panel at World Satellite Business Week Dec. 16. The preliminary design review, or PDR, of those Copernicus missions is scheduled for 2022, with CDRs between late 2023 and 2024.
“It gives us some room for maneuver for final agreement to preserve the six missions,” he said. “What we expect is that the E.U. will come up with a solution for the missing Brexit budget and keeping the schedule of the six missions.”
“It’s so important that we protect all the six missions,” said Massimo Comparini, deputy chief executive of Thales Alenia Space, on the same panel. He said that while the missions have a high level of technical maturity, there shouldn’t be any attempt to compress development schedules between reviews, or from CDR to launch.
“We’re talking about such important missions that we cannot have any kind of shortcut,” he said.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has granted 1 million euros to nanosatellite mission integrator NanoAvionics to develop key components for small satellite propulsion systems. The new propulsion technologies, with a thrust of up to 5N, aim to further reduce the cost of small satellite projects while making each satellite more reliable, propellant supply chains safer, and constellations more economical. Based on those components a new generation of propulsion systems for small satellites will be used in future ESA missions, and available to commercial satellite operators across the world. The first two R and D projects for NanoAvionics by ESA include the development of a miniature latch valve and a double-seat 1N valve for mono-propellant applications. They are a result of the Plan for European Cooperating States (PECS) in Lithuania. NanoAvionics CEO, Vytenis J. Buzas said: "Designing and developing propulsion components specifically for smallsats, instead of optimising systems based on larger spacecraft, signifies a new paradigm in satellite development. By putting mass efficiency and reliability of satellite components on centre stage it will help to reduce production cost and increase revenues." NanoAvionics will also participate, as a partner organisation, in two additional ESA funded satellite technology R and D projects. The first, led by Vilnius University, will develop a resistojet thruster for small satellites that uses water as a propellant. The main advantages of the proposed solution will be the reduction of manufacturing costs, increased efficiency compared to existing low power thrusters and the use of a very safe propellant. The Baltic Institute of Advanced Technologies leads the second project, which will develop an ultra-wideband software-defined radio for space communications. This technology will cover the vast majority of the space communication bands.
"At NanoAvionics we are proud to contribute to Lithuania's growing cooperation with the European Space Agency. As a leader in nanosatellite technologies, NanoAvionics is well-positioned to support ESA in finding a new and improved solution propulsion technologies for smallsats."
Funded under the 4th call for outline proposals of PECS, NanoAvionics will develop a miniature latch valve (MLV) to improve the safety and performance of mono-propellant thrusters. Designed to isolate the propellant tank from the thrusters, the MLV's sealed construction and normally-closed configuration will prevent unwanted leaks of propellant during the satellite's launch and orbital operations. Under the PECS grant, NanoAvionics will refine and test a prototype, demonstrating the MLV's utility for use in chemical or electric propulsion systems.
NanoAvionics also received funding under the 5th call for outline proposals of PECS to develop a double-seat 1N valve (DSV) for mono-propellant applications. Intended to reduce the mass and complexity relative to existing valves, the DSV will make propellant supply chains in small satellites safer and more reliable.
As a European Space Agency cooperating state since 2014, Lithuania has fostered closer ties between ESA, the Lithuanian space industry, and the Lithuanian academic community.
The German delegation at the European Space Agency (ESA) Council Meeting at Ministerial Level, 'Space19+', was headed by the Federal Government Coordinator of German Aerospace Policy, Thomas Jarzombek, who is a member of the Federal Parliament. He was accompanied and supported by representatives from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (Bundesministerium fur Wirtschaft und Energie; BMWi) and the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (Bundesministerium fur Verkehr und digitale Infrastruktur; BMVI). Walther Pelzer, German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) Executive Board member responsible for the Space Administration, also participated in the negotiations. Together with his team from the Space Administration in Bonn, Pelzer prepared working-level German position papers for the meeting in consultation with Federal Government officials. At the end of the conference, Thomas Jarzombek stated that: "After two days of intensive negotiations, Germany has committed a total of 3.3 billion euro for European space programmes over the next three to five years. In setting out our priorities, we have shown that we are a reliable partner for ESA. To achieve our goal of strengthening small and medium-sized German space companies, we have doubled our funding for the relevant programmes. To address the challenges of climate change, Germany has increased its investment in Earth observation to 720 million euro. We have also succeeded in enabling the European lunar mission with a high level of commitment - 55 million euro."
At 'Space 19+', a total of 14.4 billion euro were committed. At 22.9 percent, Germany is now ESA's largest contributor, ahead of France. Specifically, Germany has committed approximately one billion euro to the ESA mandatory programmes. In addition to the general budget, these include the science programme and the European Spaceport in French Guiana. Approximately 2.3 billion euro of the German contribution will go towards what are referred to as the optional programmes: ~720 million euro for Earth observation, ~330 million euro for telecommunications, ~160 million euro for technology programmes, 84 million euro for space situational awareness and security, ~490 million euro for space transport and operations, and ~550 million euro for human spaceflight, microgravity research and exploration.
The German financial commitments in detail
Launch systems From the end of 2020, Ariane 6 will be the new European launcher for carrying payloads into space, and Germany will contribute ~23 percent of the total development costs. The industrial prime contractors are ArianeGroup, with sites in Germany at Bremen and Ottobrunn, and MT Aerospace in Augsburg and Bremen. Germany is contributing a total of ~90 million euro to the further development of Ariane 6, including the preparation of the future upper stage. Germany is investing ~230 million euro in the optional Launchers Exploitation and Accompaniment (LEAP) programme and will be investing ~95 million euro for the operation and modernisation of the European Spaceport in French Guiana up until the end of 2024.
Germany is participating in the Future Launchers Preparatory Programme (FLPP) with ~137 million euro. The focus will be on the development of a cost-effective lightweight upper stage (for example, constructed using carbon-fibre reinforced composite materials), improving the performance of existing and new engines (Vulcain NEO, Vinci Evolution) and the implementation of new processes and methods (for example, additive manufacturing). Under the name 'Commercial Space Transportation Services and Support' (CSTS), ESA is taking forward a new optional programme in the context of NewSpace. Germany is contributing ~28 million euro to the 'Commercial Space Transportation Services' element, which broadly supports industry in the development of new space transport services, particularly in the field of microlauncher technology.
Science The Science Programme makes a significant contribution to the development and maintenance of Europe's space infrastructure. It finances research satellites and their launch and operation. The scientific instruments are developed by the Member States themselves. By 2035, 11 new missions will have been launched to explore and analyse the Solar System and the Universe at large. With a budget contribution of 20.7 percent of the total, Germany is the largest contributor to this programme, committing ~578 million euro over five years. Large and medium-sized missions with significant German participation are: Solar Orbiter (solar research, scheduled launch: 5 February 2020), JUICE (Jupiter mission, scheduled launch: 2022), EUCLID (dark energy/dark matter, planned launch: 2022), PLATO (exoplanet mission: 2026), ATHENA (X-ray telescope mission: 2031) and LISA (gravitational wave observatory: 2034).
Earth observation for climate protection and collaborative development Germany is a world leader in Earth observation - both in scientific and technological terms, and in the use and processing of data for the analysis of the Earth system. With ~520 million euro (30 percent of the budget), Germany will retain its leading role in the currently operational Copernicus European Earth observation programme. This will involve the further development and expansion of the system to include new satellites (Sentinels 7-12) and services for climate monitoring and climate protection, agriculture, mobility, security and disaster prevention. German expertise could also be incorporated into the planned Copernicus hyperspectral mission.
In addition, Germany is contributing ~170 million euro (~26 percent) to the 'FutureEO' scientific programme. Ten million (out of 50 million euro) has been allocated to the new 'Global Development Assistance' (GDA) programme. 'InCubed+' is aimed at short-duration commercial Earth observation activities with private sector backing -Germany is contributing 15 million euro. In addition, Germany is supporting a small Arctic satellite mission (Demonstrator, NewSpace approach) to improve short- and medium-term weather forecasts in the Arctic region with 7.5 million euro.
Telecommunications In telecommunications (ARTES programmes), the aim is to support innovative technologies and products for the global commercial market. The main focus is on the Core Competitiveness (CC) programme, optical communications (ScyLight), commercial applications (Business Applications and Space Solutions; BASS), Secure Satcom for Safety and Security (4S) and the Partnership Programme. With a financial contribution of 80 million euro for ScyLight and 60 million euro for 4S, Germany has secured a leading role. In the CC Programme, Germany increased its contribution to 67 million euro and doubled its BASS contribution to 37 million euro. Germany contributed 65 million euro to the Partnership Programme, including Electra with an in-orbit demonstration, and 13 million euro to the framework programme for the support of satellites needed for the 5G mobile communications networks.
"Germany is very well positioned in the satellite telecommunications sector. Our aim is to increase the competitiveness of components and support system capabilities with a focus on secure communications - the keyword here is quantum encryption - to integrate satellite technology and applications into the new 5G mobile networks and above all to continue technological and political leadership in optical laser communication," says Walther Pelzer. One example is the planned optical communication network Hydron, which is designed to provide fast connections for users with high data transfer requirements, supplementing and complementing the terrestrial fibre optic network. Space security Space weather, observations of near-Earth objects and space debris are as relevant to science as they are to society. Germany is therefore contributing some 12 million euro to the core element of this programme. In addition, Germany will provide 60 million euro for the Hera mission and assume responsibility for system management. Together with NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, Hera will investigate how asteroids can be diverted from their trajectory where there is a risk of collision with Earth. HERA's target is the double asteroid Didymos / Didymoon. The craft will perform observations and analyses in connection with the impact of the NASA DART spacecraft on the smaller asteroid, Didymoon, planned for September 2022. The findings will be used for fundamental research as well as for the preparation of possible defence missions against asteroids. Germany is also contributing ~12 million euro to a mission for the active removal of space debris (ADRIOS).
Technology development German participation in the General Support Technology Programme (GSTP) aims to maintain, expand and strengthen the industrial competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly start-ups. New priorities include the digitalisation of production cycles, technologies for the sustainable use of space, Industry 4.0 compatible production methods, robotics and modern sensor technologies, AI-supported applications on satellites, and the development and use of quantum technologies. Germany has increased its contribution by a factor of 2.5 to 160 million euro. The programme aims to close existing gaps in technological development and focuses on the maturation of core technologies and components for future missions.
E3P - the European Exploration Envelope Programme All robotic and astronautic exploration activities will be brought together under the 'European Exploration Envelope Programme' (E3P). This combines the European science and technology programme for the use of near-Earth orbits for space research with the exploration of the Moon and Mars. Sub-programmes will be the operation of the ISS and its utilisation (German share: 416 million euro). As the principal constructor and funder of the European Service Modules (ESM 1-4), the supply component of the US Orion spacecraft, Germany is an indispensable part of NASA's Artemis lunar programme.
This is supported by a strong role for SMEs, which Germany is aiming for through its subscription of 25 million euro for European gateway activities. In addition, Germany will play a leading role in the sustainable robotic exploration of the Moon with a contribution of 55 million euro. Germany is also contributing 20 million euro to the Exploration Preparation, Research and Technology (ExPeRT) programme, which will conduct mission studies and technology development for other exploration topics, including a commercial approach. For the consolidation of ExoMars (launch: July 2020) and selected technology elements of the 'Mars Sample Return' mission being planned in cooperation with NASA, Germany is providing ~37 million euro.
European Space Agency (ESA) members agreed Thursday a record 14.4 billion euros budget, promising to maintain Europe's place at the top table as the United States and China press ahead and industry disruptors such as Elon Musk's Space X present new challenges. The budget is split, with 12.5 billion euros ($14.1 billion) committed for three years and the full 14.4 billion euros over five, representing an increase of some four billion euros on the previous spending plan. "Its a surprise, even more than I proposed... this is good," ESA head Jan Woerner told a nwes conference after ministers from the 22 member states met in Seville for two days. Woerner said the funding pledges meant that ESA could run a full series of programmes plus additional scientific work, citing moves to increase earth observation as part of efforts, among other things, to monitor climate change. "It is a giant step forward for Europe, fifty years after the moon landing," said Jean-Yves Le Gall, head of the French space agency. "We have beaten all records in terms of financial contributions," Le Gall added. Germany made the largest contribution to the budget, at some 3.3 billion euros, followed by France on 2.7 billion euros, Italy 2.3 billion euros and Britain with 1.7 billion euros.The ESA is not a European Union body and so Britain's position as a member remains unchanged despite Brexit.
To reinforce that message, the UK Space Agency issued a statement recalling that Britain was one of ESA's founding members, and detailing its commitments to a series of programmes including earth observation, 5G telecoms and monitoring space debris.
- Moon, Mars, science -
Among the projects ESA highlighted were the first gravitational wave detector in space, LISA, and the black hole mission Athena, designed to "enable fundamental advances in our understanding of the basic physics of the Universe."
ESA reiterated its commitment to the International Space Station until 2030 and its participation in the Gateway project, the first space station planned to orbit the Moon.
"European astronauts will fly to the Moon for the first time," it said in a closing statement, and ESA will support a "ground-breaking Mars Sample Return mission in cooperation with NASA."
In telecommunications, ESA aims to help develop flexible satellite systems integrated with 5G networks, "as well as next-generation optical technology for a fibre-like 'network in the sky,', marking a transformation in the satellite communication industry."
Ministers also endorsed the transition to the next generation of launchers, the massive Ariane 6 and the smaller Vega-C, "and have given the green light to Space Rider, ESA's new reusable spaceship."
Going into the meeting, ESA officials had said the agency was hoping to get increased funding to ensure Europe does not lag behind.
Europe has established itself as a major space player, with the Ariane 6 launcher the latest off the production line and the Galileo GPS system operational.
Critics say however that it has been slow to develop some key innovations -- notably reusable rockets pioneered by the likes of Musk.
This "New Space" evolution has seen Musk develop reusable launchers for dramatically smaller yet more powerful satellites, many designed to create and run the "connected world" of driverless cars and countless other aspects of everyday life on earth.
European ministers met Wednesday in Spain aiming to defend its top space ranking against challenges from the United States and China, and increasingly from industry disruptors such as Elon Musk's Space X. Ministers of the 22 European Space Agency (ESA) member states gathered in Seville to discuss a request for 14.3 billion euros in funding, some four billion euros more than in the previous 3-year budget. The European Union has already agreed to provide 16 billion euros and now the crucial question is what to spend it on. "There is a desire to do more, to have a more ambitious scientific programme and to develop our infrastructure to match our ambitions," ESA spokesman Philippe Willekens told AFP last week. In a fast changing environment, "Europe must pay attention to remain the leader in those sectors it already is and to continue to conquer new markets," Willekens added. In recent years, Europe has established itself as a major space player, with its very heavy Ariane 6 rocket launcher the latest off the production line and the Galileo GPS system operational. But this position is now "threatened," the Institut Montaigne think-tank in Paris says, as global competition increases, led by the United States and China who have poured massive amounts of money into the industry, both civilian and military. "Europe does not have the structural advantages of the Americans and Chinese because it does not have a single, shared objective," said Isabelle Sourbes-Verger of France's National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).
"Europe has the same problem it has always had -- what justifies spending more on space?"
- 'New Space' challenge -
Europe must answer these questions just as new players such as Space X and a host of others, mostly American, have begun to emerge, shaking up the industry.
This "New Space" evolution has seen Musk for example develop reusable launchers for dramatically smaller yet more powerful satellites, many designed for the "connected world" of driverless cars and countless other aspects of everyday life on earth.
Some experts fear that Europe is simply not competitive enough to get into these new markets, never mind holding on to what it already has.
Ariane 6 is a particular cause for concern, with French state audit officials recently describing its economic model as "presenting some risks" given ferocious competition from Space X which in 2017 took Arianespace's global satellite launch crown.
Space X has forced down costs sharply, developing a reusable rocket which the Europeans thought initially to be impossible, the officials said.
Worse still, Europe "at this stage has only developed the building blocks which will allow, in due time, to acquire" this re-usable technology, the auditors said in a report.
Arianespace head Stephane Israel insists that Ariane 6 is "just the beginning" and the rocket programme "opens a cycle of innovations which will have to be accelerated."
At the same time, Ariane 6, whose first flight is scheduled for next year, will not be competitive in the long-run unless there is a high rate of launches, which will depend in turn on "numerous institutional orders," he said.
US government orders account for some 80 percent of Space X's scheduled work, he recalled.
Israel noted in this context recent supportive comments by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel that Europe should favour European launch options.
Sourbes-Verger at CNRS cautioned that "space is not a commercial industry like any other -- making money with a launcher is ambitious."
Europe should therefore continue to focus on "original projects and on developing its strong points," such as in scientific space efforts, she added.
RUAG Space, a leading supplier to the space industry, has successfully developed and tested a new low shock jettison system for payload fairings. This enables a quieter and smoother journey to space for satellites or other payload. The required payload fairings for the European launchers Ariane and VEGA have been produced by RUAG Space in Emmen, Switzerland, since the 1970s. As part of the Future Launchers Preparatory Programme (FLPP) of the European Space Agency (ESA), RUAG Space has developed this new separation and jettison system for payload fairings. "This new solution enables a quieter journey to space", says Peter Guggenbach, CEO RUAG Space. The payload fairing protects the satellite from aerodynamic and thermal loads during flight. After passing through dense atmospheric layers and as soon as the satellite is no longer at risk, the payload fairing is separated from the launch vehicle. As a rule, two pyrotechnic mechanisms are fired to open hinges, allowing the half-shells to separate safely from the payload. "Pyrotechnics is a proven technology, which may generate significant shock during activation and may result in excitation that needs to be considered in the design of the launcher and payload hardware", says Alberto Sanchez Cebrian, Project Manager at RUAG.
Lower development costs and simpler test conditions
The separation and jettison system has a modular design and reduces development costs, as parts can be improved or replaced without affecting the entire system. Testing is easier and the mechanism does not require synchronization.
The tests were carried out at the RUAG Spaces site in Emmen on a 2.6 m long Vega payload fairing. The new system is scalable and could also be used for, for instance, in the European launch vehicle Ariane.
In addition to the successful separation test, a significant noise reduction was achieved. An integrated sound-reducing perforated insulation layer within the sandwich panels of the payload fairing enables noise reduction without increasing mass and volume.
In certain frequency bands this system could replace acoustic absorber mats currently used in payload fairings. Testing and evaluation of this new system will continue in the next phase of the project.
European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Luca Parmitano is preparing to step out into space for his first spacewalk of the Beyond mission. Scheduled for 25 October, he will work with NASA astronaut Jessica Meir to replace nickel hydrogen batteries with newer lithium ion batteries and install battery adapter plates on the Space Station's Port-6 truss structure. This is a process fellow ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet knows well, having replaced batteries on another power channel during his Proxima mission. We asked him to tell us more about the task and how the crew will prepare. Known to the crew as an EVA (Extravehicular Activity), each spacewalk is planned up to a year in advance. On Station, preparation begins around two weeks ahead, with a set of procedures called the "Road to EVA". "Preparing for a spacewalk will make up 2-3 hours of your schedule every day during this time," Thomas explains. "The crew often carry out prep in their personal time as well."
The big day Live coverage of Luca and Jessica's spacewalk starts on NASA TV at 10:30 GMT (12:30 CEST), but the crew will begin their preparation around 6:00. And there is to be no showering, shaving, or applying deodorant for at least a day in advance, as any remnants of these products could mix with the pure oxygen inside the suit and pose a fire risk
Astronauts wear a liquid cooling garment underneath their spacesuit. This is connected to the water system that keeps them cool, or warm, by circulating water around their body. They also don a medical monitor and put a dosimeter in their pocket to measure radiation before entering the hatch.
Thomas describes the process inside the airlock as "like scuba diving in reverse", as astronauts breathe in a controlled way to rid their blood of nitrogen and adjust to lower pressure.
A third crew member, known as the Intravehicular (IV) crew member, is also isolated in the airlock, before it goes to vacuum. This person helps the astronauts with their oxygen masks and into their spacesuits, while making sure everything is checked, tethered and ready for a safe and successful sortie.
It is a role Luca will play in the two spacewalks before his, on 15 and 21 October. Out in space Before exiting the airlock, Thomas says, extreme focus is the overriding feeling.
"Everybody's watching, so many people have been involved in the preparation, and the risks are so much higher when you're outside the Space Station," he explains. "The only thing you can't really prepare for are the day/night cycles.
"During the night, you only have your helmet light, so you can't really see anything except what you're working on. And because you're working in all body orientations, it's easy to get disoriented. But you know you can always follow your tether back towards the hatch."
After exiting the airlock, Thomas says one astronaut will prepare the worksite while the other breaks torque on the pre-positioned adapter plates. Each astronaut will then work to install the adapter plates, needed to replace two older batteries with one new one.
The spacewalk on 25 October is the one of five scheduled for October. Even more are expected in November as Luca ventures out again with the complex task of repairing and enhancing dark matter hunter AMS-02 - a structure never designed to be maintained in orbit.
SpaceX's plans for more frequent, regularly scheduled ride-sharing launches will unleash new growth in the small-satellite industry, leading to easier and cheaper rollouts for new communication networks, experts said. SpaceX recently published a schedule of 30 rocket launches for small satellites in 2020 and 2021. Its customers can buy space on the missions for as low as $1 million, a previously unprecedented price to put a satellite into orbit. Reserving an entire launch on the company's Falcon 9 rocket costs $62 million. The small-satellite market is poised to generate $1 billion a year over the next decade, according to Northern Sky Research, which is based in Cambridge, Mass., and specializes in the satellite and space markets. "What SpaceX is doing is great for the satellite industry," Leena Pivovarova, an analyst for Northern Sky, told UPI. "It's definitely going to lead to expansion. It will also make the small-rocket market more competitive," she said. "Things will get a little more difficult for new launch companies trying to enter the market." The new SpaceX schedule for small satellites is in addition to its regular missions to the International Space Station or for large customers like the U.S. military. The first date on the new schedule is in March, when a Falcon 9 rocket is to lift off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, but other launches will be in Florida, the company said. One of the first customers for the new program, California-based Momentus, will be launching a satellite specifically designed to move other satellites around once they reach space. That launch is set for late 2020. Momentus said it will provide "last mile" service for other satellites by helping them reach specific orbits. Its satellite shuttle service, or tugboat, is called Vigoride, and also is poised to support more frequent small-satellite deployments.
"We think the cost reduction for SpaceX launches is going to be fantastic, and it will stimulate all kinds of new business in space," said Joel Sercel, the Momentus chief technology officer.
He said the key to success is the regular schedule that businesses can count on.
Plans to launch thousands of new satellites have raised fears of potential problems, though, especially collisions and increased space trash.
SpaceX and the European Space Agency already had a recent close call. The space agency said the United States' collision alert system indicated a European weather satellite was at risk of colliding Monday with a Starlink satellite launched from Florida in May. The risk was 1 in 10,000, which exceeds industry standards, the agency said.
The agency issued a statement saying it had contacted SpaceX, and the space company had indicated it planned to to take no action. Starlink satellites, like many satellites, have the ability to fire thrusters to avoid collisions. Instead, the space agency moved its satellite to avoid the problem.
In a statement afterward, SpaceX acknowledged that it was aware of a problem, but blamed "a bug in our on-call paging system" that prevented a Starlink operator from seeing updates that had raised the probability to the 1 in 10,000 level.
"SpaceX is still investigating the issue and will implement corrective actions. However, had the Starlink operator seen the correspondence, we would have coordinated with ESA to determine best approach," a SpaceX statement said.
On Tuesday, the European agency called for new protocol to communicate and resolve similar problems.
"Today, this negotiation is done through exchanging emails - an archaic process that is no longer viable as increasing numbers of satellites in space mean more space traffic," said Holger Krag, head of space safety at European agency.
Meanwhile, SpaceX is moving forward, noting that dedicated ride-share missions will not be delayed by trouble with another passenger's schedule. "If you are ready to fly during the scheduled launch period, you will fly," the SpaceX announcement said.
Customers who run into delays that prevents them from launching can book another launch with a 10 percent rebooking fee, SpaceX said.
SpaceX's ride-sharing launches and lower cost are partly a result of the company making its rockets reusable, Northern Sky's Pivovarova said.
She said SpaceX simply might launch its own satellites for its Starlink internet network if a scheduled launch doesn't have as many paying customers.
"Personally, I think it may take a while before they can achieve that kind of regular launch rhythm," Pivovarova said. "It could be that they are dropping their prices because they can afford to now, or because they see competition coming up from other rocket companies getting into the business."
Momentus has raised $34 million for its satellite shuttle. The company says its unique new technology uses water plasma as the propellant.
Gwynne Shotwell, the SpaceX president, said Momentus "will offer a strong complement to Falcon 9's capability to reliably and affordably launch payloads for small satellite operators."
Astronomers have made a new measurement of how fast the universe is expanding, using an entirely different kind of star than previous endeavors. The revised measurement, which comes from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (http://www.nasa.gov/hubble), falls in the center of a hotly debated question in astrophysics that may lead to a new interpretation of the universe's fundamental properties. Scientists have known for almost a century that the universe is expanding, meaning the distance between galaxies across the universe is becoming ever more vast every second. But exactly how fast space is stretching, a value known as the Hubble constant, has remained stubbornly elusive. Now, University of Chicago professor Wendy Freedman and colleagues have a new measurement for the rate of expansion in the modern universe, suggesting the space between galaxies is stretching faster than scientists would expect. Freedman's is one of several recent studies that point to a nagging discrepancy between modern expansion measurements and predictions based on the universe as it was more than 13 billion years ago, as measured by the European Space Agency's Planck satellite. As more research points to a discrepancy between predictions and observations, scientists are considering whether they may need to come up with a new model for the underlying physics of the universe in order to explain it. "The Hubble constant is the cosmological parameter that sets the absolute scale, size and age of the universe; it is one of the most direct ways we have of quantifying how the universe evolves," said Freedman. The discrepancy that we saw before has not gone away, but this new evidence suggests that the jury is still out on whether there is an immediate and compelling reason to believe that there is something fundamentally flawed in our current model of the universe."
In a new paper accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, Freedman and her team announced a new measurement of the Hubble constant using a kind of star known as a red giant. Their new observations, made using Hubble, indicate that the expansion rate for the nearby universe is just under 70 kilometers per second per megaparsec (km/sec/Mpc). One parsec is equivalent to 3.26 light-years distance.
This measurement is slightly smaller than the value of 74 km/sec/Mpc recently reported by the Hubble SH0ES (Supernovae H0 for the Equation of State) team using Cepheid variables, which are stars that pulse at regular intervals that correspond to their peak brightness. This team, led by Adam Riess of the Johns Hopkins University and Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, recently reported refining their observations to the highest precision to date for their Cepheid distance measurement technique.
How to Measure Expansion A central challenge in measuring the universe's expansion rate is that it is very difficult to accurately calculate distances to distant objects.
In 2001, Freedman led a team that used distant stars to make a landmark measurement of the Hubble constant. The Hubble Space Telescope Key Project team measured the value using Cepheid variables as distance markers. Their program concluded that the value of the Hubble constant for our universe was 72 km/sec/Mpc.
But more recently, scientists took a very different approach: building a model based on the rippling structure of light left over from the big bang, which is called the cosmic microwave background. The Planck measurements allow scientists to predict how the early universe would likely have evolved into the expansion rate astronomers can measure today. Scientists calculated a value of 67.4 km/sec/Mpc, in significant disagreement with the rate of 74.0 km/sec/Mpc measured with Cepheid stars.
Astronomers have looked for anything that might be causing the mismatch. "Naturally, questions arise as to whether the discrepancy is coming from some aspect that astronomers don't yet understand about the stars we're measuring, or whether our cosmological model of the universe is still incomplete," Freedman said. "Or maybe both need to be improved upon."
Freedman's team sought to check their results by establishing a new and entirely independent path to the Hubble constant using an entirely different kind of star.
Certain stars end their lives as a very luminous kind of star called a red giant, a stage of evolution that our own Sun will experience billions of years from now. At a certain point, the star undergoes a catastrophic event called a helium flash, in which the temperature rises to about 100 million degrees and the structure of the star is rearranged, which ultimately dramatically decreases its luminosity. Astronomers can measure the apparent brightness of the red giant stars at this stage in different galaxies, and they can use this as a way to tell their distance.
The Hubble constant is calculated by comparing distance values to the apparent recessional velocity of the target galaxies - that is, how fast galaxies seem to be moving away. The team's calculations give a Hubble constant of 69.8 km/sec/Mpc - straddling the values derived by the Planck and Riess teams.
"Our initial thought was that if there's a problem to be resolved between the Cepheids and the Cosmic Microwave Background, then the red giant method can be the tie-breaker," said Freedman.
But the results do not appear to strongly favor one answer over the other, say the researchers, although they align more closely with the Planck results.
NASA's upcoming mission, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), scheduled to launch in the mid-2020s, will enable astronomers to better explore the value of the Hubble constant across cosmic time. WFIRST, with its Hubble-like resolution and 100 times greater view of the sky, will provide a wealth of new Type Ia supernovae, Cepheid variables, and red giant stars to fundamentally improve distance measurements to galaxies near and far.
European Space Agency operations specialists are helping flight planners at new European space startup PTScientists, headquartered in Berlin, pilot their way to the Moon. PTScientists are planning to launch lunar landers and rovers as a regular service in the future, with an inaugural flight expected in 2020. Specialists from ESA's European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, are providing consultancy on flight dynamics and flight operations as well as preparing for driving two lunar rovers. In recent years, ESA has worked on the Multi-Purpose End-To-End Robotic Operation Network developing expertise in operating robots and in working with the specialised networks needed to remotely operate a vehicle on a moon or planetary surface from space. Agency teams have supported live tests, including controlling a rover in Quebec, Canada, from Darmstadt, and enabling ESA astronaut Tim Peake to control a rover in the UK from the International Space Station. This ESA experience and long-time know-how in mission operations will help PTScientists reach their lunar goals. "We are supporting PTScientists in defining their mission operations concepts. All of the elements of which are important," says ESA project lead Kim Nergaard, from ESOC's Solar System and Exploration Missions Division. "To be successful, their team needs to prepare for the end-to-end operations of the lander from launch to landing on the Moon and handle all aspects of near-real time surface operations, as well as fitting that into a bigger mission control environment." "Right now, we are in the early stages, mapping out what their needs will be. As it becomes clear what will be needed to achieve mission success, we aim to support them with a suite of tools to achieve that."
Cooperation also fits ESA's long-term plans As well as drawing on a wealth of experience, the cooperation builds nicely into ESA's long-term plans for lunar operations.
"We're happy to work with PTScientists during the definition of mission operations, and perhaps more in the future," says Andrea Accomazzo, Head of the Solar System and Exploration Missions Division at ESA.
"While we help them to develop expertise, there is also a benefit to ESA in consolidating aspects of our operations concepts, so it should really be worthwhile for both sides."
The first mission is planned to demonstrate technology, including a mobile-phone-style 4G communications network on the Moon, as well as revisiting - at a safe distance - the last Apollo landing site.
ESA's Estrack ground station network will help make sure that mission controllers on ground can communicate with PTScientist's ALINA spacecraft, as they have done for recent Chinese missions to the Moon.
First privately financed mission to the Moon "We are delighted with the support we are receiving from ESA's highly skilled experts. Together, we will perform the first privately funded European lunar landing. For PTScientists, this is the first stage of what we expect to be a long-term collaboration with ESA," says Robert Boehme, CEO and founder of PTScientists.
Enabling European industry to make use of ESA's expertise and infrastructure is a key aspect of the Agency's support for the emerging 'ecosystem' of commercial space startups.
Earlier this year, ESA announced that it was making mission control facilities available to organisations such as universities or small companies wishing to fly their own cubesats.
Test subjects in Cologne, Germany will take to their beds for 60 days from 25 March as part of a groundbreaking study, funded by European Space Agency ESA and US space agency NASA, into how artificial gravity could help astronauts stay healthy in space. Carried out at the German Aerospace Center's (DLR) :envihab facility, the long-term bedrest study is the first of its kind to be conducted in partnership between the two agencies. It is also the first to employ DLR's short-arm centrifuge as a way of recreating gravity for participants. But just how easy is it to stay in bed for 60 days and what is the relevance of adding artificial gravity for space researchers? We pull back the covers on this unique investigation as preparations get underway. Bedrest has long been used to mimic some of the changes our bodies experience in the weightlessness of space. Humans are made to live on Earth and without the constant pull of gravity it is common for muscles and bones to start wasting away. Currently, astronauts on board the International Space Station exercise for up to 2.5 hours per day and maintain a balanced diet to help mitigate microgravity's effects, but scientists believe adding a dose of artificial gravity could be key during longer-term missions. Though it may sound simple for the 8 male and 4 female volunteers involved, lying in bed for a full 60 days, plus a further 29 days of acclimatisation and recovery, is not quite as restful as it seems. Throughout the course of the study, all 24 participants will need to remain at :envihab on the DLR campus. There they will be kept in beds with the head end tilted 6 below horizontal and must ensure one of their shoulders is touching the mattress at all times.
As blood flows to their heads and muscle is lost from underuse, researchers will investigate changes and test techniques from diet to physical exercise. Artificial gravity is one of the techniques under the spotlight this time around and will see some of the participants sent spinning.
Recreating gravity Once a day, a selection of the study's participants will lie in DLR's short-arm centrifuge. There they will be spun to encourage blood to flow back towards their feet and allow researchers to understand the potential of artificial gravity in combating the effects of weightlessness.
The intensity of the centrifugal force is able to be adapted to each person according to their size. DLR can also adjust the centre of spin so that subjects are spun around their heads or their chests. Changing the position in this way could have far-reaching consequences for rehabilitation but, as this is a new domain, these consequences are currently unknown.
A number of different experiments will be carried out over the course of the study, looking at cardiovascular function, balance and muscle strength, metabolism and cognitive performance among other factors. Seven of these experiments will be conducted by European-led research groups, with a view to validating the findings on the International Space Station during future missions.
An international effort ESA team leader for research Jennifer Ngo-Anh says the international nature of the long-term bedrest study reflects the international collaboration necessary as ESA plans future missions to the Moon and beyond.
"To make these missions possible, various risks to astronaut health must be minimised. This study allows us to address the issue of muscular atrophy caused by weightlessness, but also other stressors such as cosmic radiation, isolation and spatial restrictions."
The European Space Agency's BepiColombo spacecraft will launch towards Mercury carrying a unique payload designed and built at Southwest Research Institute: an instrument called Strofio, which will study Mercury's tenuous exosphere. Part of the SERENA suite of instruments, Strofio's measurements will help us better understand the planet's surface and the history of the smallest rocky planet orbiting close to the Sun. "An exosphere is different from an atmosphere," said Dr. Stefano Livi, an Institute Scientist who leads the Strofio experiment, funded by NASA's Discovery Mission of Opportunity program. "Mercury doesn't have enough gravity to hold onto a proper atmosphere. Instead, it is surrounded by a thin, collision-free particle environment. Particles escape from Mercury's surface and briefly populate this exosphere before they return to the surface or drift away into interplanetary space." Mercury's proximity to the Sun makes it difficult to observe from Earth. It is also challenging for spacecraft to reach and to survive in the harsh environment. The BepiColombo mission includes two spacecraft - ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) - that will study Mercury and help us learn about the formation of our solar system. From aboard MMO, Strofio will study how Mercury's exosphere and magnetosphere interact with each other and the planet's surface.
To understand these interactions, Strofio must identify the particles escaping from Mercury's surface. Because the exosphere is so thin, sampling particles is particularly challenging - in fact, the amount of particles is so sparse that the environment can't be easily mimicked in a typical vacuum chamber.
Scientists had to tackle this problem while developing and evaluating the super-sensitive Strofio instrument. Facilities at the University of Bern in Switzerland could create the necessary parameters and over a course of a few months allowed SwRI to analyze and demonstrate how the experiment will work in the Mercury environment.
"Strofio is novel in its ability to detect the rare, static particle population in Mercury's exosphere," Livi said. "We had to rethink and retool typical spectrometer designs."
Every particle captured is analyzed in a rotating field. When and where each particle gets to the detector determines the mass and composition. Strofio uses detection algorithm tools to enhance the instrument's sensitivity and improve identification. The instrument also had to meet strict mass and configuration limits associated with the spacecraft. The basketball-sized instrument weighs just over 7 pounds.
"Strofio is like one of my children off on its way to Mercury," Livi said. "It's exciting. I'm looking forward to 2025 when we'll 'see' the chemical particles coming off the planet. In addition to answering many questions, I'm also expecting some surprises."
BepiColombo is the first time ESA and JAXA have joined forces on a major space science mission. NASA frequently collaborates on ESA missions, including the Rosetta mission to Comet 67P and the JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) mission, set to launch in 2022.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has commissioned Airbus for two studies for possible European involvement in the future human base in lunar orbit. The Gateway, previously known as the Deep Space Gateway (DSG) or Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G), is a project involving the US, Russian, Canadian, Japanese and European space agencies (NASA, Roscosmos, CSA, JAXA and ESA). Over the next 15 months, Airbus will develop a concept for a habitation and research module as part of the first study (habitat, approximately 6.5 x 4.5 metres and weighing some 9 tonnes). In the second study, Airbus will design a concept for an infrastructure element for refuelling, docking and telecommunications, which will also serve as an airlock for scientific equipment (known as Esprit, around 3 x 3 metres and weighing around 4 tonnes). Both studies will be developed as part of a far-reaching European partnership. Under NASA's overall design leadership, other elements - such as a second habitat, an airlock for scientific payloads and a logistics module - will be designed by international and commercial partners. NASA has plans to launch the first module - the central power propulsion element (PPE) - into lunar orbit in the early 2020's.
"The experience and know-how that ESA and Airbus have gained during flagship projects such as the Columbus space laboratory, the ATV space transporter and the European service module for Orion provide solid foundations for the studies," said Oliver Juckenhofel, Head of On-Orbit Services and Exploration at Airbus.
"When developing the new lunar platforms, robotic and human space exploration go hand in hand. Europe has a fantastic track record in both, and these two studies will help to ensure a strong European presence in future space exploration."
David Parker, Director of Human and Robotic Exploration at ESA, said: "With these studies and other preparations, ESA aims to stay at the centre of human space exploration. The Gateway will become humanity's most remote research outpost and we hope Europe will benefit from the world of innovation, discovery and excitement that lies ahead."
Unlike the International Space Station (ISS), the Gateway is not intended to be continually inhabited. It is envisaged that the lunar platform will act as a staging point for human missions to the Moon or Mars, and testing is planned for a series of technologies and procedures that will be needed.
Airbus will present its initial designs for the Gateway at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Bremen on 3 October 2018.
The multi-launch contract with Spire - a company providing weather, maritime, and aviation data to public and private customers - will cover a significant number of CubeSats to be launched on Vega as part of the Small Spacecraft Mission Service Proof Of Concept (POC) flight in 2019, as well as options on subsequent Vega flights. With more than 80 satellites placed in orbit during the past four years, Spire has quickly become an important leader in the New Space community. Built in-house by Spire using its LEMUR2 CubeSat platform, the nanosatellites will weigh approximately 5 kg. at launch and are designed to have a nominal service life of two to three years once positioned in a Sun-synchronous orbit at 500 km. Each satellite carries multiple sensors, making them capable of performing data collection for all of Spire's data products. The Vega Proof of Concept (POC) flight is the first of the Small Spacecraft Mission Service (SSMS) - a program initiated by the European Space Agency in 2016, with the contribution of the European Commission. For all the European partners involved, its purpose is to perfectly address the promising microsatellite market for both institutional and commercial needs with a new rideshare concept on the Vega light-lift launcher.
Vega is part of the Arianespace launcher family, alongside the heavy-lift Ariane 5 and the medium-lift Soyuz, all of which are operated from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana. Avio, based in Colleferro Italy, is Vega's industrial prime contractor.
Following the signature of this contract, which is the launch services company's first with Spire, Arianespace CEO Stephane Israel said: "We are thrilled to have Spire on board the POC flight of Vega's Small Spacecraft Mission Service dispenser, which shows Arianespace's continuous commitment to increased access to space for the growing small satellite market. The Vega launch vehicle offers a flexible solution for this burgeoning segment of the industry."
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