Arcsecond.io’s Post

ESA Prepares To Create Solar Eclipses To Study the Sun: Andrew Jones reports via IEEE Spectrum: The European Space Agency will launch a mission late this year to demonstrate precision formation flying in orbit to create artificial solar eclipses. In a press conference last week, the agency announced details of the mission and the technology the orbiters will use to pull off its exquisitely-choreographed maneuvers. ESA's Proba-3 (PRoject for On-Board Autonomy) consists of a pair of spacecraft: a 300-kilogram Coronagraph spacecraft and a 250-kilogram Occulter. The pair are now slated to launch on an Indian PSLV rocket in September and ultimately enter a highly elliptical, 600-by-60,530-kilometer orbit. The aim, the agency says, is to move the separate spacecraft to some 144 meters apart, with the Occulter, as a disc, blocking out the sun. Achieving this formation will allow the Coronagraph to study our star's highly ionized, extremely hot atmosphere -- but also demonstrate the technology as a precursor for more ambitious, future, formation-flying endeavors. [...] ESA has science objectives for Proba-3, using observations made in space to study solar astrophysics without any intervention of the Earth's atmosphere. The agency's Association of Spacecraft for Polarimetric and Imaging Investigation of the Corona of the Sun (ASPIICS) coronagraph will help to discern why the solar corona is significantly hotter than the Sun itself. This could further our understanding of the Sun and assist solar weather predictions. However, it is the precision formation flying that Proba-3 aims to demonstrate which could help unlock future breakthroughs. [...] Precisely-controlled Occulter spacecraft could be used with space telescopes to block light from a star in order to directly detect potential orbiting planets, while a constellation of spacecraft can, through interferometry, create large-scale observatories, achieving large apertures and long focal lengths than possible with large solo satellites. Further applications include Earth observation, space-based gravitational wave detection, and a range of missions in which two or more spacecraft need to interact, such as rendezvous, docking, and in-orbit servicing. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

#JUICE, the European Space Agency - ESA's Jupiter Moon's Explorer, will soon approach the Moon and Earth for an unprecedented flyby. It will be a very sensitive maneuver to bring the satellite on its way to Venus for the next flyby. Stay tuned to ESA's channels to follow Juice's path. Many engineers here on Earth have been working on its cutting-edge equipment before it embarks on its incredible trip across the solar system toward Jupiter. Indeed, Thales Alenia Space has been a major supplier, having developed and built important scientific and navigation units. Let's see which ones in detail🔍👇 - the Radar Sounder for Icy Moons Exploration (#RIME), the most important of the 10 instruments on board the JUICE spacecraft. This instrument is crucial to the success of the mission due to its ability to directly detect the internal structure of the icy layers. The University of Trento, which is responsible for the scientific aspects, is the interface to ESA through Principal Investigator Prof. Lorenzo #Bruzzone. The development was financed by the Italian Space Agency with some units provided by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. - the Ka-band Transponder (#KaT), a fundamental element of the 3GM (Gravity & Geophysics of Jupiter and Galilean Moons) instrument, of which Prof. Luciano #Less of the University of Rome is Principal Investigator and interface towards ESA, for analyses on the composition of the atmosphere and for the precision positioning of the satellite. The development was funded by the ASI and represents the technological and performance evolution of the MORE KaT, embarked on the BepiColombo mission. - the High Accuracy Accelerometer (#HAA) to detect the very low accelerations generated on the probe and ensure the accuracy of the measurements of the #3GM instrument. The development was co-funded by ASI and ESA and is the result of the adaptation for JUICE of the #ISA (Italian Spring Accelerometer) project embarked on the BepiColombo mission. - The Deep Space Transponder X-X-Ka (#DST), currently the state-of-the-art in navigation equipment for deep space missions, provides the ground-to-board link for sending and receiving remote controls and telemetry, and for the tracking functions required to control the satellite and thus the entire mission. The development was carried out through a contract with Antwerp Space. - the 2.54-metre diameter High Gain Antenna (#HGA), a key part of the navigation and transmission system, will operate in both the X and Ka bands, enabling communication with Earth, and will also be used by the 3GM instrument, helping to ensure its performance, thanks to its high stability #DestinationJupiter #Juice European Space Agency - ESA ARIANESPACE Agenzia Spaziale Italiana Centre National d'Études Spatiales Airbus Defence and Space Thales Leonardo Telespazio INAF - Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica UniTrento DISI Sapienza Università di Roma Luciano Iess Massimo C Comparini 📸 #esa

ESA Prepares To Create Solar Eclipses To Study the Sun: Andrew Jones reports via IEEE Spectrum: The European Space Agency will launch a mission late this year to demonstrate precision formation flying in orbit to create artificial solar eclipses. In a press conference last week, the agency announced details of the mission and the technology the orbiters will use to pull off its exquisitely-choreographed maneuvers. ESA's Proba-3 (PRoject for On-Board Autonomy) consists of a pair of spacecraft: a 300-kilogram Coronagraph spacecraft and a 250-kilogram Occulter. The pair are now slated to launch on an Indian PSLV rocket in September and ultimately enter a highly elliptical, 600-by-60,530-kilometer orbit. The aim, the agency says, is to move the separate spacecraft to some 144 meters apart, with the Occulter, as a disc, blocking out the sun. Achieving this formation will allow the Coronagraph to study our star's highly ionized, extremely hot atmosphere -- but also demonstrate the technology as a precursor for more ambitious, future, formation-flying endeavors. [...] ESA has science objectives for Proba-3, using observations made in space to study solar astrophysics without any intervention of the Earth's atmosphere. The agency's Association of Spacecraft for Polarimetric and Imaging Investigation of the Corona of the Sun (ASPIICS) coronagraph will help to discern why the solar corona is significantly hotter than the Sun itself. This could further our understanding of the Sun and assist solar weather predictions. However, it is the precision formation flying that Proba-3 aims to demonstrate which could help unlock future breakthroughs. [...] Precisely-controlled Occulter spacecraft could be used with space telescopes to block light from a star in order to directly detect potential orbiting planets, while a constellation of spacecraft can, through interferometry, create large-scale observatories, achieving large apertures and long focal lengths than possible with large solo satellites. Further applications include Earth observation, space-based gravitational wave detection, and a range of missions in which two or more spacecraft need to interact, such as rendezvous, docking, and in-orbit servicing. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

New Post: Voyager-1 sends readable data again from deep space -By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent 2 hours ago Image caption, Artwork: The Voyager-1 probe was launched from Earth in 1977 The US space agency says its Voyager-1 probe is once again sending usable information back to Earth after months of spouting gibberish.  The 46-year-old Nasa spacecraft is humanity’s most distant object. A computer fault stopped... By Jonathan AmosScience correspondent2 hours agoImage caption, Artwork: The Voyager-1 probe was launched from Earth in 1977The US space agency says its Voyager-1 probe is once again sending usable information back to Earth after months of spouting gibberish.  The 46-year-old Nasa spacecraft is humanity's most distant object.A computer fault stopped it returning readable data in November but engineers have now fixed this.For the moment, Voyager is sending back only health data about its onboard systems, but further work should get the scientific instruments back online."Voyager-1 spacecraft is returning usable data about the health and status of its onboard engineering systems," Nasa said in a statement."The next step is to enable the spacecraft to begin returning science data again."Voyager-1 was launched from Earth in 1977 on a tour of the outer planets, but then just kept going.It moved beyond the bubble of gas emitted by the Sun - a domain known as the heliosphere - in 2012, and is now embedded in interstellar space, which contains the gas, dust and magnetic fields from other stars. A corrupted chip has been blamed for the ageing spacecraft's recent woes.This prevented Voyager's computers from accessing a vital segment of software code used to package information for transmission to Earth.For a period of time, engineers could get no sense whatsoever out of Voyager, even though they could tell the spacecraft was still receiving their commands and otherwise operating normally.The issue was resolved by shifting the affected code to different locations in the memory of the probe's computers.Voyager-1 departed Earth on 5 September 1977, a few days after its sister spacecraft, Voyager-2.The pair's primary objective was to survey the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune - a task they completed in 1989.They were then steered towards deep space, in the general direction of our galaxy's centre.Their power comes from radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs), which convert heat from decaying plutonium into electricity. The continual decay process means the generators produce slightly less power each year.How much longer the Voyagers can continue is uncertain, but engineers have until now always come up with strategies to eke out a few extra years of operations. Voyager-2 is a little behind its twin and moving slightly slower.It's just over 20 billion km (13 billion miles) from Earth.Even though both are travelling at over 15 km per second (9 miles/s), they would not approach another star for tens of thousands of year

New Post: Voyager-1 sends readable data again from deep space -By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent 2 hours ago Image caption, Artwork: The Voyager-1 probe was launched from Earth in 1977 The US space agency says its Voyager-1 probe is once again sending usable information back to Earth after months of spouting gibberish.  The 46-year-old Nasa spacecraft is humanity’s most distant object. A computer fault stopped... By Jonathan AmosScience correspondent2 hours agoImage caption, Artwork: The Voyager-1 probe was launched from Earth in 1977The US space agency says its Voyager-1 probe is once again sending usable information back to Earth after months of spouting gibberish.  The 46-year-old Nasa spacecraft is humanity's most distant object.A computer fault stopped it returning readable data in November but engineers have now fixed this.For the moment, Voyager is sending back only health data about its onboard systems, but further work should get the scientific instruments back online."Voyager-1 spacecraft is returning usable data about the health and status of its onboard engineering systems," Nasa said in a statement."The next step is to enable the spacecraft to begin returning science data again."Voyager-1 was launched from Earth in 1977 on a tour of the outer planets, but then just kept going.It moved beyond the bubble of gas emitted by the Sun - a domain known as the heliosphere - in 2012, and is now embedded in interstellar space, which contains the gas, dust and magnetic fields from other stars. A corrupted chip has been blamed for the ageing spacecraft's recent woes.This prevented Voyager's computers from accessing a vital segment of software code used to package information for transmission to Earth.For a period of time, engineers could get no sense whatsoever out of Voyager, even though they could tell the spacecraft was still receiving their commands and otherwise operating normally.The issue was resolved by shifting the affected code to different locations in the memory of the probe's computers.Voyager-1 departed Earth on 5 September 1977, a few days after its sister spacecraft, Voyager-2.The pair's primary objective was to survey the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune - a task they completed in 1989.They were then steered towards deep space, in the general direction of our galaxy's centre.Their power comes from radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs), which convert heat from decaying plutonium into electricity. The continual decay process means the generators produce slightly less power each year.How much longer the Voyagers can continue is uncertain, but engineers have until now always come up with strategies to eke out a few extra years of operations. Voyager-2 is a little behind its twin and moving slightly slower.It's just over 20 billion km (13 billion miles) from Earth.Even though both are travelling at over 15 km per second (9 miles/s), they would not approach another star for tens of thousands of year

Show must go on for ExoMars 2028! The search for Life on Mars goes on thanks the determination of the European Space Agency - ESA, supported by Italian (ASI) & UK space agencies (UKSA), with a renewed partnership with NASA. The aim of #ExoMars2028 mission is to bring a European rover on the Martian soil to search for subsurface bacteria, living or fossilized, which would be evidence of extant or previous life on the Red Planet. In that sense, our company has signed a framework contract divided into different tranches with ESA worth a total of €522m, to continue essential activities for the completion of the ExoMars 2028 mission, including the development of the Mars Entry, Descent and Landing Module (EDLM) as well as maintenance activities on vehicles already built for the 2022 mission. Set for launch end of 2028, the mission, comprising the carrier module, the EDLM & the landing platform including the rover, will reach Mars in 2030 after an extraordinary voyage across the solar system. The rover, fitted with a drill developed by Leonardo, will collect soil samples by drilling into the Martian soil up to 2 meters deep & will analyze their chemical, physical & biological properties using its advanced Analytical Laboratory Drawer developed by our company. In the meantime, the Thales Alenia Space-built ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter is still orbiting Mars. Tasked with detecting trace gases, especially methane, in the Martian atmosphere, the TGO plays a key role in understanding potential indicators of life on Mars. Additionally, it continues to transmit most of the data from Mars, including from NASA’s Curiosity & Perseverance rovers, contributing to ongoing research efforts. From the Sun to Saturn, and from Mercury to Venus, Jupiter and Mars, our solutions have been on every space odyssey seeking to unveil the universe’s most closely guarded secrets. In the near future, the Moon, with ARTEMIS II & III missions, will be in the spotlight and our company will be in the front seat of manned lunar exploration, working in particular on Orion spacecraft’s European service module, Gateway cislunar space station and lunar multi-purpose habitats. Today’s ExoMars 2028 contract strengthens Thales Alenia Space’s position as a major leader in the field of space exploration. Last year, I was astonished by the first full-color images delivered by Euclid satellite, which was tasked to explore dark energy and dark matter to better understand the origin of the Universe’s accelerating expansion. I knew when I attended the launch that Euclid would one day make history. I have the same feeling regarding ExoMars 2028, a future iconic mission, that will, for sure, be remembered for many decades.   Many thanks to ESA for renewing its trust in our company. Congratulations to all the teams who made it happen.   Read the full story ⤵ https://shorturl.at/avJK4 Agenzia Spaziale Italiana UK Space Agency NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration Thales Leonardo

ESA Prepares To Create Solar Eclipses To Study the Sun: Andrew Jones reports via IEEE Spectrum: The European Space Agency will launch a mission late this year to demonstrate precision formation flying in orbit to create artificial solar eclipses. In a press conference last week, the agency announced details of the mission and the technology the orbiters will use to pull off its exquisitely-choreographed maneuvers. ESA's Proba-3 (PRoject for On-Board Autonomy) consists of a pair of spacecraft: a 300-kilogram Coronagraph spacecraft and a 250-kilogram Occulter. The pair are now slated to launch on an Indian PSLV rocket in September and ultimately enter a highly elliptical, 600-by-60,530-kilometer orbit. The aim, the agency says, is to move the separate spacecraft to some 144 meters apart, with the Occulter, as a disc, blocking out the sun. Achieving this formation will allow the Coronagraph to study our star's highly ionized, extremely hot atmosphere -- but also demonstrate the technology as a precursor for more ambitious, future, formation-flying endeavors. [...] ESA has science objectives for Proba-3, using observations made in space to study solar astrophysics without any intervention of the Earth's atmosphere. The agency's Association of Spacecraft for Polarimetric and Imaging Investigation of the Corona of the Sun (ASPIICS) coronagraph will help to discern why the solar corona is significantly hotter than the Sun itself. This could further our understanding of the Sun and assist solar weather predictions. However, it is the precision formation flying that Proba-3 aims to demonstrate which could help unlock future breakthroughs. [...] Precisely-controlled Occulter spacecraft could be used with space telescopes to block light from a star in order to directly detect potential orbiting planets, while a constellation of spacecraft can, through interferometry, create large-scale observatories, achieving large apertures and long focal lengths than possible with large solo satellites. Further applications include Earth observation, space-based gravitational wave detection, and a range of missions in which two or more spacecraft need to interact, such as rendezvous, docking, and in-orbit servicing. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

First Detection of Negative Ions on the Moon: A Milestone in Space Exploration The European Space Agency - ESA has achieved a groundbreaking discovery with the Negative Ions at the Lunar Surface (NILS) instrument aboard the China National Space Administration (CNSA) Chang’e-6 spacecraft. This mission, a collaborative effort involving the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF) and the Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial «Esteban Terradas» (INTA), marks the first detection of negative ions on the Moon. ✅ Mission Highlights: ✔ Historic Firsts: The NILS instrument, the first of its kind on the Moon, collected over three hours of data, significantly surpassing the mission's success criteria. ✔ Scientific Breakthrough: Detecting negative ions at the lunar surface opens new avenues for space physics and future lunar exploration missions, both human and robotic. ✔ Solar Wind Interaction: The Moon's lack of a magnetic field and its tenuous exosphere allow the solar wind to interact directly with its surface, generating secondary particles, including short-lived negative ions. ✔ Operational Challenges: The NILS instrument operated intermittently due to extreme temperatures, highlighting the robust design by the Swedish Institute of Space Physics. ✅ Mission Timeline: ✔ Landing and Data Collection: Chang’e-6 landed in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the Moon's far side on June 1, 2024. The NILS instrument was activated four hours post-landing and collected data in several bursts due to thermal management needs. ✔ European Support: ESA's ground stations in Kourou, French Guiana, and Maspalomas, Spain, provided crucial support for the mission, tracking the spacecraft and facilitating data transmission. This pioneering mission not only enhances our understanding of the lunar environment but also sets the stage for future exploration of other airless bodies in the Solar System, from asteroids to other moons.

New Post: Voyager-1 sends readable data again from deep space -By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent 2 hours ago Image caption, Artwork: The Voyager-1 probe was launched from Earth in 1977 The US space agency says its Voyager-1 probe is once again sending usable information back to Earth after months of spouting gibberish.  The 46-year-old Nasa spacecraft is humanity’s most distant object. A computer fault stopped... By Jonathan AmosScience correspondent2 hours agoImage caption, Artwork: The Voyager-1 probe was launched from Earth in 1977The US space agency says its Voyager-1 probe is once again sending usable information back to Earth after months of spouting gibberish.  The 46-year-old Nasa spacecraft is humanity's most distant object.A computer fault stopped it returning readable data in November but engineers have now fixed this.For the moment, Voyager is sending back only health data about its onboard systems, but further work should get the scientific instruments back online."Voyager-1 spacecraft is returning usable data about the health and status of its onboard engineering systems," Nasa said in a statement."The next step is to enable the spacecraft to begin returning science data again."Voyager-1 was launched from Earth in 1977 on a tour of the outer planets, but then just kept going.It moved beyond the bubble of gas emitted by the Sun - a domain known as the heliosphere - in 2012, and is now embedded in interstellar space, which contains the gas, dust and magnetic fields from other stars. A corrupted chip has been blamed for the ageing spacecraft's recent woes.This prevented Voyager's computers from accessing a vital segment of software code used to package information for transmission to Earth.For a period of time, engineers could get no sense whatsoever out of Voyager, even though they could tell the spacecraft was still receiving their commands and otherwise operating normally.The issue was resolved by shifting the affected code to different locations in the memory of the probe's computers.Voyager-1 departed Earth on 5 September 1977, a few days after its sister spacecraft, Voyager-2.The pair's primary objective was to survey the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune - a task they completed in 1989.They were then steered towards deep space, in the general direction of our galaxy's centre.Their power comes from radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs), which convert heat from decaying plutonium into electricity. The continual decay process means the generators produce slightly less power each year.How much longer the Voyagers can continue is uncertain, but engineers have until now always come up with strategies to eke out a few extra years of operations. Voyager-2 is a little behind its twin and moving slightly slower.It's just over 20 billion km (13 billion miles) from Earth.Even though both are travelling at over 15 km per second (9 miles/s), they would not approach another star for tens of thousands of year

New Post: Voyager-1 sends readable data again from deep space -By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent 2 hours ago Image caption, Artwork: The Voyager-1 probe was launched from Earth in 1977 The US space agency says its Voyager-1 probe is once again sending usable information back to Earth after months of spouting gibberish.  The 46-year-old Nasa spacecraft is humanity’s most distant object. A computer fault stopped... By Jonathan AmosScience correspondent2 hours agoImage caption, Artwork: The Voyager-1 probe was launched from Earth in 1977The US space agency says its Voyager-1 probe is once again sending usable information back to Earth after months of spouting gibberish.  The 46-year-old Nasa spacecraft is humanity's most distant object.A computer fault stopped it returning readable data in November but engineers have now fixed this.For the moment, Voyager is sending back only health data about its onboard systems, but further work should get the scientific instruments back online."Voyager-1 spacecraft is returning usable data about the health and status of its onboard engineering systems," Nasa said in a statement."The next step is to enable the spacecraft to begin returning science data again."Voyager-1 was launched from Earth in 1977 on a tour of the outer planets, but then just kept going.It moved beyond the bubble of gas emitted by the Sun - a domain known as the heliosphere - in 2012, and is now embedded in interstellar space, which contains the gas, dust and magnetic fields from other stars. A corrupted chip has been blamed for the ageing spacecraft's recent woes.This prevented Voyager's computers from accessing a vital segment of software code used to package information for transmission to Earth.For a period of time, engineers could get no sense whatsoever out of Voyager, even though they could tell the spacecraft was still receiving their commands and otherwise operating normally.The issue was resolved by shifting the affected code to different locations in the memory of the probe's computers.Voyager-1 departed Earth on 5 September 1977, a few days after its sister spacecraft, Voyager-2.The pair's primary objective was to survey the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune - a task they completed in 1989.They were then steered towards deep space, in the general direction of our galaxy's centre.Their power comes from radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs), which convert heat from decaying plutonium into electricity. The continual decay process means the generators produce slightly less power each year.How much longer the Voyagers can continue is uncertain, but engineers have until now always come up with strategies to eke out a few extra years of operations. Voyager-2 is a little behind its twin and moving slightly slower.It's just over 20 billion km (13 billion miles) from Earth.Even though both are travelling at over 15 km per second (9 miles/s), they would not approach another star for tens of thousands of year