“BepiColombo, the joint ESA-JAXA mission, comprises the European Mercury Planetary Orbiter and Japan’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, which will be transported to the innermost planet by the Mercury Transfer Module. The animation highlights several key milestones, including the solar array and antenna deployments once in space, through to the arrival at Mercury seven years later. When approaching Mercury, the transfer module will separate and the two science orbiters, still together, will be captured into orbit around the planet. Their altitude will be adjusted until the Magnetospheric Orbiter’s desired orbit is reached. Then the Planetary Orbiter will separate and descend to its lower orbit, and the two craft will begin their scientific exploration of Mercury and its environment.”
“Hera is the European contribution to an ESA-NASA double-spacecraft mission intended to test whether a kinetic deflection technique can be used to shift the orbit of an asteroid. The target of the mission is a double asteroid system, called Didymos, which will come a comparatively close 11 million km to Earth in 2022. The 800-m diameter main body is orbited by a 170-m moon, informally called ‘Didymoon’.
In 2022 NASA’s DART spacecraft will first perform a kinetic impact on the smaller of the two bodies, then Hera will follow-up with a detailed post-impact survey that will turn this grand-scale experiment into a well-understood and repeatable planetary defense technique.
Hera will also gather crucial scientific data on asteroids as a whole by carefully studying the exterior and interior properties of both bodies in the system. The spacecraft will also host two 6-unit cubesats that will be deployed near Didymos to perform, for the first time ever, multi-point measurements in a “mother-daughter” configuration. A novel intersatellite link will be used to establish a flexible communications network supporting the close-proximity operations in very low-gravity conditions, a crucial step for future exploration activities around small bodies.”
SpaceX CRS-15 lifted off on 29 June 2018 at 5:42 a.m. EDT. The Falcon 9 rocket cleared the tower at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, sending a Dragon spacecraft on the company’s 15th commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station.
NASA has contracted for the CRS-15 mission from SpaceX and therefore determines the primary payload, date/time of launch, and orbital parameters for the Dragon space capsule. CRS-15 hauled 1,712 kg (3,774 lb) of pressurized mass and 985 kg (2,172 lb) of unpressurized cargo. The external payloads manifested for this flight are ECOSTRESS and a Latching End Effector for Canadarm2.
The breakdown of cargo bound for the ISS: science investigations – 1,233 kg (2,718 lb), crew supplies – 205 kg (452 lb), vehicle hardware – 178 kg (392 lb), spacewalk equipment – 63 kg (139 lb), computer resources – 21 kg (46 lb), russian hardware – 12 kg (26 lb), external payloads – 985 kg (2,172 lb).
“This is a 360° animated view of the entire sky. After a few seconds, the stars start moving in the sky according to parallax, an apparent shift caused by Earth’s yearly motion around the Sun. Then, constellation outlines appear as visual aids. Finally, stars start moving according to their true motion through space, which is visible on the sky as proper motion. Parallaxes have been exaggerated by 100 000 and proper motions have been speeded up by one trillion (10^12) to make them visible in this animation. This animation is based on data from the second data release of ESA’s Gaia satellite, which has measured the positions, parallaxes and motions of more than one billion stars across the sky to unprecedented accuracy. “
Credits Video: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, CC BY SA 3.0 IGO/Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC); Gaia Sky; S. Jordan/T. Sagristà , Astronomisches Rechen-Institut, Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg, Germany
“Though close to home, the space immediately around Earth is full of hidden secrets and invisible processes. In a new discovery reported in the journal Nature, scientists working with NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft — MMS — have uncovered a new type of magnetic event in our near-Earth environment by using an innovative technique to squeeze extra information out of the data.
Magnetic reconnection is one of the most important processes in the space — filled with charged particles known as plasma — around Earth. This fundamental process dissipates magnetic energy and propels charged particles, both of which contribute to a dynamic space weather system that scientists want to better understand, and even someday predict, as we do terrestrial weather. Reconnection occurs when crossed magnetic field lines snap, explosively flinging away nearby particles at high speeds. The new discovery found reconnection where it has never been seen before — in turbulent plasma. “
Credits Music: “Think Tank” and “Natural Time Cycles” by Laurent Dury from Killer Tracks
Credits Video: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Tai Phan (University of California, Berkeley): Lead Scientist/James Drake (University of Maryland): Scientist/Michael Shay (University of Delaware): Scientist/Jonathan Eastwood (Imperial College London): Scientist/Joy Ng (USRA): Producer/Mara Johnson-Groh (Wyle Information Systems): Writer/Tom Bridgman (GST): Data Visualizer/Lisa Poje (Freelance): Lead Animator/Josh Masters (USRA): Lead Animator/Walt Feimer (KBRwyle): Animator/Brian Monroe (USRA): Animator/Joy Ng (USRA): Animator/Mary P. Hrybyk-Keith (TRAX International Corporation): Graphic Designer/Colby Haggerty (University of Chicago): Visualizer/Ashley Michini (University of Pennsylvania): Visualizer/Tulasi Parashar (University of Delaware): Visualizer/Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET Systems Inc.): Technical Support
“NASA’s remotely-piloted Ikhana aircraft, based at the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, successfully flew its first mission in the National Airspace System without a safety chase aircraft. This historic flight moves the United States one step closer to normalizing unmanned aircraft operations in the airspace used by commercial and private pilots.
Flying these large remotely-piloted aircraft over the United States opens the doors to all types of services, from monitoring and fighting forest fires, to providing new emergency search and rescue operations. The technology in this aircraft could, at some point, be scaled down for use in other general aviation aircraft.
Flights of large craft like Ikhana, have traditionally required a safety chase aircraft to follow the unmanned aircraft as it travels through the same airspace used by commercial aircraft. The Ikhana flew in accordance with the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Technical Standard Order 211 — Detect and Avoid Systems — and Technical Standard Order 212 — Air-to-Air Radar for Traffic Surveillance.
The FAA granted NASA special permission to conduct this flight under the authority of a Certificate of Waiver or Authorization on March 30. The certificate permitted Ikhana’s pilot to rely on the latest Detect and Avoid technology, enabling the remote pilot on the ground to see and avoid other aircraft during the flight.
NASA successfully worked with its industry partners to develop a standard for Detect and Avoid technologies, complied with the requirements of the FAA Technical Standard Orders, and garnered flight approval from the FAA.
The Ikhana aircraft was equipped with detect and avoid technologies, including an airborne radar developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., a Honeywell Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System, a Detect and Avoid Fusion Tracker, and an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast capability – a surveillance technology where the aircraft determines its position via satellite navigation and periodically broadcasts this information so other aircraft can track it.”
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