OrbitalHub

ESA dixit:

“The 700 tonne steel table that will support Ariane 6 at liftoff was transferred to the pad at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 10 September 2018. It is so large that it arrived in parts by ship in February and was then welded together and fitted with equipment at a preparation area 250 m from the launch pad.

Moving this giant 4 m high, 20 m long and 18 m wide table to its permanent position on the centre of the pad is complex. Four hydraulic jacks lifted the table then two trollies moved the table to the edge of the launch pad. A temporary railway and a mechanical guidance system helped roll the table into position over the centre of the pad where it will be lowered with millimeter precision into its final position. Further mechanical, fluidic and electrical equipment will be installed inside and outside the table.”

Video Credit: ESA / CNES

ESA dixit:

“At the end of 2019 Vega-C will be launched from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana increasing performance from Vega’s current 1.5 t to about 2.2 t in its reference 700 km polar orbit, with no increase in launch costs. Vega-C’s first stage is based on the P120, the largest single segment carbon fibre solid-propellant rocket motor ever built. It was successfully tested in July 2018. Its development relies on new technologies derived from Vega’s current first stage P80 motor. Two or four P120C motors will also be used for the liftoff boosters on Ariane 6.

Vega-C’s 3.3 m diameter fairing will accommodate larger payloads such as Earth observation satellites of more than two tonnes, and ESA’s Space Rider reentry vehicle. The Vega launch pad and mobile gantry are being modified to accommodate Vega-C leading into a period when launch facilities will accommodate both vehicles. ”

Video Credit: ESA

Northrop Grumman Corporation dixit:

“Northrop Grumman Corporation conducted its first ground test of a 63-inch diameter Graphite Epoxy Motor (GEM 63) today in Promontory, Utah. Utilizing advanced technologies, the company developed this new rocket motor for use on the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V launch vehicle.

Northrop Grumman began developing the motor just three years ago, reaching this static test milestone in rapid time for such a complex drop-in solution to an existing launch vehicle. The team developed the innovative design that tailors motor performance to meet ULA design objectives under a cooperative development program.”

Video Credit: Northrop Grumman Corporation

NASA dixit:

On the cusp of our atmosphere live a thin group of seasonal electric blue clouds. Forming 50 miles above the poles in summer, these clouds are known as noctilucent clouds or polar mesospheric clouds — PMCs. A recent NASA long-duration balloon mission observed these clouds over the course of five days at their home in the mesosphere. The resulting photos, which scientists have just begun to analyze, will help us better understand turbulence in the atmosphere, as well as in oceans, lakes and other planetary atmospheres, and may even improve weather forecasting.

On July 8, 2018, NASA’s PMC Turbo mission launched a giant balloon to study PMCs at a height of 50 miles above the surface. For five days, the balloon floated through the stratosphere from its launch at Esrange, Sweden, across the Arctic to Western Nunavut, Canada. During its flight, cameras aboard the balloon captured 6 million high-resolution images filling up 120 terabytes of data storage — most of which included a variety of PMC displays, revealing the processes leading to turbulence. Scientists are now beginning to go through the images and the first look has been promising.

Read more about this story…

Video Credit: NASA

Wikipedia dixit:

ICESat-2 is a follow-up to the original ICESat mission, which was decommissioned in 2010. When the project entered its first phase in 2010, it was expected to be ready for launch as soon as 2015. In December 2012, NASA reported that they expected the project to launch in 2016. In the following years, technical issues with the mission’s only onboard instrument, ATLAS, delayed the mission further, pushing the expected launch back from late 2016 to May 2017. In July 2014, NASA submitted a report to Congress detailing the reasons for the delay and a projected budget overrun, as is required by law for NASA projects which spend at least 15% over budget. In order to finance the budget overrun, NASA has diverted funds from other planned satellite missions, such as the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite. The launch took place on 15 September 2018 at 15:02 UTC from Vandenberg Air Force Base Space Launch Complex 2 aboard a Delta 2 7420-10C. To maintain data continuity in the interim between the decommissioning of ICESat and the launch of ICESat-2, NASA’s airborne Operation IceBridge mission has continued to collect polar topography data using its onboard ATM lidar sensor.

Video Credit: ULA

I recently watched a very interesting DEF CON 26 talk given by three investigative journalists. The journalists present their findings about fraudulent pseudo-academic conferences and journals. There are fake science factories that are cashing in on millions of dollars every year, while giving studies scientific credibility. We should not underestimate the damage these pseudo-academic conferences can do to society.

Predatory open-access publishing is an open-access academic publishing business model that is charging fees to authors without providing the services associated with legitimate journals. The model is exploitative. Academics are tricked into publishing whithout benefiting from editorial and publishing services.

Similarly, predatory conferences/meetings, despite being set up to appear as legitimate scientific conferences, do not provide proper editorial control. These conferences also claim involvement of prominent academics, which are not involved.

The characteristics associated with predatory open-access publishing include:

• Accepting articles quickly with little or no peer review or quality control, including hoax and nonsensical papers.
• Notifying academics of article fees only after papers are accepted.
• Aggressively campaigning for academics to submit articles or serve on editorial boards.
• Listing academics as members of editorial boards without their permission, and not allowing academics to resign from editorial boards.
• Appointing fake academics to editorial boards.
• Mimicking the name or web site style of more established journals.
• Making misleading claims about the publishing operation, such as a false location.
• Using ISSNs improperly.
• Citing fake or non-existent impact factors.

Characteristics of predatory conferences/meetings include:

• Rapid acceptance of submissions with poor quality control and little or no true peer review.
• Acceptance of submissions consisting of nonsense and/or hoaxed content.
• Notification of high attendance fees and charges only after acceptance.
• Claiming involvement of academics in conference organizing committees without their agreement, and not allowing them to resign.
• Mimicry of the names or website styles of more established conferences, including holding a similarly named conference in the same city.
• Promoting meetings with unrelated images lifted from the Internet.

You might ask, why mention this on a space blog? Well, this affects the scientific community overall, and there are quite a few aerospace pseudo-academic conferences out there that employ these practices. Heads up!

The above-mentioned DEF CON talk is available on YouTube and I encourage you to take the time to watch it: DEF CON 26 – Svea, Suggy, Till – Inside the Fake Science Factory.

References and other useful links:

Predatory open-access publishing

Predatory conference

Beall’s List