“Behind every weather forecast—from your local, five-day prediction to a late-breaking hurricane track update—are the satellites that make them possible. Government agencies depend on observations from weather satellites to inform forecast models that help us prepare for approaching storms and identify areas that need evacuating or emergency first responders.”
Elizabeth Willaman (Willaman Creative): Lead Producer
“In a test targeted for April 2019 known as Ascent Abort-2, NASA will verify the Orion spacecraft’s launch abort system, a tower on top of the crew module, can steer the capsule and astronauts inside it to safety in the event of an issue with the Space Launch System rocket when the spacecraft is under the highest aerodynamic loads it will experience during ascent for deep-space missions. The test is quick, fast and high, lasting less than three minutes with the test crew module reaching an average speed of Mach 1.5, roughly 1020 miles per hour, at approximately 32,000 feet in altitude.”
“Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) will be the first integrated flight of NASA’s Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft and launch from the agency’s modernized spaceport in Florida. The uncrewed mission will send Orion thousands of miles beyond the Moon and is a critical flight test for NASA’s human deep space exploration goals. EM-1 lays the foundation for the first crewed flight of SLS and Orion, as well as a regular cadence of missions thereafter near the Moon and beyond.”
“We are underway with the development of Planetary Resources’ next spacecraft platform – the Arkyd-301. Our latest completed spacecraft, the Arkyd-6, has helped create the technical framework for Arkyd-301. We expect to learn more once our Arkyd-6 spacecraft launches and enters into operation in early 2018.
After Arkyd-6 launches, we enter our initial operations phase in which we will access all of its critical functions such as power generation, power storage, two-way communication, attitude determination, attitude control, and instrument operation. The continued operation of Arkyd-6 will include comparing its on-orbit performance with predicted behaviors and will further validate and inform our company’s design philosophies for Arkyd-301.
One of the things that we are most excited about is our onboard mid-wave infrared imager, which will not only be able to produce interesting images of our planet but also generate valuable scientific data. Enormous effort and careful radiometric calibration will allow us to assign a physical value to each and every pixel. We are maturing this remote sensing capability for use on the Arkyd-301 platform with a more advanced scientific imager that will enable the collection of calibrated spectral data for use in detecting water signatures on other planetary bodies.
The lessons that we continue to learn from the development and operation of Arkyd-6 will help us move closer to our goal of providing in-space resources to fuel industry and sustain life beyond Earth.”
“This week we’ll see the 53rd set of crew members return to Earth from the International Space Station, but we’ll only “see” it from the outside. What will the astronauts and cosmonauts see as they depart their home in space and return to the planet from whence they came? If you’ve got 60 seconds to spare, here’s the insider’s view of what a return to Earth on a Soyuz spacecraft looks like to the people on board.”
“The Arkyd-6 spacecraft not only tests our core technologies, but also tests how we work together as a team. In this video, our Director of Systems Engineering Brian Douglas describes the design and engineering philosophies that worked really well for us when building Arkyd-6.
Using components that were not originally designed for space, innovating where it makes sense, and having a single owner from a hardware’s inception to its operation are some philosophies that we will continue to build upon as we design the Arkyd-301 spacecraft. ​”
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