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| Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona |
Carnival of Space #138 is hosted by Nancy Atkinson.
This week you can see new images of dunes on Mars, read about the whereabouts of MER Opportunity, the NASA announcement that the public can choose locations for the HiRISE camera to image, planet killers, get the latest updates on the Allen Telescope Array, and much more.
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| Credits: NASA |
Carnival of Space #137 is hosted by Nicole Gugliucci at One Astronomer’s Noise.
This week you can read about Galileo’s discovery of the moons of Jupiter, a new model of Io’s atmosphere, which is created by simulating multi-spectral observations, see breathtaking, high-resolution images of sand dunes on the surface of Mars, learn about black holes and and their effect on light and matter, find out how you would know that you live inside a black hole, and much more.
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| Credits: ESA – P.Carril |
The European Union’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative was born as the result of a growing need for accurate and accessible information about the environment, the effects of climate change, and civil security. GMES uses as its main information feed the data collected by satellites developed by ESA. Data is also collected by instruments carried by aircraft, floating in the ocean, or located on the ground.
GMES provides services that can be grouped into five main categories: land management, marine environment, atmosphere, aid emergency response, and security.
There are five Sentinel missions designed as components of the GMES initiative. These missions will complement the national initiatives of the EU members involved. The missions will collect data for land and ocean monitoring, and atmospheric composition monitoring, making use of all-weather radar and optical imaging. Each of the Sentinel missions is based on a constellation of two satellites.
Sentinel-1 is an all-weather radar-imaging mission. The satellites will have polar orbits and collect data for the GMES land and ocean services. The first satellite is scheduled for launch in 2012. Sentinel-1 will ensure the continuity of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) applications, taking over from systems carried by ERS-1, ERS-2, Envisat, and Radarsat. Sentinel-1 satellites will be carried to orbit by Soyuz launch vehicles lifting off from Kourou.
Sentinel-2 will provide high-resolution multi-spectral imagery of vegetation, soil, and water, and will cover inland waterways and coastal areas. Sentinel-2 is designed for the data continuity of missions like Landsat or SPOT (Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre). Each satellite will carry a Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) that can ‘see’ in thirteen spectral bands spanning from the visible and near infrared (VNIR) to the shortwave infrared (SWIR). The first Sentinel-2 is planned to launch in 2013. Vega will provide launch services for Sentinel-2 missions.
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| Credits: ESA – P.Carril |
Sentinel-3 will determine parameters such as sea-surface topography and sea and land surface temperature. It will also determine ocean and land colour with high accuracy. The first Sentinel-3 satellite is expected to reach orbit in 2013. The spacecraft bus has a three-meter accuracy real-time orbit determination capability based on GPS and Kalman filtering.
Sentinel-4 is devoted to atmospheric monitoring and it will consist of payloads carried by Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) satellites that are planned to launch in 2017 and 2024. Sentinel-5 will be used for atmospheric monitoring as well. The payload will be carried by a post-EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS) spacecraft, planned to launch in 2020. A Sentinel-5 precursor will ensure that no data gap will exist between the Envisat missions and Sentinel-5.
You can find out more about the GMES initiative and the Sentinel missions on a dedicated page on ESA’s website.
On January 14, 2005, ESA’s Huygens probe landed on the surface of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. After a seven-year journey onboard the Cassini spacecraft, Huygens became the most distant manmade object to land on another world.
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| Credits: NASA/ESA/G. Bacon (STScI) |
Carnival of Space #136 is hosted by Mike Simonsen at Simostronomy.
This week you can read an interview with Team Selenokhod, one of the most recent entrants in the Google Lunar X Prize Competition, learn about the sixth anniversary of the MER Spirit, explore topics related to the discovery of the Galilean moons, discover a new, refined age of the solar system, find out how scientists detect water on the surface of exoplanets, read about the recurrent nova T Pyxidis, the newest Hubble Space Telescope image of faint galaxies, how to use ‘interstellar cycler’ to reach the stars, and much more.
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| Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace РOptique vid̩o du CSG, L. Boyer |
Arianespace was founded in 1980. With twenty-four shareholders from ten European countries (among which CNES holds 34% and EADS 30%), Arianespace is the world’s first commercial space transportation company.
The workhorse of Arianespace has been the Ariane launch vehicle.
Five versions of Ariane have served the company so far: Ariane 1, with the first successful launch on December 24, 1979, Ariane 2, launched for the first time on November 20, 1987, Ariane 3, starting its service on August 4, 1984, Ariane 4, launched on June 15, 1988, and Ariane 5, with the first successful flight on October 30, 1997.
The first launch of Ariane 5, a.k.a. Flight 501, ended with the vehicle being destroyed by its automated self-destruct system, after the high accelerations caused the inertial guidance system to crash. The crash was caused by, I quote, one of the most infamous computer bugs in history. If you like, you can take a look at the Ada code that caused the malfunction. But enough with the dark memories, this is an anniversary after all…
Since its inception, Arianespace has signed over 300 contracts that resulted in more than 277 satellite launches. According to Arianespace, Ariane launchers have delivered more than half of all commercial satellites now in service. The year 2009 was a very successful year for Ariane 5. The launcher orbited nine commercial satellites, the Herschel space telescope, the Planck scientific observatory, and the Helios 2B observation satellite. Ariane 5 has proven to be a versatile launch vehicle, capable of handling a wide range of missions.
The challenges for 2010 are many, as Arianespace is planning up to seven Ariane 5 launches. Two new launch vehicles will join Ariane 5 as part of the Arianespace family of launchers: the Vega small launcher and the Soyuz medium launcher.
You can read more about Arianespace, its mission, and the solutions provided to customers around the world on the Arianespace website.
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