On December 24, 1979, the Ariane launch vehicle made its first flight from French Guyana. During 30 years of service, a total of 277 payloads have been delivered into geostationary transfer orbit, low Earth orbit, Sun-synchronous orbit and on Earth escape trajectories for 73 customers.
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| Credits: David Seal |
Carnival of Space #135 is hosted at Steve’s Astro Corner.
This week you can read about a partial lunar eclipse, the chemical composition of Io, Titan explorers, the wreck of the Mars Polar Lander, Sun spots, geysers on the surface of Enceladus, and much more.
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| Credits: The British Interplanetary Society |
Daedalus was a British Interplanetary Society (BIS) project conducted in the 1970’s. The project aimed to design an interstellar probe capable of flying to the Barnard’s star. The Daedalus design was a 54,000 ton two-stage vehicle powered by a D/He3 fusion engine, which could reach a speed of 10,000 km/s. It seems that the motivation behind the Daedalus project was the Fermi paradox.
Among the stated guidelines of the Daedalus project were the use of current or near-future technology and that the spacecraft must reach its destination within a human lifetime. There were interesting aspects to be considered during the design phase, such as infrastructure, propulsion, supporting technologies, and choice of targets.
Icarus, a new theoretical study of a mission to another star, builds on the solid base of the Daedalus project. Icarus aims to crystallize the design for an interstellar probe. Declared goals of the project include generating greater interest for interstellar precursor missions, and motivating a new generation of scientists to design interstellar space missions.
You can find more information about Project Icarus and the team behind the design efforts on the Project Icarus website.
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| Credits: STScI |
Carnival of Space #134 is hosted at Cumbrian Sky.
This week you can read about the latest news concerning the discovery of water on the Moon, a fascinating planet discovered around GJ 1214, the origins of the Earth’s atmosphere, the 30 Doradus Nebula, the Saturn’s largest moon – Titan, nuclear propulsion for interplanetary missions, and much more.
Soyuz TMA-17 arrived at the International Space Station on December 23, 2009.
Read more about the International Space Station…
Soyuz TMA-17 was launched on December 20, 2009. TMA-17 is a manned space flight to the International Space Station, which carried three members of the ISS Expedition 22 to the station: Oleg Kotov, Timothy Creamer, and Soichi Noguchi.
Read more about the International Space Station…
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