Future Space Craft

The risks from radiation in space, and the need to keep the crew safe on long flights, may influence the shape of future spaceships.

The major radiation sources are galactic cosmic rays, charged particles: from electrons up to the heavy metal elements and 'solar particle events', which throw out protons and helium nuclei.

Exposure from the hazards of severe space radiation in long-duration deep space missions is 'the show stopper'. Protection from the hazards of severe space radiation is of paramount importance to NASA's new vision to reach the Moon, Mars and beyond.

The electrons, protons & heavy-metal ions such as iron and uranium whiz through the void and can all cause cancers. But aluminium shielding capable of staving the radiation off on extended journeys would be prohibitively heavy, burning too much fuel.

The ideal form, according to Ram Tripathi, a spaceflight engineer at NASA, is a grapefruit spiked with cherries on sticks. With positively and negatively charged metal spheres be arranged on struts jutting out of the crew capsule, in carefully controlled directions, to give the crew a high degree of electrostatic radiation cover.

Tripathi calculates the "cherries" would need to be between 10 and 20 metres in diameter and would be stationed about 50 metres from the crew capsule – the "grapefruit". These spheres would protect the crew by deflecting charged particles away from the central habitat. Spheres give you more volume and less mass, and evenly distribute the deflecting charges over their surface.

The charged spheres would be made of lightweight hollow aluminium, the material shielding the crew capsule would incorporate carbon nanotubes – in a novel composite with aluminium. The nanotubes are light, they can take a pounding from heavy incoming ions.

Or we could have spaceships with a more conventional shape like a submarine, the starship enterprise, the space shuttle or nerva, with a false skin filled with smaller spheres (or even tubes) having the same desired effect, deflecting radiation and adding volume, without overwhelmingly increasing the mass.


Laser power stations, drawing energy from the local environment, might one day propel spacecraft throughout the solar system. NASA studies of advanced planetary missions have ranged from small robotic probes to multiple-spacecraft human exploration missions.
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The completed International Space Station will have a mass of about 1,040,000 pounds. It will measure 356 feet across and 290 feet in length, with almost an acre of solar panels to provide electrical power to six laboratories.

The assembled space station will provide the first laboratory complex where gravity, a fundamental force on Earth, can be controlled for extended periods. This control of gravity opens up an unimaginable world where almost everything grows differently than on Earth. For example, purer protein crystals can be grown in space than on Earth. By analyzing crystals grown on the ISS, scientists may be able to develop medicines that target particular disease-causing proteins.

Such crystals for research into cancer, diabetes, emphysema and immune disorders grown on the space station have already shown promise. New drugs to fight influenza and post-surgery inflammation are already in clinical trials, and future research will benefit from the extended exposure to weightlessness available on the station.

Many of the changes in the human body that result from space flight mimic those seen on Earth as a result of aging. Understanding of the causes of these changes may lead to the development of countermeasures against bone loss, muscle atrophy, balance disorders and other symptoms common in an aging population.

The Johnson Space Centre, together with scientists and researchers at NASA's other field centers, is working on the technologies that will be required for further exploration of the universe in the next years. For example, a new rocket team at Marshall is developing revolutionary technologies that will make space transportation as safe, reliable and affordable as today's airline transportation.

Hospitals, business parks and solar electric power stations that beam clean, inexpensive energy back to Earth are likely to dot the "space-scape" 40 years from now. Space adventure tourism and travel, orbiting movie studios, and worldwide, two-hour express package delivery also appear just over the horizon.

By 2040, it's expected to cost only tens of dollars per pound to launch humans or cargo to space; today, it costs as much as $10,000 per pound. Bridging that gap requires intense research and technology development focused on accelerating breakthroughs that will serve as keys to open the space frontier for business and pleasure.

Space transportation technology breakthroughs will launch a new age of space exploration, just as the silicon chip revolutionized the computer industry and made desktop computers commonplace.

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The New Space Race by Brian Appleyard @ The Sunday Times
The first Sino-European Satellite completes four year mission ESA
The Johnson Space Centre Celebrates 40 Years of Human Space Flight
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Nuclear Space Travel

Image Credit: Project Orion

Compared with the best chemical rockets, nuclear propulsion systems (NPS's) are more reliable and flexible for long-distance missions, and can achieve a desired space mission at a lower cost. The reason for these advantages in a nutshell is that NPS's can get "more miles per gallon" than chemical rockets.

For any space mission, basic questions must be answered:

1 - What is the destination?
2 - What is the trip time?
3 - Do we want to return?
4 - the mass of the payload we want to send there & bring back?

In chemical rocket engines such as the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME), the chemical reaction between the hydrogen and oxygen releases heat which raises the combustion gases (steam and excess hydrogen gas) up to high temperatures (3000-4000 K). These hot gases are then accelerated through a thermodynamic nozzle, which converts thermal energy into kinetic energy, and hence provides thrust. The propellant and the heat source are one in the same.
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Because there is a limited energy release in chemical reactions and because a thermodynamic nozzle is being used to accelerate the combustion gases that do not have the minimum possible molecular weight, there is a limit on the exhaust velocity that can be achieved.

The maximum specific impulse Isp that can be achieved with chemical engines is in the range of 400 to 500 s. So, for example, if we have an Isp of 450 s, and a mission delta-V of 10 km/s (typical for launching into low earth orbit (LEO)), then the mass ratio will be 9.63. The problem here is that most of the vehicle mass is propellant, and due to limitations of the strength of materials, it may be impossible to build such a vehicle, just to ascend into orbit.

Early rocket scientists got around this problem by building a rocket in stages, throwing away the structural mass of the lower stages once the propellant was consumed. This effectively allowed higher mass ratios to be achieved, and hence a space mission could be achieved with low-Isp engines. This is what all rockets do today, even the Space Shuttle. In spite of the relatively low Isp, chemical engines do have a relatively high thrust-to-weight ratio (T/W).

A high T/W (50-75) is necessary for a rocket vehicle to overcome the force of gravity on Earth and accelerate into space. The thrust of the rocket engines must compensate for the weight of the rocket engines, the propellant, the structural mass, and the payload. Although it is not always necessary, a high T/W engine will allow orbital and interplanetary space vehicles to accelerate quickly and reach their destinations in shorter time periods.

Nuclear propulsion systems have the ability to overcome the Isp limitations of chemical rockets because the source of energy and the propellant are independent of each other. The energy comes from a critical nuclear reactor in which neutrons split fissile isotopes, such as 92-U-235 (Uranium) or 94-Pu-239 (Plutonium), and release energetic fission products, gamma rays, and enough extra neutrons to keep the reactor operating.

The energy density of nuclear fuel is enormous. The heat energy released from the reactor can then be used to heat up a low-molecular weight propellant (such as hydrogen) and then accelerate it through a thermodynamic nozzle in same way that chemical rockets do. This is how nuclear thermal rockets (NTR's) work.

Solid-core NTR's (See Figure 2) have a solid reactor core with cooling channels through which the propellant is heated up to high temperatures (2500-3000 K). Although solid NTR's don't operate at temperatures as high as some chemical engines (due to material limitations), they can use pure hydrogen propellant which allows higher Isp's to be achieved (up to 1000 s).

In gas-core NTR's, the nuclear fuel is in gaseous form and is inter-mixed with the hydrogen propellant. Gas core nuclear rockets (GCNR) can operate at much higher temperatures (5000 - 20000 K), and thus achieve much higher Isp's (up to 6000 s).

Of course, there is a problem in that some radioactive fission products will end up in the exhaust, but other concepts such as the nuclear light bulb (NLB) can contain the uranium plasma within a fused silica vessel that easily transfers heat to a surrounding blanket of propellant. At such high temperatures, whether an open-cycle GCNR, or a closed-cycle NLB, the propellants will dissociate and become partially ionized.

In this situation, a standard thermodynamic nozzle must be replaced by a magnetic nozzle which uses magnetic fields to insulate the solid wall from the partially-ionized gaseous exhaust.

NTR's give a significant performance improvement over chemical engines, and are desirable for interplanetary missions. It may also be possible that solid core NTR's could be used in a future launch vehicle to supplement or replace chemical engines altogether4. Advances in metallurgy and material science would be required to improve the durability and T/W ratio of NTR's for launch vehicle applications.

An alternative approach to NTR's is to use the heat from nuclear reactor to generate electrical power through a converter, and then use the electrical power to operate various types of electrical thrusters (ion, hall-type, or magneto-plasma-dynamic (MPD)) that operate on a wide variety of propellants (hydrogen, hydrazine, ammonia, argon, xenon, fullerenes) This is how nuclear-electric propulsion (NEP) systems work.

To convert the reactor heat into electricity, thermoelectric or thermionic devices could be used, but these have low efficiencies and low power to weight ratios. The alternative is to use a thermodynamic cycle with either a liquid metal (sodium, potassium), or a gaseous (helium) working fluid. These thermodynamic cycles can achieve higher efficiencies and power to weight ratios.

No matter what type of power converter is used, a heat rejection system is needed, meaning that simple radiators, heat pipes, or liquid-droplet radiators would be required to get rid of the waste heat. Unlike ground-based reactors, space reactors cannot dump the waste heat into a lake or into the air with cooling towers.

The electricity from the space nuclear reactor can be used to operate a variety of thrusters. Ion thrusters use electric fields to accelerate ions to high velocities. In principle, the only limit on the Isp that can be achieved with ion thrusters is the operating voltage and the power supply. Hall thrusters use a combination of magnetic fields to ionize the propellant gas and create a net axial electric field which accelerates ions in the thrust direction. MPD thrusters use either steady-state or pulsed electromagnetic fields to accelerate plasma (a mixture of ions and electrons) in the thrust direction. To get a high thrust density, ion thrusters typically use xenon, while Hall thrusters and MPD thrusters can operate quite well with argon or hydrogen.

Compared with NTR's, NEP systems can achieve much higher Isp's. Their main problem is that they have a low power to weight ratio, a low thrust density, and hence a very low T/W ratio. This is due to the mass of the reactor, the heat rejection system, and the low-pressure operating regime of electrical thrusters.

This makes NEP systems unfeasible for launch vehicle applications and mission scenarios where high accelerations are required; however, they can operate successfully in low-gravity environments such as LEO and interplanetary space.

In contrast to a chemical rocket or an NTR which may operate only for several minutes to less than an hour at a time, an NEP system might operate continuously for days, weeks, perhaps even months, as the space vehicle slowly accelerates to meet its mission delta-V. An NEP system is well suited for unmanned cargo missions between the Earth, Moon and other planets.

For manned missions to the outer planets, there would be a close competition between gas-core NTR's and high-thrust NEP systems.

The performance gain of nuclear propulsion systems over chemical propulsion systems is overwhelming. Nuclear systems can achieve space missions at a significantly lower cost due to the reduction in propellant requirements.

When humanity gains the will to explore and develop space more ambitiously, nuclear propulsion will be an attractive choice.

Source: Nuclear Propulsion from Astro Digital.

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Innovative Nuclear Space Power and Propulsion Institute University of Florida
Kazakhstan Wants Russia To Pay 60 Million $US In Damages For Proton Crash
The Next Space Age by Alan Boyle @ Cosmic Log
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NASA mission to Ceres & Vesta

Dawn Spacecraft launch from Cape Canaveral scheduled for July 7th

Dawn will conduct a detailed study of the structure and composition of two of the first bodies formed in our solar system: the "dwarf planet" Ceres and the massive asteroid Vesta. The mission's goals include determining the shape, size, composition, internal structure, the tectonic and thermal evolution of Vesta and Ceres.

Dawn, which will be the first spacecraft to orbit two planetary bodies on the same mission, is expected to reveal the conditions under which these objects formed. Comparing their different evolutionary paths will provide evidence about the role of size and water in planetary evolution.

Dawn is scheduled to fly past Mars by April 2009, and after more than four years of travel, the spacecraft will rendezvous with Vesta in 2011. The spacecraft will orbit Vesta for approximately nine months, studying its structure and composition. In 2012, Dawn will leave for a three-year cruise to Ceres. Dawn will rendezvous with Ceres and begin orbit in 2015, conducting studies and observations for at least five months.

Read more NASA's Dawn Mission from Science Daily
Artist's impression of the Dawn spacecraft. (Credit: W.K. Hartmann Courtesy / UCLA)
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COROT detects Oscillations

COROT discovers its first Exoplanet and detects oscillations in a Sun-like star

COROT has detected its first seismic oscillations in the light curve of a sun-like star. The research team for spacecraft COROT revealed the first discoveries of this major European mission on 3rd of May.

The satellite has also found a very hot exoplanet and provisional estimates indicate it has a very large radius.

Based on the quality of this initial data, our knowledge of planets outside our own solar system, known as exoplanets, and of the interiors of stars should be vastly improved over the next three years.

The exoplanet, which has been named COROT-exo-1b, orbits around a yellow dwarf star similar to our Sun in about 1.5 days. It is situated roughly 1500 light years from us, in the direction of the constellation of the Unicorn (Monoceros). The oscillating star is of a similar type and located in the same region of the sky, but much nearer to us.

The satellite has two main advantages over ground-based projects. Firstly, it can observe the same stars continuously, without interruption, for up 150 days (60 days so far). Secondly, its position above the Earth’s atmosphere enables it to measure the brightness variations of stars much more precisely.

COROT detects planets by looking for transits, small dips in the apparent brightness of a star caused by a planet passing in front of it. While its first planet is large, the quality of the data suggests COROT will be able to identify rocky planets only a few times larger than our own Earth.

COROT may also be able to observe variations in the amount of stellar light reflected towards us by planets as they go around their orbits, giving some indication of their atmospheric properties.
SciTech Press Release 3rd May 2007.
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Catastrophes in the Solar System

Earth sits between two worlds that have been devastated by climate catastrophes. In the effort to combat global warming, our neighbours can provide valuable insights into the way climate catastrophes affect planets.

Modelling Earth’s climate to predict its future has assumed tremendous importance in the light of mankind’s influence on the atmosphere. The climate of our two neighbours is in stark contrast to that of our home planet, making data from ESA’s Venus Express and Mars Express invaluable to climate scientists.
Venus is a cloudy inferno whilst Mars is a frigid desert. As current concerns about global warming have now achieved widespread acceptance, pressure has increased on scientists to propose solutions.

The atmosphere of Venus is much thicker than Earth’s. Nevertheless, current climate models can reproduce its present temperature structure well. Now planetary scientists want to turn the clock back to understand why and how Venus changed from its former Earth-like conditions into the inferno of today.

They believe that the planet experienced a runaway greenhouse effect as the Sun gradually heated up. Astronomers believe that the young Sun was dimmer than the present-day Sun by 30 percent. Over the last 4 thousand million years, it has gradually brightened. During this increase, Venus’s surface water evaporated and entered the atmosphere.

“Water vapour is a powerful greenhouse gas and it caused the planet to heat-up even more. This is turn caused more water to evaporate and led to a powerful positive feedback response known as the runaway greenhouse effect.”

As Earth warms in response to manmade pollution, it risks the same fate. Reconstructing the climate of the past on Venus can give scientists a better understanding of how close our planet is to such a catastrophe. However, determining when Venus passed the point of no return is not easy. That’s where ESA’s Venus Express comes in.

The spacecraft is in orbit around Venus collecting data that will help unlock the planet’s past. Venus is losing gas from its atmosphere, so Venus Express is measuring the rate of this loss and the composition of the gas being lost. It also watches the movement of clouds in the planet’s atmosphere. This reveals the way Venus responds to the absorption of sunlight, because the energy from the Sun provides the power that allows the atmosphere to move.

In addition, Venus Express is charting the amount and location of sulphur dioxide in the planet’s atmosphere. Sulphur dioxide is a greenhouse gas and is released by volcanoes on Venus.

What happened on these two worlds is very different but either would be equally disastrous for Earth. We are banking on our ability to accurately predict Earth’s future climate.

Climate catastrophes in the Solar System ESA press release 26 April 2007
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Gliese and Earth-like Worlds from Centauri Dreams
NASA's AIM Mission Soars To The Edge Of Space
Satellites Play Vital Role In Understanding The Carbon Cycle
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The Future starts Today

Hubble mosaic of the galaxy NGC 7319 from Stephan's Quintet.
Located in the constellation Pegasus, 270 million light-years from Earth, it was discovered by Edouard M. Stephan in 1877. As the name suggests, the quintet actually contains five galaxies and is the first compact group ever discovered.

One step closer to shaping ‘Cosmic Vision 2015-2025’

“The future starts today” said ESA’s Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain, addressing the community on 11 April 2007.
Following the call for proposals issued early March this year, ESA received more than 60 ‘Letters Of Intent’. Through these, European research teams expressed their intention to submit proposals for new scientific missions and provided their preliminary concepts.

The mission concepts range from the exploration of Jupiter and its satellite Europa, to satellites studying radiation from the Big Bang and testing theories concerning the inflation of the Universe. The concepts also include missions studying near-Earth asteroids, satellites looking for liquid water on Saturn’s moon Enceladus and spacecraft to verify gravity as one of the fundamental forces.

On 29 June ESA will receive detailed missions proposals. Starting in October 2007, until mid-2009, ESA’s Space Science Advisory committee and scientific working groups will assess the proposals and pre-select three ‘class-M’ missions and three ‘class-L’ missions.

Class-M missions are medium-size projects, where the costs to ESA do not exceed 300 million euros. Class-L missions are larger projects, with cost envelopes not exceeding 650 million euros.

By the end of 2009, out of these three class-M and three class-L missions (plus LISA), two class-M and two class-L missions will further be short-listed for the definition phase (mission ‘phase A’). This phase will be run by European industries on a competitive basis between the beginning of 2010 and mid-2011.

By the end of 2011, one class-M and one class-L mission each will be adopted for implementation with launch foreseen in 2017 and 2018 respectively.

Image taken using Hubble's Wide Field & Planetary Camera 2 on Dec. 30, 1998 and June 17, 1999. Credits: NASA/ESA, J. English (U. of Manitoba), S. Hunsberger (PSU), Z. Levay ( STSI), S. Gallagher (PSU) and J. Charlton (PSU)
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Was Einstein Right?
Public Peek At Gravity Probe B Results from Science Daily
Where has all the antimatter gone? VELO from SciTech
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Reaching the parts ...

Herschel will be the largest space telescope of its kind when launched. Herschel's 3.5-metre diameter mirror will collect long-wavelength infrared radiation from some of the coolest and most distant objects in the Universe.

Infrared radiation is invisible for the human eye. It is actually 'heat', or thermal radiation. Even objects that we think of as being very cold, such as an ice cube, emit infrared radiation. For this reason, infrared telescopes can observe astronomical objects that remain hidden for optical telescopes, such as cool objects that are unable to emit in visible light.

Earth's atmosphere acts as an 'umbrella' for most infrared wavelengths, preventing them from reaching the ground. A space telescope is needed to detect this kind of radiation invisible to the human eye and to optical telescopes.

The Herschel satellite is a tall 'tube' 7.5 metres high and 4 metres wide, with a launch mass of around 3.3 tonnes. It will carry the infrared telescope and three scientific instruments. The bulk of the spacecraft consists of a liquid helium thermos bottle inside which the instrument detectors sit and are cooled down to only a few degrees above absolute zero.

Herschel will be launched in 2008 with another mission, Planck - a mission to study the cosmic microwave background radiation - on an Ariane rocket. The two spacecraft will separate about 2.5 hours after launch and will operate independently. In less than six months, Herschel will reach its operational orbit around a point in space known as the second Lagrangian point (L2), situated at 1.5 million kilometres away from the Earth.

Exploring formation of stars and galaxies, ESA's Herschel space observatory (formerly called Far Infrared and Submillimetre Telescope, or FIRST) will give astronomers their best view yet of the universe at far-infrared and sub-millimetre wavelengths, bridging the gap in the spectrum between what can be observed from ground and earlier space missions of this kind.

Herschel overview
Reaching the parts .…. with Herschel and SPIRE from SciTech
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The Science and Technology Facilities Council SciTech
Formed by Royal Charter in 2007 (by combining CCLRC and PPARC), the Science and Technology Facilities Council is one of Europe's largest multidisciplinary research organisations supporting scientists and engineers world-wide.
The Council operates world-class, large scale research facilities and provides strategic advice to the government on their development.
It also manages international research projects in support of a broad cross-section of the UK research community. The Council also directs, coordinates and funds research, education and training.
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ESA Mars 500 Mission

Preparing for a long-duration human mission to Mars

Starting in spring next year, a crew of six will be sent on a 500 day simulated mission to Mars.

During the simulated Mars mission, known as Mars500, the crew will remain in a special isolation facility in Russia. To investigate the psychological and medical aspects of a long-duration mission, such as to Mars, ESA is looking for experiment proposals for research to be carried out during their stay.

Locked in the facility in Moscow, the crew will be put through all kinds of scenarios as if they really were travelling to the Red Planet – including a launch, an outward journey of up to 250 days, arrival at Mars and, after an excursion to the surface, they will face the long journey home.
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The crew will have tasks similar to those they would have on a real space mission. They will have to cope with simulated emergencies; they may even have real emergencies or illnesses. Communication delays of as much as 20 minutes each way will not make life any easier.

Instead of having a spacecraft as their home, the crew will live in a series of metal tanks. Using narrow connecting passages, they can move between a medical area, a research area, a crew compartment and a kitchen – an area of only 200m2. There is even a special tank representing the Mars descent vehicle for simulation of a stay on the Martian surface.

Why is ESA participating in this study?

To look at the psychology of such a mission, knowing that you are enclosed for 500 days. As soon as there is a problem, the crew knows that they are on their own, and they have to solve it themselves. The only help available from the outside is through communications which may take up to 40 minutes.

At the start of their mission the crew will be supplied with all the food they will have to live off for the duration of the study. They have to keep track of their consumables amongst themselves. This limited food supply could lead to additional tensions amongst the crew.

To look at the psychological effects of the situation on your mental well-being, and on your capabilities of performing certain tasks, even tasks critical to the mission. In a real mission, for example, whether you are able to land a vehicle on the surface of Mars, and are you able to do the science once you are there? How will group relations evolve? What are the potential dangers we could encounter? What kind of countermeasures can we invent that can prevent this? And to learn about what types of personality we should select for a real mission.

Almost as important, to learn more about the medical procedures. How do you define a good medical environment so that you can treat diseases? What are the medicines that you want to take with you on the journey? There will be one person amongst the crew with real medical training. But of course that person can also fall ill. So you have to have all kinds of back-up scenarios.

A full simulation should alert us to any potential risks and better prepare us for the real thing.

The proposal could also cover research in the Concordia Station Credits: IPEV
The Concordia Station is a scientific base built in Antarctica by the French Polar Institute (IPEV) and the Italian Antarctic Programme (PNRA) .


Read more ESA prepares for a human mission to Mars 02 April 2007.

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Mars Spots From Astroprofs Page
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Near-Earth Routes

Spacenet: Solar System Supply Routes

It is worth noting that with today's technology and economic wealth, building three shuttles that can carry a crew to the Moon - is no more outrageous than building three ships for Columbus to open a route to the East via America.

For sure the Moon is no Caribbean filled with tropical plants and birds, and no trade route to the land of silk and spices.



Space whilst it may be a hostile environment, is no more deadly to men - than being caught in the doldrums on a sailing ship, with no food or fresh water (and wine). Even if there'd be plenty of fish swimming in the sea.

And the journey to Mars is not longer or much more frought with dangers than the first journeys by sea around Cape Horn or Cape of Good Hope to reach Australia & the East Indies.





Modern economies do not require a venture to produce an economic return or 'profit'. The benefits for the land based economies, or in this case earth based governments, is the increased economic activity and velocity of money (wealth) from job creation in research & development - without competing for resources or markets in the commercial 'private' sector.

After all any investment in Space, can only be spent on Earth - there are no 'shops' in Space.

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"The Ultimate Surfing Adventure"
Space, One vast Ocean Open to All - Quasar9
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Space cooperation

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Roscosmos signing. Credits: ESA

Europe and Russia confirm closer space cooperation
From left to right: ESA Director General, Jean-Jacques Dordain, the Head of the Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation (Roscosmos), Anatoly Perminov, and European Commission Director General Heinz Zourek met on 21 March 2007, at Roscosmos in Moscow within the framework of the Tripartite Space Dialogue between the European Commission, European Space Agency and Roscosmos.

Cooperation in space science is advancing satisfactorily. Russia will provide a gamma ray and neutron spectrometer instrument to ESA's BepiColombo mission. Russian scientists have also been invited to respond together with European scientists to the call for proposals for the first planning cycle of the new Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 recently issued by ESA.

Cooperation in the technology field will see the parties assessing potential domains of common interest and identifying concrete opportunities.

Cooperation in the launchers domain will see the two sides concentrate on the implementation of Soyuz launches from the Guiana Space Centre as well as looking into technologies for future launchers. Europe and Russia are also involved in discussions related to the next generation of crew vehicles with possible ESA involvement in the development of an Advanced Crew Transportation Vehicle to be tabled for decision at the ESA Council at ministerial level in 2008.


SPACE "The Ultimate Surfing Adventure" - Quasar9

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OSIRIS camera on Rosetta obtains ‘light curve’ of asteroid Steins
IceSAR provides glimpse of future Sentinel-1 images over ice
Space Science - UK invests for the future more from PPARC.
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ESA's Cosmic Vision

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The implementation of the new Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 science programme will be done in successive selection cycles of mission proposals, starting with this call for proposals for the first planning cycle
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Huygens Titan descent

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The European-built Huygens probe was part of the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn - a joint endeavour of ESA, NASA and the Italian Space Agency (ASI). It is the most ambitious effort in planetary space exploration ever mounted. Launched on 15 October 1997, Cassini (a sophisticated robotic spacecraft designed to orbit the ringed planet and study the Saturnian system in detail), bearing the Huygens probe, reached Saturn on 1 July 2004. Cassini delivered Huygens to Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, on 14 January 2005. This was the first ever descent and landing onto a celestial body in the outer Solar System, and it provided the most spectacular view of Titan yet.

Now, thanks to the Huygens measurements and also to the complementary, global measurements made by Cassini, we actually know that Titan’s landscapes truly resemble those on Earth, with mountains, lakes, shorelines and outflow channels, where methane plays a role similar to that of water on Earth. By detecting Argon 40, Huygens also helped to reveal that the interior of Titan is still active, as confirmed later by Cassini, which observed icy 'lava' flows emerging from 'cryo-volcanoes'.

The Cassini-Huygens results so far tell us that Titan, once thought to resemble an early, frozen Earth, in reality appears to be as complex as any of the terrestrial planets that have an atmosphere. Huygens has exceeded expectations and shown Titan to be an 'alien earth', probably more similar to our own planet than either Mars or Venus, and is enabling planetary scientists to explore a new, fascinating world.

Huygens landing site to be named after Hubert Curien
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This image provides a comparison between the Huygens landing site on Titan as viewed by the Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) and the NACO/SDI instrument mounted on the 8-metre Yepun telescope of the VLT (Very Large Telescope) station, in Chile.

ESA Press Release 13-2007. As of 14 March, an epic space mission and one of the founding fathers of the European space endeavour will be forever linked.

ESA, the international Committee for Space Research (COSPAR) and NASA have decided to honour Professor Hubert Curien’s contribution to European space by naming the Huygens landing site on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, after him.

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Cassini over Saturn - Enceladus and Rings by Louise Riofrio
PIA09180: Titan: Larger and Larger Lakes from JPL NASA
Venera 14 landing on Venus & Celestial coordinates by Astroprof
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