Εμφάνιση αναρτήσεων με ετικέτα satellites. Εμφάνιση όλων των αναρτήσεων
Εμφάνιση αναρτήσεων με ετικέτα satellites. Εμφάνιση όλων των αναρτήσεων

Πέμπτη 19 Φεβρουαρίου 2015

Over 100 tons of space junk fell on Earth in 2014 (NASA)

More than 600 non-operating satellites, used-up stages of rockets and other pieces of space vehicles burnt last year reentering the atmosphere.

According to the American weekly newspaper Space News, the data was reported by NASA to the UN Committee on the peaceful uses of outer space, where the space junk disposition was discussed. 

Specialists estimate that last year's space junk fall was more intense than usual because of high solar activity which raised the atmosphere boundary and made a part of space junk from low orbits approach the Earth’s surface.

According to experts the overall weight of the space junk that entered atmosphere is over 100 tons. It is impossible to find out how many pieces have reached the earth having crossed the dense atmosphere, but it is known that no one suffered from the phenomenon.

According to NASA experts, after the space junk fall the space has become cleaner. They claim that there are fewer 10-cm objects classified as space junk. Meanwhile, the weight of used-up satellites and pieces of orbital platforms has increased from 5 to 6.5 thousand tons over the last 10 years.

Specialists offer different ways of space junk disposition, even such exotic ones as special orbital “vacuum cleaners”. At the same time almost everybody agrees that it is most important for all countries to abide by the rules of the spacecraft usage.
  http://tass.ru/en/non-political/778607
19/2/15
--
-
Related;

Related:

Πέμπτη 12 Φεβρουαρίου 2015

SpaceX launches deep space weather observatory

 A $340 million satellite that aims to alert people to potentially dangerous solar activity and geomagnetic storms blasted off toward deep space Wednesday atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket...

Experts say the DSCOVR - a joint collaboration of the US Air Force, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - will help with the preparation and response to "space weather," thereby protecting utilities, consumers and industries.

"The Falcon takes flight, propelling the Deep Space Climate Observatory on a million mile journey to protect our planet Earth," said NASA commentator George Diller as the rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 6:03 pm (2303 GMT).

DSCOVR is headed to a destination between the Earth and the sun known as Lagrangian point, or L1. The journey will take 110 days, followed by 40 days of instrument tests.

Space weather is the primary objective of the five-year mission, although the initial idea for the satellite came from former US vice president Al Gore, who dreamed of a spacecraft that would observe Earth and send back live images that would raise environmental awareness of the planet's fragility.

DSCOVR will replace an aging satellite, known as ACE, that is many years past its expiration date. It should provide the same accuracy as its predecessor, officials said.

Its secondary mission is to collect scientific data about aerosol levels, ozone and radiation balance on Earth.

Meanwhile, California-based SpaceX said high seas off the coast of Florida had forced it to abandon another planned attempt at recycling its rocket by flying the first stage of the Falcon 9 to a controlled landing on an ocean platform, known as a drone ship.

SpaceX is embarking on a series of such tests with the goal of one day making rockets as reusable as airplanes, instead of allowing them to fall to pieces into the ocean after launch.

An attempt to land the first stage on a floating barge in January was not successful. Instead of landing upright, the rocket collided with the platform and broke into pieces.

But the company said it intends to keep trying to refine the technology.

  Source:AFP - globaltimes.cn
12/2/15
--
-
Related:

Related:

Τετάρτη 19 Νοεμβρίου 2014

Russia first among space junk producers (report)

Russia is occupying a confident first place as the producer of space rubbish orbiting the Earth, says a report published by the Central Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering, a subsidiary of the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos.

Of the 15,900 or so orbital objects classified as space junk, about 6.300 objects were left over by Russia, it says.
All in all, a total of 17,000 manmade objects were orbiting the Earth on October 31, 2014, experts of the institute's ballistic center say. Only 1,300 objects in that number are active-duty space probes.

The rest of objects - carrier rockets, non-operating satellites and debris of various other vehicles - belong to the category of space junk.
  • “Among the active-duty probes, the US grouping consisting of 427 items is the biggest,” the report says. “Russia has 129 probes and China has 123.”
The US has left over 4,570 objects in orbit and China has left about 3,660 objects. http://en.itar-tass.com/non-political/760610
19/11/14
--
-
Related:

Related:

Κυριακή 9 Νοεμβρίου 2014

Defunct Soviet satellite plunges into Pacific (Russian Air Defense)

A defunct Soviet satellite has left the Earth's orbit, disintegrated and plunged into the Pacific as anticipated by the Russian Air Defense Forces, its spokesperson said Saturday.

"According to the Center for Space Monitoring at the Main Center for the Missile and Space Defense, the fragments of the space object left the orbit at 2:52 p.m. MSK [11:52 GMT] on November 8, 2014 over the Pacific Ocean," Col. Alexei Zolotukhin, a spokesperson for Russia's Aerospace Defense Forces said.


The satellite, identified as Kosmos-1441, was expected to make a comeback in early November, together with another obsolete Soviet satellite which veered off the course and plunged into the Caribbean Sea on October 29.

Kosmos-1441 was put into orbit on February 16, 1983 and stopped operation the next year.   
  • In 2009, another decommissioned Kosmos satellite collided with a US Iridium telecom satellite in the first ever high-speed crash between two man-made objects in space.
indian.ruvr.ru
8/11/14
--
-
Related:

Related:

Τρίτη 21 Οκτωβρίου 2014

Russia Launches Proton-M Rocket with Express-AM6 Telecoms Satellite

Russia launched on Tuesday an Express-series communications satellite on board the Proton-M carrier rocket from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said.
"The launch took place as scheduled at 07.09 p.m. Moscow time [15:09 GMT]," a Roscosmos spokesman told RIA Novosti.
"The separation of the satellite from the Briz-M booster is expected at 04.31 a.m. Moscow time on October 22 [00:31 GMT]," the officil added.

Based on the heavy-class Express-2000 platform, the spacecraft will have an active lifespan of 15 years and carry 11 antennas as well as 72 C-, Ku-, Ka- и L-band transponders, according to Russia's Reshetnev Company, which designs and builds Express-series satellites.
The Express-AM6 telecommunications satellite will be operated by the Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC) to provide a comprehensive range of communications and broadcasting services in the Russian territory.
 (RIA Novosti)
21/10/14

Δευτέρα 20 Οκτωβρίου 2014

Scientists develop new technique of orbiter defense from space debris

A new computer model that will help the scientists to increase orbiter defense from clashing with space junk has been developed in Ireland. The researchers from the country’s oldest university Trinity College reported that “new mathematical methods will help predict emergencies in terrestrial space”. 

According to one of the project initiators, Computer Science School Professor of Statistics, Simon Wilson, due to development in IT sphere they also managed to create new tools that will calculate more accurately impact points of satellite parts that didn’t burn in dense atmosphere.
“Particularly, we are now able to calculate with higher probability whether objects in dense atmosphere will burn or not,” he pointed out. Other details will be kept secret until researchers get international patent. It is known that European Space Agency is interested in the invention.

The main challenge that experts from Trinity College face is not to let the most pessimistic scenario of the Hollywood blockbuster “Gravity”, which came out in 2013, materialize. The plot of the movie describes how all crew members of shuttle “Columbia” die during the routine mission in space exactly because of the collision of spaceship with extraneous objects.

Experts estimate that total weight of space junk exceeds 100,000 tons nowadays.
This entails satellite fragments, rocket stages, inactive spacecrafts and its pieces. All this debris gradually moves on lower orbits, posing a danger for manned missions.
en.itar-tass.com
20/10/14
--
-
Related:

Παρασκευή 3 Οκτωβρίου 2014

NASA Photographs Show Eastern Basin of Aral Sea Totally Dried

New NASA photographs taken by satellite show Central Asia' once-vibrant Aral Sea shrinking to levels possibly not seen in centuries.
The images taken in August by the Terra satellite show that the sea's eastern basin, on the border of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, completely empty, the first time in modern times, said Philip Micklin, a well-known geographer and professor emeritus of Western Michigan University and an Aral Sea expert.

"And it is likely the first time it has completely dried in 600 years, since medieval desiccation associated with diversion of the Amu Darya [river] to the Caspian Sea," he told NASA.
By some accounts, the destruction of the sea is considered one of the world's worst environmental catastrophes.
  • Once the fourth largest sea in the world, the Aral has been shrinking since the 1960s when the Soviet Union undertook a major irrigation project to supply the arid plains of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. 
The region's two main rivers — the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya — were tapped to irrigate water-intensive crops like cotton and others in the arid Central Asian desert.

The desert bloomed in many places, but at the expense of the lake, which has shriveled, destroying ecosystems, decimating a vibrant fishing industry and leaving dozens of communities suffering from poverty and environmentally-induced disease.
Micklin said lower rain and snow fall in the mountains to the east this year  considerably reduced the flow into the Amu Darya feeding the lake.
Uzbekistan continues to use the river for its economically-important cotton industry.
As the water receded, the sea has split into two separate sections: the North, or Small, Aral Sea, located within Kazakhstan; and the South, or Large, Aral Sea. The latter split into western and eastern basins.

  • “As the lake dried up, fisheries and the communities that depended on them collapsed,” NASA noted in its statement that accompanied the publication of photographs. “The increasingly salty water became polluted with fertilizer and pesticides. Blowing dust from the exposed lakebed, contaminated with agricultural chemicals, became a public health hazard.”
The continual loss of water has also contributed to a change in the regional climate, making winters colder and summers hotter and drier, the statement said.

The photos of the drying lake were taken in August of this year by NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite.
In an effort to save the lake, in 2005 a World Bank-funded dam was built in Kazakhstan, which has helped to partially restore the northern section, albeit at a fraction of its former size and volume.
http://www.voanews.com/content/nasa-photographs-show-eastern-basin-of-aral-sea-totally-dried/2471680.html
3/10/14
--
-

Πέμπτη 2 Οκτωβρίου 2014

Russian scientists develop system for monitoring space junk

Scientists from St. Petersburg Polytechnic University have developed a monitor system to follow space junk.

The system is a set of monitoring meters intended for a spaceship to ensure its safety if established on board, Rector of the St. Petersburg university Andrei Rudskoi told TASS on Thursday.

The space litter monitoring project aroused interest at the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos). Chief of the Roscosmos agency Oleg Ostapenko has promised support to St. Petersburg Polytechnic University to enable it to test the litter monitoring meters on the orbit.


Space litter poses a threat to the population of the Earth, manned orbital stations, spaceships and orbital satellites. Meters on board the spaceship might warn a space crew about space litter on the spaceship's trajectory, and a space crew might either change route or destroy the space litter before encounter.

http://en.itar-tass.com/non-political/752499
2/10/14
--
-
Related:

Δευτέρα 29 Σεπτεμβρίου 2014

Russia Successfully Places Satellite into Orbit

Russia's rocket Proton has managed to bring its telecommunications satellite called Beam into orbit, Russian space agency Roskosmos has announced.

Beam is expected to help GLONASS, the Russian satellite navigation system of the Russian Aerospace Defense Forces, to improve its precision.

The upgrade will make GLONASS virtually identical to the American GPS, the Russian Times wrote Sunday.


It will also improve communications with the Russian part of the International Space Station and also with launchers of other space devices.

The result of the operation was widely expected after an attempt with a similar rocket failed. - See more at: http://www.novinite.com/articles/163664
28/9/14
--
Related:

Δευτέρα 1 Σεπτεμβρίου 2014

Russia’s Foton-M Satellite Landing Scheduled for September 1 (Space Agency)

MOSCOW, September 1 (RIA Novosti) – The landing of Russia’s Foton-M biosatellite with geckos, fruit flies, silkworm eggs, mushrooms and seeds of higher plants on board is appointed for the Knowledge Day, September 1, in the Orenburg region, Russia’s Federal Space Agency Roscosmos told RIA Novosti.

"The program of scientific experiments has been completed. The State Commission decided to land Foton-M at 13.18 (9:18 GMT) on September 1 in the Orenburg region," according to the statement.


The biological mission of the Foton-M satellite included eight experiments. The experiments involving five geckos were to monitor their reproductive activity in space. The mission was also to study the effect of weightlessness on plants and insects, and to conduct experiments on the growth of semiconductor crystals.

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20140901/192514004/Russias-Foton-M-Satellite-Landing-Scheduled-for-September-1-.html
1/9/14
--
-
Related:

Τρίτη 26 Αυγούστου 2014

European Union helps fight forest fires in Greece (European Commission)

European Commission, Press release, Brussels, 26 August 2014:

Greece is receiving support through the European Union's Civil Protection Mechanism to fight the forest fires raging in the central part of the country. France has responded to Greece's request for assistance in a matter of hours – its two fire-fighting planes are already operating in the affected areas.
"Forest fires are a risk we face every summer and this year is no exception; we will continue to support the efforts of Greece to prevent the fire from spreading towards populated areas.
The Commission is grateful to France for its prompt gesture of solidarity; I hope that other Member States will also be able to offer assistance," said Kristalina Georgieva, the European Union Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response.
The European Commission's Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) is in contact with the civil protection authorities of the countries participating in the Mechanism.
The ERCC is actively monitoring the forest fire risks across Europe. It uses national monitoring services and tools such as EFFIS (the European Forest Fire Information System) and satellite imagery to provide an overview of the situation in Europe. Every summer, its experts hold a weekly videoconference with national authorities from countries at greatest risk of forest fires.

Background
The fire that broke out on 24 August in a forest region near Kalabaka, central Greece, has burnt around 400 hectares of land and is still active. Greece has also activated the satellite imagery service of the European Commission. Тhe Copernicus mapping system provides all actors involved in the management of natural and man-made disasters and humanitarian crises with timely and accurate satellite images of the affected areas. It can be activated only by authorised users, e.g. national civil protection authorities, through the ERCC.

The European Civil Protection Mechanism facilitates cooperation in disaster response among 31 European states (EU-28 plus Norway, Iceland, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia). The participating countries pool the resources that can be made available to disaster-stricken countries all over the world. When activated, the Mechanism coordinates the provision of assistance inside and outside the European Union. The European Commission manages the Mechanism through the ERCC.

The European Civil Protection Mechanism was activated 17 times over the last three summers to respond to forest fires inside and outside Europe. In 2012, for example, Greece has requested assistance at combatting forest fires for three times.
Furthermore, in June 2014 a major EU civil protection exercise, EU PROMETHEUS 2014, took place in Greece, testing cooperation and response capacities of Member States through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. Among other things, the participating teams from a number of EU Member States were tested at combatting a huge wildfire near populated areas.
26/7/14
--
-
Related:

Σάββατο 23 Αυγούστου 2014

Galileo satellites not on right orbit (Arianespace)

PARIS: Two European Galileo satellites launched by a Russian-built rocket on Friday (Aug 22) from French Guiana have not reached their intended orbit, launch firm Arianespace said Saturday.

"Observations taken after the separation of the satellites from the Soyuz VS09 (rocket) for the Galileo Mission show a gap between the orbit achieved and that which was planned," the company said in a statement. "They have been placed on a lower orbit than expected. Teams are studying the impact this could have on the satellites.”
Arianespace declined to comment on whether their trajectories can be corrected.

The satellites Doresa and Milena took off from the Kourou space centre in French Guiana at 1227 GMT Friday after a 24-hour delay because of poor weather. They separated from the mothership to enter into free-flight orbit just under four hours after launch.

"These two satellites are the first of a new type of satellite that are fully owned by the EU, a step towards a fully-fledged European-owned satellite navigation system," said the European Commission, which funds the project.

The 5.4 billion euro (S$8.9 billion) Galileo constellation is designed as an alternative to the existing US Global Positioning System (GPS) and Russia's Glonass, and will have search and rescue capabilities.
Four Galileo satellites have been launched previously - one pair in October 2011 and another a year later.

Europe launches navigation satellites to rival GPS

Two satellites for Europe's Galileo navigation system - a rival to the American GPS - were successfully launched on Friday from Kourou in French Guyana, bringing the number of orbiters in the system to six.

The Galileo constellation is designed to give a competitive alternative to both the US Global Positioning System (GPS) and Russia's Glonass.

By the end of the decade, the system will cost Europe around 10 billion euros once operational and comprise 27 satellites orbiting earth at different altitudes.


French aerospace expert Philippe Baumard said the project would ultimately give Europe a significant strategic and economic edge.

“We’re getting there a bit late, but when it is up and running it will be a far better system than GPS,” Baumard, who is chief scientist at France's High Council for Strategic Education and Research, told FRANCE 24 on Friday.

“It has much better precision and the 10 billion euro price tag will be very cost effective,” he said, adding that Galileo represented a massive step forward from GPS which is “based on Cold War technology”.

One advantage of Galileo over GPS and Glonass, Baumard explained, is that having satellites orbiting at different altitudes will allow the system to pinpoint altitude – which GPS can’t do – bringing huge benefits to the global aerospace industry.

Galileo will also allow people to use connected devices within buildings, he said, leading to the development of new commercial applications, “although precisely what these will be has yet to be established”.

Less reliance on US satellite intelligence

Europe will finally have its own military satellite capabilities, Baumard added, bringing an end to the West’s reliance on US satellite intelligence.

“In conflicts we always have to rely on American satellite imagery,” Baumard explained. “They don’t release those images unless it is completely in their own interests. All that is going to change.”

Four Galileo satellites have already been launched – two in October 2011 and a second pair a year later.

The launch of the latest two orbiters, dubbed SAT 5 and SAT 6, had been delayed for over a year due to what the European Space Agency (ESA) described as "technical difficulties in the setting up of the production line and test tools".

Arianespace said Thursday it had signed a deal with the ESA to launch 12 more satellites "from 2015 onwards".

The ESA has previously said that 18 satellites should be able to provide initial navigation services to users "by mid-decade", with full services "scheduled for 2020".

In March last year, the ESA said Galileo's first four test satellites had passed a milestone by pinpointing their first ground location with an accuracy of between 10 and 15 metres.

http://www.france24.com/en/20140822-europe-galileo-navigation-satellites-rival-gps/
22/8/14
--
-

Δευτέρα 11 Αυγούστου 2014

Roscosmos suggests starting the creation of moon base elements and exploration robots

MOSCOW, August 11, /ITAR-TASS/. Russia's moon exploration plans have found reflection in a draft Federal Space Programme (FSP) for a 2016-2025 period, worked by the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos). The draft FSP envisions that already in 2018 work will be started to develop the elements of a moon base and special-purpose technology that will be required for building it, the newspaper Izvestia writes referring to the document a copy of which it has available.

Izvestia quotes the draft Programme as pointing out that "The 'Manned Flights' avenue of research includes projects to bring into being an on-ground development complex as the prototype of a first-phase moon base consisting of four modules (habitation, laboratory, power, and modernised node) for comprehensive linkage and verification of the adopted architectural and technical solutions".

The draft Programme also presupposes that a mobile manipulator crane, a grader, an excavator, a cablelayer, and a mobile robot for lunar surface exploration will be created and tested for building a luna base.

According to the newspaper's data, the financing of a number of research and experimental design operations at the moon base is supposed to be started in 2018. In all, Roscosmos requests the allocation of 10.37 billion roubles within a period till 2025 inclusive for the implementation of the works.

Roscosmos staff prefer not to comment on the FSP, the paper specifies.
  • It was Vice-Premier Dmitry Rogozin who stated in April of the current year that Russia, in prospect, intends to start the colonization of the Moon.
A source at the United Space Rocket Corporation told Izvestia that it is too early now to comment on detailed contents of the draft FSP, for the document is yet to be edited.
http://en.itar-tass.com/non-political/744354
11/8/14
--
-
Related:
 

Τρίτη 5 Αυγούστου 2014

Soviet-era satellite burns up in atmosphere after 34 years of service

The Kosmos-1151, a Soviet-era satellite appears to have burned up upon reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere, Russian Aerospace Defense Forces spokesman Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin said Tuesday.

“The data analysis … has proven that the Kosmos-1151 spacecraft left its orbit,” Zolotukhin said.


According to experts, parts of the satellite burned up in the dense layers of atmosphere over the Antarctic.

The Kosmos-1151 was launched into orbit on January 23, 1980. The expected lifetime of a satellite in orbit is about half a year.

[indian.ruvr.ru]
5/8/14
--
-
Related:

Οι νεκροί Έλληνες στα μακεδονικά χώματα σάς κοιτούν με οργή

«Παριστάνετε τα "καλά παιδιά" ελπίζοντας στη στήριξη του διεθνή παράγοντα για να παραμείνετε στην εξουσία», ήταν η κατηγορία πο...