Where you want to go depends on where you are. And if you've got a GPS system in your hands, and the most accurate clock ever sent into space overhead, you'll always know exactly where you are. ESA's GIOVE-B satellite blasted into space on Sunday, taking the next step for the deployment of a European satellite navigation system.
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Space junk, space debris, space waste — call it what you want, but just as junk and waste cause problems here on Earth, in space spent booster stages, nuts and bolts from ISS construction, various accidental discards such as spacesuit gloves and cameras, and fragments from exploded spacecraft could turn into a serious problem for the future of spaceflight if actions to mitigate the threat are not taken now. The European Space Operations Centre has put together some startling images highlighting this issue. Above is a depiction of the trackable objects in orbit around Earth in low Earth orbit (LEO–the fuzzy cloud around Earth), geostationary Earth orbit (GEO — farther out, approximately 35,786 km (22,240 miles) above Earth) and all points in between.
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In February, the Universe Today followed the sad tale about a dead US satellite called US-193, lifelessly floating around in orbit, possibly threatening the world by dumping hazardous fuel onto a city somewhere. This was the perfect time for the US Navy to launch their Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) into space, smashing US-193 to tiny bits. It worked and it worked well.
Although we've seen loads of pictures of the rocket being launched, and the pinpoint accuracy it accomplished by detonating in low Earth orbit, but what technology goes into the actual warhead that takes out the satellite? Well, in an article just published, images of an older generation "Kinetic Energy" anti-satellite weapon are on display. And to be honest, it doesn't look that scary…
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On the March 24th, a story hit the web from Brazil asking for help identifying a mysterious-looking sphere found in farmland. The black, shiny object appeared to be wrapped in fibrous material and it was hot to the touch. Immediately thoughts of extra-terrestrial origin came to mind…
Today, several news sources covered the discovery of a mysterious spherical object found in the Australian outback last year. The farmer who made the discovery has only just started to make enquiries into what the object actually is.
So are the two objects connected in some way? Are they indeed from outer space?
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What if there was a Pearl Harbour-like, pre-emptive strike against orbiting satellites? What if our quarrels on the ground spill into space? This is no longer a storyline for the next sci-fi movie, early warning systems are currently being developed to defend satellites, low Earth orbit satellites are being quickly and accurately shot down by the US and China, plus satellite technology is becoming more and more valuable as a strategic target. Like all wars there is a losing side, but in the event of a war in space, we'll all be losers.
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Sending quantum information in the form of qubits (quantum bits) have been successfully carried out for years. Firing indecipherable packets of quantum data (or quantum states) via photons can however degrade the message as the photons travel through the dense atmosphere. Also, the distance of transmitting data is severely hindered by other factors such as the curvature of the Earth. Now, for the first time, Italian scientists have carried out a successful mock single-photon exchange between Earth and a satellite orbiting at an altitude of 1485 km. Although transmission may be restricted here on Earth, the use of satellites will greatly increase the range of such a system, possibly beginning an era of long-distance quantum communication with space.
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Jim Oberg has written a very interesting article at MSNBC.com, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the launch of mankind’s fourth artificial satellite, Vanguard 1. While it is no longer functioning or communicating, it is the oldest satellite still in orbit. Jim says, “Vanguard 1 was the first artificial earth satellite powered by solar cells, and its small suite of instruments provided unprecedented information on Earth's size and shape, air density and temperature ranges, and the micrometeorite density in space. Tracking its orbit helped geophysicists realize that Earth is not round but slightly pear-shaped, with a slight, symmetric equatorial bulge.”
Jim has a lot of good history included in the article, but most intriguing, Jim reports Vanguard 1 could become the first satellite brought home, for museum display, by a new generation of robotic space vehicles. That would be incredible! Such an attempt would be a demonstration of robotic space vehicles’ capabilty, in addition to providing an Earth orbit (and highly exciting) version of retrieving Gus Grissom’s Liberty Bell 7 from the ocean floor. Do check out Jim's article.
Jim Oberg, of course, is a noted journalist, author, linguist (sorry, inside joke) and space consultant for NBC News.
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Just a quick piece of sad news. SES Americom reported that its AMC-14 satellite failed to reach its orbit on Saturday after it was launched by a Russian Proton Breeze-M rocket. Despite the failure, though, there might be hope that the satellite will be broadcasting HD television eventually.
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The shoot down of US spy satellite USA 193 was condemned by some quarters of the international community. However, the fact remains, this was a resounding success for the US military. Observers of the operation to destroy the potentially dangerous satellite likened it to "trying to fire a missile through the eye of a needle". After all, the dead satellite was orbiting at a height of about 250 km, and the satellite-killing missile was fired from a boat; assuring impact with an object the size of a small bus was never going to be easy. But the mission was a success and the satellite disintegrated into bits (no bigger than a football). Now the task of tracking the debris is under way, and the fallout from last months fireworks are impacting the scheduled launch of other space missions…
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The UK is the only G8 country (the eight richest countries in the world) without a manned space program. 20 years ago, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher put pay to any hope for a British astronaut by opting out of plans citing it as "too expensive" for the island nation. However, the UK government signalled last month they were considering a review of this space exploration policy, receiving a mixed reaction. A prominent satellite manufacturer has come forward with a suggestion that the UK may after all be better suited to constructing a space exploration "infrastructure" and leaving manned exploration to the ESA and NASA…
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The zero-gravity of Earth orbit is a massive attraction to developers of new technologies. This highly controlled environment removes one of the key forces acting on experiments here on Earth, therefore allowing new techniques to be tried out. Although it can be great to get a highly sensitive experiment to test new technologies into orbit, the experiments must also be robust enough to cope with the massive forces and vibrations during a rocket launch into space.
The US Naval Academy has announced that two new technologies have succeeded in orbital experiments on board the MidSTAR-1 satellite, signifying these new high-tech methods can indeed be carried out in space, and as an added bonus, they may have revolutionary applications down here on Earth…
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Kessler Syndrome could be a frightening situation for space travel. No, it's not a health risk to the human body in zero-G and it's not a psychological disorder for astronauts spending too much time from home. Kessler Syndrome is the point at which space travel becomes impossible without hitting into a piece of space junk, jeopardizing missions and risking lives. In extreme predictions, space debris from our constant littering of low Earth orbit, collisions between bits of rubbish may become more and more frequent, causing a catastrophic cascade of debris multiplying exponentially, falling through the atmosphere and making space impassable.
In the meanwhile, space mission controllers must be acutely aware that there could be an odd bolt or piece of old satellite flying toward their spaceship at velocities faster than the fastest rifle shot. Spare a thought for the space debris trackers as they try to keep a record of the 9,000+ pieces of junk currently orbiting our planet… but wait a minute, Google Earth can give us a ringside seat!
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Officials have confirmed that the US spy satellite, USA 193, has been hit by an anti-satellite missile fired from USS Lake Erie positioned west of the Hawaiian Islands in the mid-Pacific at 10.30pm (US Eastern Time) Wednesday night. Fears of the propellant hydrazine being released into the atmosphere prompted the military response. Although plans for the missile strike were hampered by bad weather, the launch appears to have gone ahead regardless.
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The US Navy is planning to shoot down a dead spy satellite that broke down shortly after it was launched in December 2006. Not only are there fears that the large satellite could survive re-entry through the Earth's atmosphere causing damage and perhaps fatalities, the satellite is also carrying the poisonous hydrazine propellant that could be a health risk if inhaled. Therefore plans are afoot to destroy the craft in orbit rather than letting it fall to Earth some time late February or early March.
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After all the excitement surrounding the possibility of asteroid 2007 WD5 hitting Mars and the concern of Near Earth Asteroid 2007 TU24 dropping to Earth, we now have something new (and manmade) to worry about. A US spy satellite has lost power and its orbit has begun to degrade. Officials are sketchy about the details, but the large satellite could survive the burn of re-entry and crash into the surface… but we don't know where. The satellite might contain dangerous materials… but we can't be sure. Either way, the dead spy satellite is expected to drop to Earth late February or early March.
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On Saturday night, the largest US rocket blasted off, carrying a 2.3 tonne Defense Support Program satellite into orbit. This was the second time a Delta IV-Heavy rocket has ever lifted off. With three core boosters strapped together, it's like three rockets launched at once.
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Saturn's moon Enceladus is one of the most peculiar objects in the Solar System. We now know there are geysers of water ice blasting from its southern pole; a place marked with long gashes that researchers have dubbed "tiger stripes". Ever since the geysers were first discovered, scientists have been puzzling out their source. Now they understand how the geysers and tiger stripes are linked.
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An Ariane 5 rocket blasted off its launch pad on Friday, October 5, carrying two telecommunications satellites into orbit. The rocket lifted off at 22:02 UTC, and the satellites were put into their geostationary transfer orbits 30 minutes later.
The two satellites were the Intelsat 11, which will provide broadcast and data communications services to Latin America, and the Optus D2, which will serve Australia and New Zealand. The payload mass for the two satellites was 4832 kg.
This was the fourth launch of the year for the Ariane rocket.
Original Source: ESA News Release
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Come on, admit it, you've spent hours gazing at Google Maps and Google Earth, finding your house, school, and seeing what various building and features look like from space. And after today's launch of DigitalGlobe's WorldView-1, the resolution is going to get even better. In fact, it's going to have the highest resolution permitted by the US government to be installed on a commercial satellite - half a metre (20 inches).
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Two satellites were carried into space Tuesday evening, atop a massive Ariane 5 rocket, which blasted off from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. The rocket lifted off at 23:44 UTC, and the satellites were put into their geosynchronous transfer orbits 30 minutes later.
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Okay, shift your eyes into the infrared, and then look up into the night sky. What? You can't see in infrared? Ah well, you'll have to just enjoy this photograph of the entire sky, seen by the Japanese AKARI probe.
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NASA has Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra to cover visible, ultraviolet, infrared and X-ray portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The next wavelength to get its own space telescope is gamma rays. When NASA's Gamma ray Large Area Telescope (GLAST) launches in December, there will be a powerful new observatory in space, capturing more gamma rays than any space observatory to date.
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Launching a spacecraft is a big investment. If anything goes wrong, you've got hundreds of millions of dollars of junk in space. And even if the spacecraft is working perfectly, but just runs out of fuel, its communications equipment can't be directed at the Earth properly.
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Science@NASA has a cool article about how US and Japanese researchers are working on a folding tether system that could help keep satellites in their proper orbits, and return spent rocket stages to Earth.
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Here's a launch that went almost unnoticed. An Israeli military spy satellite blasted off on Monday morning from the Palmachim Air Force Base. This is a locally-designed and built rocket and satellite, launched completely unannounced. There isn't much known about the satellite, Ofeq-7, except that it's in low-Earth orbit, and will replace the aging Ofeq-5 spy satellite. Coy military officials implied that the satellite could be used to keep an eye on Iran's military ambitions.
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