Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Sweden reaches the moon.
February 28
SMART-1: Reporting For Scientific Lunar Duty
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) SMART-1 spacecraft reached its operational orbit on February 27. The probe’s electric propulsion engine has been switched off.
This week will be used to determine the exact whereabouts of the ESA lunar orbiter as it circuits the Moon, along with instrument checkout and calibration – all in preparation for an extensive lunar science data collecting phase, said Bernard Foing, Chief Scientist for ESA’s science program.
ESA's SMART-1 mission was extended by one year, pushing back the mission end date from August 2005 to August 2006.
The European spacecraft is expecting company around the Moon. Probes from Japan, India, China, as well as from the United States are under development. “We hope that SMART-1 will indeed serve as precursor to the new lunar exploration fleet,” Foing added.
SMART-1’s electric thruster has worked very well, exceeding its specifications, noted Sven Grahn, Vice President Engineering & Corporate Communications for the Swedish Space Corporation, the prime contractor for SMART-1.
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The space race is entering a new phase, in which travel between planets is still out of reach for individuals and corporations, but any developed nation can play.
The ion drive, ten times more efficient than rocket fuel, is the other big news of this flight. 10,000 mpg.
In other space news,
Ciftcioglu, a Universities Space Research Association researcher at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, reported that nanobacteria were found to multiply five times faster in microgravity compared to normal gravity on Earth. The finding supports earlier discoveries that microbes have radically different behavior in weightless environments.
OK, not just developed nations: the university of alaska has a space program.
Poker Flats rocket field has been the site of several thousand rocket launches for NASA. A 70 foot rocket crashed and burned the other day, 28 miles up. It would have gone 500 miles into space. Strange that we hear so little about this.
February 28
SMART-1: Reporting For Scientific Lunar Duty
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) SMART-1 spacecraft reached its operational orbit on February 27. The probe’s electric propulsion engine has been switched off.
This week will be used to determine the exact whereabouts of the ESA lunar orbiter as it circuits the Moon, along with instrument checkout and calibration – all in preparation for an extensive lunar science data collecting phase, said Bernard Foing, Chief Scientist for ESA’s science program.
ESA's SMART-1 mission was extended by one year, pushing back the mission end date from August 2005 to August 2006.
The European spacecraft is expecting company around the Moon. Probes from Japan, India, China, as well as from the United States are under development. “We hope that SMART-1 will indeed serve as precursor to the new lunar exploration fleet,” Foing added.
SMART-1’s electric thruster has worked very well, exceeding its specifications, noted Sven Grahn, Vice President Engineering & Corporate Communications for the Swedish Space Corporation, the prime contractor for SMART-1.
--
The space race is entering a new phase, in which travel between planets is still out of reach for individuals and corporations, but any developed nation can play.
The ion drive, ten times more efficient than rocket fuel, is the other big news of this flight. 10,000 mpg.
In other space news,
Ciftcioglu, a Universities Space Research Association researcher at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, reported that nanobacteria were found to multiply five times faster in microgravity compared to normal gravity on Earth. The finding supports earlier discoveries that microbes have radically different behavior in weightless environments.
OK, not just developed nations: the university of alaska has a space program.
Poker Flats rocket field has been the site of several thousand rocket launches for NASA. A 70 foot rocket crashed and burned the other day, 28 miles up. It would have gone 500 miles into space. Strange that we hear so little about this.
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