Tag: european space agency

ESA Astronaut Candidates for Artemis II Lunar Mission Announced: All Details

The European Space Agency announced a team of seven astronauts on Wednesday to train for NASA’s Artemis mission to the moon — but only one will have the chance to become the first European to walk on the lunar surface.

The candidates — France’s Thomas Pesquet, Britain’s Tim Peake, Germany’s Alexander Gerst and Matthias Maurer, Italy’s Luca Parmitano and Samantha Cristoforetti, and Denmark’s Andreas Mogensen — have all completed at least one mission on board the International Space Station.

Between them, the team has the equivalent of 4.5 years in orbit and 98 hours of spacewalking, ESA communications head Philippe Willekens told journalists at the International Astronautical Congress in Paris.

Three of the astronauts will be selected to go to the Lunar Gateway, a planned station that will orbit the moon.

But only one will set foot on the moon by the end of the decade. At some point, the ESA will have to decide which of the seven candidates will get to go.

“We’re all candidates and what matters is to go there as a team,” Pesquet told reporters at the event in Paris.

“Look, we’re all wearing the same shirt,” he added. Pesquet, Gerst, Maurer and Parmitano all attended wearing a navy blue polo shirt with ESA and Artemis logos.

Cristoforetti had to video call in from space, where she is currently onboard the ISS after becoming the first European woman to embark on a spacewalk outside the station in July.

Mogensen also spoke over video as he prepares for his own tour onboard the ISS.

Something inspiring for Europe

The launch of the first Artemis mission, which is uncrewed and aims to test out a new rocket system and Orion capsule, has been delayed several times due to technical glitches including a fuel leak. NASA is now targeting September 27 for launch.

The next mission, Artemis 2, will take astronauts to the Moon without landing on its surface, while the third — aiming to launch in 2025 — will see the first people set foot on the moon since 1972.

The ESA is providing the European Service Module on the Orion capsule.

“During this decade, three ESA astronauts will fly to the Lunar Gateway — our permanent station we’re building around the moon,” David Parker, ESA’s director of human and robotic exploration, told AFP.

“And if all that goes well, by the end of this decade we’ll be ready to send the first European astronaut to the moon,” he added.

Putting a European on the moon would be “something inspiring for Europe, a strong signal to say that ‘here we are, taking our place in the space world, in a cooperative way’,” Pesquet said.

“With a European on the moon, I hope that a united Europe will become more of a reality that it is today,” Maurer said.

Despite deep divisions between Russia and the West over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, on Wednesday a US astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts blasted off to the ISS on a Russian-operated flight.

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Astronaut Explains “Intriguing Sight” of Bright Dot Spotted on Earth From Space

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) recently shared an “intriguing” daylight sight of a bright dot in the middle of a desert on Earth. “A bright dot in the Negev desert…so unusual to see human-made lights in day passes!” European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti tweeted while sharing three photos showing a distant white speck against a brown landscape. 

In the caption, Ms Cristoforetti explained a bit about its origin. “It’s a concentrated solar power plant, one of the technologies to get renewable energy from the sun. with one of the world’s tallest solar power towers,” she said. 

Take a look below: 

As per CNET, the bright dot was visible because of the Ashalim Solar Thermal Power Station, which uses mirrors to concentrate sunlight to an 820-feet-tall tower in the Negev desert of Israel. This tower is considered one of the world’s tallest solar power towers. It is big enough to create the noticeable dot of light that Ms Cristoforetti spotted from the ISS. 

Here’s an image from 2020 of what it looks like from a little closer to the ground: 

Ms Cristoforetti also added the hashtag #MissionMinerva to her post. Minerva is the name of her second expedition to the ISS. According to the ESA website, Ms Cristoforetti first flew to the Station in 2014 for her Italian Space Agency ASI-sponsored mission ‘Futura’.

Earlier this year, she was again launched on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft from Florida as part of Crew-4 in order to serve as lead for all US Orbital Segment (USOS) operations. 

Meanwhile, since being shared, Ms Cristoforetti’s tweet has taken the internet by storm. Commenting on the post, one user wrote, “A light of hope for our environment”. Another said, “Difficult to see from your photos, but easier once zoomed in.  I’d bet its really easy to pick out in person though. Probably sparkles like a star on earth.” “Very impressive,” commented third. “what a view!” said fourth. 



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Elon Musk’s SpaceX in Talks With ESA to Allow Temporary Use of Its Launchers

The European Space Agency (ESA) has begun preliminary technical discussions with Elon Musk’s SpaceX that could lead to the temporary use of its launchers after the Ukraine conflict blocked Western access to Russia’s Soyuz rockets.

The private American competitor to Europe’s Arianespace has emerged as a key contender to plug a temporary gap alongside Japan and India, but final decisions depend on the still unresolved timetable for Europe’s delayed Ariane 6 rocket.

“I would say there are two and a half options that we’re discussing. One is SpaceX that is clear. Another one is possibly Japan,” ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher told Reuters.

“Japan is waiting for the inaugural flight of its next-generation rocket. Another option could be India,” he added in an interview.

“SpaceX I would say is the more operational of those and certainly one of the backup launches we are looking at.”

Aschbacher said talks remained at an exploratory phase and any backup solution would be temporary.

“We of course need to make sure that they are suitable. It’s not like jumping on a bus,” he said. For example, the interface between satellite and launcher must be suitable and the payload must not be compromised by unfamiliar types of launch vibration.

“We are looking into this technical compatibility but we have not asked for a commercial offer yet. We just want to make sure that it would be an option in order to make a decision on asking for a firm commercial offer,” Aschbacher said.

SpaceX did not reply to a request for comment.

The political fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has already been a boon for SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which has swept up other customers severing ties with Moscow’s increasingly isolated space sector.

Satellite internet firm OneWeb, a competitor to SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet venture, booked at least one Falcon 9 launch in March. It has also booked an Indian launch.

On Monday, Northrop Grumman booked three Falcon 9 missions to ferry NASA cargo to the International Space Station while it designs a new version of its Antares rocket, whose Russian-made engines were withdrawn by Moscow in response to sanctions.

Wake-up call

Europe has until now depended on the Italian Vega for small payloads, Russia’s Soyuz for medium ones and the Ariane 5 for heavy missions. Its next-generation Vega C staged a debut last month and the new Ariane 6 has been delayed until next year.

Aschbacher said a more precise Ariane 6 schedule would be clearer in October. Only then would ESA finalise a backup plan to be presented to ministers of the agency’s 22 nations in November.

“But yes, the likelihood of the need for backup launches is high,” he said. “The order of magnitude is certainly a good handful of launches that we would need interim solutions for.”

Aschbacher said the Ukraine conflict had demonstrated Europe’s decade-long cooperation strategy with Russia in gas supplies and other areas including space was no longer working.

“This was a wake-up call, that we have been too dependent on Russia. And this wake-up call, we have to hope that decision-makers realise it as much as I do, that we have to really strengthen our European capability and independence.”

However, he played down the prospect of Russia carrying out a pledge to withdraw from the International Space Station (ISS).

Russia’s newly appointed space chief Yuri Borisov said in a televised meeting with President Vladimir Putin last month that Russia would withdraw from the ISS “after 2024”.

But Borisov later clarified that Russia’s plans had not changed and Western officials said Russia’s space agency had not communicated any new pullout plans.

“The reality is that operationally, the work on the space station is proceeding, I would say almost nominally,” Aschbacher told Reuters. “We do depend on each other, like it or not, but we have little choice.”

© Thomson Reuters 2022

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NASA’s James Webb Telescope Damaged After Being Hit By Space Rock: Report

The world’s largest and most powerful space telescope by NASA, James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), has suffered massive damage from an asteroid strike in May. 

The telescope was built by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). It is made up of precious technology and it carries one of the largest mirrors on a space telescope in order to observe phenomena and events in space previously inaccessible to the world. 

For the telescope to fulfil this ambition, it is required that the JWST remains operational for years to come. However, concerns are now being raised over the longevity of the project as it was revealed that an asteroid strike in May 2022 might have left the telescope in worse shape than previously understood. 

As per Forbes, a group of scientists outlined the performance of the space telescope. They reported problems that “cannot be corrected”. Writing about the projected lifetime of the Webb telescope, the researchers said, “At present, the largest source of uncertainty is long-term effects of micrometeoroid impacts that slowly degrade the primary mirror.”

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The scientists informed that since the launch, the Webb telescope has been struck by six micrometeorites. While five of the meteorites did a negligible amount of damage, a sixth caused some damage to the JWST. 

Providing more information regarding the asteroid strike, the researchers said, “The micrometeoroid which hit segment C3 in the period 22—24 May 2022 UT caused a significant uncorrectable change in the overall figure of that segment. However, the effect was small at the full telescope level because only a small portion of the telescope area was affected.” 

Notably, as the damage has taken place on one of the panels, it will not impact the Webb telescope’s image-taking abilities at all. However, as per the outlet, the engineers who designed Webb know that its mirrors and sun-shield will unavoidably slowly degrade from micrometeoroid impacts. 

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Moreover, scientists also expect Webb’s detectors to be gradually damaged by charged particles. They believe that its sun-shield and innovative five-layer insulation will degrade from space weathering. Since its mirror is exposed to space, the researchers also said that micrometeoroid strikes are difficult for Webb to avoid.

The $9.7 billion space telescope was launched on Christmas Day in 2021. Earlier this month, NASA revealed the first of many images that it captured of deep space.

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