News ESA's Future: The News and Updates Thread

[kuddel]

Space Rider? That completely went under my radar
...can you provide some good read on that?
Thanks,

 

[Urwumpe]

Space Rider? That completely went under my radar
...can you provide some good read on that?
Thanks,

Its the IXV in larger.



https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Transportation/IXV/IXV_spacecraft


https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Transportation/Space_Rider

 

[MaverickSawyer]

So... An unclassified counterpart to the X-37B?

 

[Urwumpe]

So... An unclassified counterpart to the X-37B?

More like a Fiat 500 for space.

 

[Notebook]

Does any one have any comments on the new ESA website format?

It seems to have a lot of white-space and a large range of font sizes.
To me its more difficult to read, maybe for phones and tablets?

 

[Urwumpe]

To me its more difficult to read, maybe for phones and tablets?

Yes - looks like it. Still a rather poor use of space.

 

[4throck]

Yes, mobile only. Less work this way, they only have to think about one layout.

As for the Space Rider I'd like to see a mini Hermes fly (and of course land at the Azores).

 

[Notebook]

The Orion spacecraft with European Service Module at NASA’s Plum Brook Station. The first Orion will fly farther from Earth on the Artemis I mission than any human-rated vehicle has ever flown before – but first it will undergo testing to ensure the spacecraft withstands the extremes of spaceflight.

http://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2019/12/Thermal_enclosure_for_Orion

 

[Notebook]

ESA commissions world’s first space debris removal

http://www.esa.int/Safety_Security/Clean_Space/ESA_commissions_world_s_first_space_debris_removal

 

[Notebook]

Ariane 5’s first launch of 2020 has delivered two telecom satellites, Konnect and GSAT-30, into their planned transfer orbits. Arianespace announced liftoff at 21:05 GMT (22:05 CET, 18:05 local time) this evening from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

http://www.esa.int/Applications/Tel...cations/First_Spacebus_Neo_satellite_launched



https://videos.space.com/m/ieS3yzdN...-eutelsat-and-indian-satellites?list=9wzCTV4g

 

[Notebook]

ESA opens oxygen plant – making air out of moondust

www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_...opens_oxygen_plant_making_air_out_of_moondust

A prototype oxygen plant has been set up in the Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory of the European Space Research and Technology Centre, ESTEC, based in Noordwijk in the Netherlands.

Oxygen and metal from lunar regolith
“Having our own facility allows us to focus on oxygen production, measuring it with a mass spectrometer as it is extracted from the regolith simulant,” Beth Lomax of the University of Glasgow, whose PhD work is being supported through ESA’s Networking and Partnering Initiative, harnessing advanced academic research for space applications.

 

[Notebook]

ESA does Orbits:

www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Transportation/Types_of_orbits

 

[kuddel]

Interesting....Now that's their secret

 

[Notebook]

Kerbal includes Ariane 5 and real ESA missions for gamers

http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Partnerships/Kerbal_includes_Ariane_5_and_real_ESA_missions_for_gamers

 

[Fabri91]

http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Partnerships/Kerbal_includes_Ariane_5_and_real_ESA_missions_for_gamers

Neat!

 

[Notebook]

The European Space Agency has asked the aerospace company Airbus to build another service module for the Americans' Orion crew capsule.
This contract, worth around €250m (£225m), is particularly noteworthy, however.
That's because the hardware will be part of the mission that returns astronauts to the Moon's surface for the first time in 52 years.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52782479

 

[Urwumpe]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52782479

Oh, just a small contract, pretty much a formality. First people on the moon, you say?



:bananadance: :banana: :woohoo: :hotcool:

 

[Notebook]

Wishful thinking on ESA part. Maybe a few missions on. Can't see any but USA citizens getting on the first.
At least they all get on the surface.

 

[Notebook]

ESA Posters
ESA / About Us / ESA Publications
Did you know a selection of our most iconic and eye-catching space posters are available in an A3 print-ready format? Choose from our Space Security series, which includes posters on space weather, asteroids and safety in space. Or check out our collection celebrating 40 years of the Ariane launcher and ESA’s Columbus space laboratory. We’ve also got ESA’s ‘four pillars’ posters highlighting our key areas of space activity, as well as the ‘This is ESA’ illustration of ESA’s history and future in space. These posters are free to download, just click the links below.

http://www.esa.int/About_Us/ESA_Publications/ESA_Posters

 

[Urwumpe]

Wishful thinking on ESA part. Maybe a few missions on. Can't see any but USA citizens getting on the first.
At least they all get on the surface.

With Trump? We can be glad if the thing will ever really get off the ground. Sure as hell no ESA astronaut on the first moon landings, maybe one on the last.



With a mentally healthy president? Depends on the crew size, but having two US astronauts and one ESA astronaut on the surface sounds feasible for negotiations. It would just cost us a few more bucks as we planned. Three US and one ESA would be even easier to negotiate.



But personally, I would prefer we would go the "Moon Village" path, define an open architecture and focus on the goal, not on the way how to get there.



Buy US capsules or Russian capsules, if no European company will offer such services. Even Chinese, who cares? It isn't that important. What is important is paving the way. Create infrastructure, that lasts. Don't go to the moon once - Keep on going, keep on learning, never stop living and learning in space. Ask the Africans, if they like to go the way with us, they are our southern neighbors after all. Right now, nothing would be worse than leaving space to nationalist dystopias. It's our space, too. Of every one of us.