Tag Archives: ESAs

ESA’s Solar orbiter just got smacked by a coronal mass ejection

September 5, 2022 Admin Leave a comment

The sun-exploring Solar Orbiter spacecraft came face to face with a massive eruption of plasma from the sun, just ahead of a pivotal flyby of Venus.

An enormous coronal mass ejection (CME), a burst of charged particles from the sun’s upper atmosphere, the corona, shot out from the sun on Aug. 30 in the direction of Venus. Shortly after that, the bubble of solar material reached Solar Orbiter, which was just preparing for its latest orbital flyby of the second planet of the solar system.

Fortunately, the ESA-NASA observatory is designed to measure the very kind of violent outburst it just encountered and thus could withstand the solar assault with ease.

The spacecraft carries 10 science instruments to observe the sun’s surface and collect data on CMEs, the solar wind and the sun’s magnetic field. Some of these instruments were turned off during the close approach to Venus, due to the potential risk from sunlight bouncing off the highly reflective Venusian atmosphere, ESA said in a statement.

Related: The sun as you’ve never seen it: European probe snaps closest-ever photo of our star

The powerful coronal mass ejection that hit Solar Orbiter ahead of its Venus flyby seen in this image from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft. (Image credit: ESA/NASA SOHO)

Solar Orbiter was, however, able to collect some valuable measurements of its environment during the CME encounter, detecting an increase in energetic solar particles. Violent solar events see particles such as protons, electrons and even ionized helium atoms hurled from the sun and accelerated to near relativistic speeds. Such particles pose a radiation risk to astronauts and can damage spacecraft. Understanding their movements and behavior in space will therefore be valuable for protecting life and technology on Earth and in space.

The spacecraft later successfully made its close approach to Venus at 01:26 GMT Sept. 4 (9:26 p.m. EDT Sept. 3).

“The close approach went exactly to plan, thanks to a great deal of planning from our colleagues in Flight Dynamics and the diligent care of the Flight Control Team,” Jose-Luis Pellon-Bailon, Solar Orbiter Operations Manager, said in the statement.

The close approach was primarily intended to allow Solar Orbiter to change its orbit to take it closer to the sun. During the flyby, however, the probe also made bonus observations of Venus’s mysterious magnetic field.

Solar Orbiter launched in 2020 and is two-and-a-half years into its decade-long mission to image the sun from the closest ever distance and study the properties of the star’s magnetic field. The spacecraft uses Venus’s gravity to alter and tilt its orbit out of the ecliptic plane, in which planets orbit. These visits to Venus will eventually enable Solar Orbiter to make the first-ever observations of the sun’s unexplored poles, which are key to driving the star’s 11-year cycle of activity, the ebb and flow in the generation of sunspots, flares and eruptions that affect space weather around Earth.

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ESA’s Solar Orbiter Spacecraft Is Skimming Earth for a Gravity Assist – And It’s One of the Riskiest Planetary Flybys Ever

November 27, 2021 Admin Leave a comment

Artist’s impression of Solar Orbiter making a flyby at Earth. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

The chance that ESA’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft will encounter space debris during its upcoming Earth flyby is very, very low. However, the risk is not zero and is greater than any other flyby ESA has performed. That there is this risk at all highlights the mess we’ve made of space – and why we need to take action to clean up after ourselves.

On November 27, after a year and eight months flying through the inner Solar System, Solar Orbiter will swing by home to ‘drop off’ some extra energy. This will line the spacecraft up for its next six flybys of

During the upcoming flyby, Solar Orbiter is estimated to pass just 460 km from Earth’s surface at its closest approach – about 30 kilometers above the path of the International Space Station. It will travel twice through the Geostationary ring at 36 000 kilometers from Earth’s surface and even through low-Earth orbit, below 2000 kilometers – two regions littered with space junk. Credit: ESA

How risky? It’s all relative

Before we worry too much, let’s start by pointing out that the chance of Solar Orbiter being struck by debris is very, very, very small. Earth observation missions spend their entire life in low-Earth orbit – the most debris-filled region of space, and while they perform ‘collision avoidance maneuvers’ a few times per year, Solar Orbiter will spend only a few minutes here as it heads towards closest approach and then leaves again, onward to Venus.

ESA astronaut Tim Peake took this photo from inside Cupola on the International Space Station, showing a 7 mm-diameter circular chip gouged out by the impact from a tiny piece of space debris, possibly a paint flake or small metal fragment no bigger than a few thousandths of a millimeter across. The background just shows the inky blackness of space. Credit: ESA/NASA

However small the risk, collisions with debris at low-Earth altitudes do happen. In 2016, a solar panel on ESA’s Sentinel-1A spacecraft was struck by a particle thought to be less than five millimeters in size. Despite its size, its high relative speed meant it still damaged an area 40-cm across, leading to a small reduction in onboard power and slight changes to the orientation and orbit of the satellite. Hundreds of millions of debris particles this size are currently in orbit.

Hubble, the

In April 2020, BepiColombo flew by Earth with a close approach of 12,500 kilometers. ESA’s Space Debris Office also performed a collision risk analysis for this flyby as the spacecraft passed through Geostationary orbit, although it flew well above the debris-filled low-Earth orbit. Credit: ESA/BepiColombo/MTM, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

While the risk to Solar Orbiter during its upcoming Earth flyby is small, it’s still “non-zero”. It didn’t face this risk as it swung by Venus, nor did ESA’s Space Debris Office have to perform collision risk analysis as BepiColombo recently zipped by Mercury, or when

Space might seem an empty, vast expanse, but satellites in Earth’s orbit face the constant risk of collision – with other satellites, dead or alive, or with fragments of debris. It is now routine for operators of spacecraft in busy highways to divert their mission out of harms way. In fact at ESA, each mission flown performs on average two ‘collision avoidance maneuvers’ per year. These maneuvers are costly. Hours are spent on the ground monitoring the skies, calculating the risk, and planning maneuvers, not to mention the extra fuel spent and missed science and data collected while instruments are turned off. Credit: ESA / UNOOSA

Sometimes, however, as time passes and a close approach beckons, the chance of collision increases. For each of the Sentinel missions in Earth orbit, a collision avoidance maneuver is performed about once every five to six months when the ‘miss distance’ with another object is considered too risky.

For Solar Orbiter, in the unlikely scenario that a maneuver is required to get it out the way of a potential impact, the decision would be made on Thursday 25 November, two days before close approach. It would be performed on Friday 26 November, about six hours before close approach.

All clear?

Once Solar Orbiter comes up from low-Earth orbit and passes above geostationary orbit it is out of the risk zone. This should be about one hour after its minimum distance to Earth.

As the mission zooms off, flying with ever-so-slightly less energy than it arrived with, it and its mission teams will never have to consider space debris again. For missions still in orbit, and for those yet to be launched, the situation in space is becoming ever more worrisome.

After decades of launches, with little thought of what would be done with satellites at the end of their lives, our space environment has become littered with space debris. While Solar Orbiter zips by, passing just momentarily through Earth’s orbital highways, it’s an important reminder that the space debris problem is unique to Earth, of our own making, and ours to clean up.

Watch the video above to find out how ESA is working to prevent further debris from being created and clean up what is already out there.

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ESA’s Solar Orbiter to swing past Earth this week • The Register

November 25, 2021 Admin Leave a comment

Interview ESA’s Solar Orbiter is to undertake a flyby of Earth, requiring a careful assessment of debris as it dips close to the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) ahead of its main science mission.

The flyby is due to take place on the 26 and 27 of November.

The amount of debris on orbit was helpfully increased last week by Russia’s anti-satellite missile demonstration, much to the consternation of NASA and other space agencies.

With the Solar Orbiter due to pass above North Africa and the Canary Islands at its closest approach on 27 November, it has to make it through two regions of potential space debris; geostationary orbit and low earth orbit.

“At 12km/s we’d be a really effective ASAT weapon,” Daniel Lakey, Solar Orbiter spacecraft operations engineer at ESA tells The Reg, in reference to the speed at which the spacecraft will be barrelling along.

The team has already assessed if the first Trajectory Correction Manoeuvre (TCM) – or “TCM-3d” in spacecraft operations speak – needed adjusting. The good news was, following Tuesday’s meeting, it didn’t.

“The ‘default’ guidance profile option executed as planned instead,” he says.

The first TCM window (aka TCM-6h) will occur just before midnight on 26 November, when the spacecraft will be just six hours from its closest approach to Earth.

“For the TCM-6h, FD [Flight Dynamics] will compute a series of alternative trajectories that will be checked by ESA’s Space Debris Office against known objects, who’ll report back on the likelihood of a collision,” says Lakey.

Hopefully all will go well, despite the increasing count of debris around Earth, and an adjustment will not be required. As for what would trigger an all-hands-to-the-pumps moment, “2*10^-5 for TCM-6h,” he says. “If there’s a likelihood of a collision greater than that, a CAM [Collision Avoidance Maneouvre] trajectory will be selected that has a lower chance of a collision and the lowest delta-V requirement.”

If a change is needed to tweak the trajectory, the team will only have a matter of hours to put together the instructions and get them onboard the Solar Orbiter. It is, says Lakey, “about the quickest turnaround we can do.”

“Because we always have a complete ‘chain’ of spacecraft attitude guidance onboard, we need to juggle with the new commands to make sure they don’t clash with the old ones or end up with none at all,” he says. “Both equally bad.”

The trajectory was plotted years ago, and this flyby is required to decrease the energy of the spacecraft ahead of its next closest observation of the Sun.

In Deep Space, debris isn’t something the team is too concerned with, however, now it has jumped to the top of the agenda. ESA has plenty of experience with dodging debris, although Lakey points out: “Unlike our friends next door in the Earth Observation division, things are complicated for us because of the inherent uncertainties in our trajectory and the time needed to process the tracking data.”

“Although they are no doubt wondering why we’re making such a fuss about doing a CAM, seeing as they do them with some regularity these days,” he adds.

And the infamous missile shenanigans in orbit? “Whereas our colleagues in SDO [Space Debris Office] have not had their lives made any easier by the ASAT test, it doesn’t change our plan – we’re somewhat on rails at this point and will be hurtling past Earth at a height of about 450km at 04:30 on the 27th, come what may.”

ESA’s own figures put the altitude at 460km, to which Lakey says: “Flight Dynamics would be able to give an expected value to within some large number of decimal places but it would be relative to the centre of the Earth…”

As for the spacecraft itself, it remains in good health. The team is running well under fuel budget, although if it proves necessary to adjust the delta-V then that margin will start being eaten into. That said, the budget shouldn’t be exceeded, “but ultimately yes, the less we fire the thrusters the less fuel we use.”

The instruments are all collecting science, and the spacecraft is due to dip down to 0.32AU in March. The heat shield has also been performing well, “to the point we have developed a ‘de-icing’ manoeuvre to warm up the backside of the spacecraft,” says Lakey. “Mooning the Sun, if you will.”

Indeed, the mission is packed full of unknowns for ESA and Lakey tells us “there’s a lot to learn about how to fly a spacecraft there.”

The hope is that the mission will get extended. ESA’s Mars Express is, after all, 18 years into a two-year mission (launched in 2003, it was only meant to operate for two years. The mission was recently extended to the end of 2022). This is assuming the Solar Orbiter doesn’t hit anything as it passes Earth.

The team will be at the European Space Operations Centre, “watching the telemetry like hawks,” says Lakey. “We’re used to being hundreds of millions of kilometres away from Earth with long signal propagation delays, so it’s quite novel for us to see the data coming down in real-time.”

“If we had hatches we would be battening them down around now.”

And if the worst should happen? “I don’t think humanity has created any structure that would withstand a debris strike at the speeds we’re going.”

“I prefer not to think about it too much.” ®

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ESA’s Inspector Gadget-Like Robotic Arm Is Headed to the International Space Station

July 7, 2021 Admin Leave a comment

Artist’s depiction of the new arm in action, with an astronaut working on the external control station.

Image: ESA

The European Space Agency is finally ready to deliver its new robotic arm to the International Space Station. The 37-foot-long arm features an array of impressive features, including the ability to work autonomously and “walk” across the exterior of the orbital outpost.

Originally designed to fly on NASA’s Space Shuttle, the European Robotic Arm (ERA) is finally going to space after “two decades of technical and programmatic challenges,” according to the European Space Agency. The arm, along with a new Russian module named Nauka, are scheduled to launch atop a Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on July 15, 2021.

A European consortium led by Airbus Defense and Space in the Netherlands developed the robotic arm for ESA. Airbus designed the arm and its software functions and also tested the system.

Graphic: ESA

The arm, equipped with seven joints (one at the elbow and three on each wrist), measures 37 feet (11.3 meters) in length and has a reach of 31.8 feet (9.7 meters). The two-handed device features a symmetrical design, so there’s no true top or bottom to the arm. Because of this, ERA can “walk” across the ISS exterior, moving hand-over-hand as it travels from one fixed anchor point to another. So it’s basically a large, robotic inchworm capable of working in space.

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ERA is launching with Nauka, also known as the Multipurpose Laboratory Module, and two control stations (one internal and one external). The arm will begin its duties on the new module, becoming the first robotic device to service a Russian segment.

Artist’s impression of the robotic arm.

Image: ESA

On its arrival to the space station, ERM will join Canadarm2 and the Japanese Experiment Module Remote Manipulator System (JEMRMS), neither of which can reach the Russian segment. Incompatible base points and payload mounting units don’t allow Canadarm2 and JEMRMS to function on other parts of the station, according to ESA. ERA’s first tasks will be to set up the airlock and install a radiator inside the new Nauka module.

The versatile arm can be controlled remotely by ISS astronauts or cosmonauts, whether they’re inside or outside the station. ERA has its own internal computer and can perform tasks either fully or semi-autonomously. The tip of each arm is like a Swiss Army Knife, equipped with an electrical power outlet, data bus, video line, and a rotating drive machine.

The arm can work to a precision of 5 millimeters and move loads as heavy as 17,640 pounds (8,000 kg). The ISS crew will use the arm to move payloads, install solar arrays, transport spacewalking astronauts from spot to spot, inspect the station with infrared cameras, and generally assist with jobs outside the station.

Graphic showing the location of the robotic arm and new Russian module.

Image: ESA

The ISS is expected to remain in service until around 2030, but the future of the outpost is in doubt. In early June, Russia’s space chief threatened to leave the station in four years unless the U.S. lifts sanctions that are hurting the country’s space sector. It would be a shame to see the Russians leave, especially given the pending arrival of the new arm and module.

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Perseverance Seen From Space by ESA’s ExoMars Orbiter

March 1, 2021 Admin Leave a comment

A little over a week ago (February 18^th, 2021), NASA’s Perseverance rover landed in the Jezero crater on the surface of Mars. In what was truly a media circus, people from all over the world tuned to watch the live coverage of the rover landing. When Perseverance touched down, it wasn’t just the mission controllers at NASA who triumphantly jumped to their feet to cheer and applaud.

In the days that followed, the world was treated to all kinds of media that showed the surface of Mars and the descent. The most recent comes from the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), which is part of the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars program. From its vantage point, high above the Martian skies, the TGO caught sight of Perseverance in the Jezero crater and acquired images that show the rover and other elements of its landing vehicle.

Since 2016, the TGO has orbited Mars and gathered vital data on the composition of its atmosphere. Specifically, TGO has been looking for traces of atmospheric methane and other gases that could be the result of geological or biological activity. These efforts are part of a larger effort to determine if life existed on Mars billions of years ago (and whether or not it still does).

Image of Perseverance and mission elements, as captured by the orbiter’s CaSSIS camera on Feb. 23rd, 2021. Credit: ESA

In addition, the orbiter has conducted other important scientific operations, like relaying data from robotic missions on the surface and acquiring images of space. On February 23^rd, the TGO took advantage of its orbit to snap pictures with its Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) that showed the Perseverance rover – as well as its parachute, heat shield, and descent stage elements – within the Jezero crater.

In the first image (above), the elements are discernible as a series of dark and bright pixels, which are indicated in the second image (below). As you can see, the descent stage and heatshield are dark spots spaced around two smaller craters while the parachute and backshell are visibly bright spots in close proximity to each other. The Perseverance rover, near the bottom center, is a relatively faint spot by a small ridge leading from one crater.

It is here that Perseverance will spend the next two years (which will likely be extended) searching for signs of past microbial life. Based on its features, which include a preserved river delta and clay-rich sedimentary deposits, the Jezero crater is known to have hosted a standing body of water billions of years ago. For this reason, it was selected as the landing site for the mission, since it is believed to be a good place to find evidence of past life.

Perseverance will also conduct an ambitious and unprecedented operation, where it will collect samples of Martian rocks and soil and set them aside in a cache. These will be returned to Earth by a separate ESA-NASA Mars Sample Return mission that will consist of a lander, a rover (to retrieve the samples), and small launcher (for launching them to orbit). Once there, an orbiter will pick them up and bring them home for analysis.

*Close-up of the images taken by the TGO of Perseverance and mission elements in the Jezero crater. Credit: ESA*

The ExoMars TGO also provided a significant amount of assistance for the Perseverance rover during its landing, such as data relay services. Videos of the landing, as well as imagery and sound recordings, were captured by instruments aboard the rover’s Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) vehicle. These were sent back to Earth with the assistance of the TGO, as well as NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

The orbiter will continue to provide data relay support between Earth and Mars for future missions to the surface, particularly the the next ExoMars mission. Known as ExoMars 2022, this mission will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Sept. 20^th, 2022, and arrive at the Red Planet by June 10^th, 2023. It will consist of the Russian Kazachok surface platform and the Rosalind Franklin rover.

Meanwhile, the Trace Gas Orbiter will continue to orbit Mars and conduct its own science operations, focusing on the analysis of Mars’ atmosphere and the search for gases that point the way towards past (or present) life. Recently, the orbiter detected traces of hydrogen chloride gas leaving the planet’s atmosphere, indicating that this salt exists on the surface which made it to orbit.

On Earth, this process has been observed with sodium chloride salts, where salt water evaporates from our oceans and is pushed into the upper atmosphere by strong winds. The TGO has also monitored water vapor leaving the Martian atmosphere and escaping to space. Together, these findings have provided new clues as to where the abundant surface water Mars had billions of years ago escaped to.

*Orbital picture of the Jezero crater, showing its fossil river delta. Credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL/MSSS/BROWN UNIVERSITY*

Further Reading: ESA

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ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter Spots Perseverance Rover in Jezero Crater | Space Exploration

February 26, 2021 Admin Leave a comment

New images of NASA’s Perseverance rover, along with its parachute, heat shield and descent stage, were captured by the CaSSIS camera aboard ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) on February 23, 2021.

TGO spotted the Perseverance rover, along with its parachute and back shell, heat shield and descent stage, in the Jezero Crater region of Mars. Image credit: ESA / Roscosmos / CaSSIS / A. Valantinas.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover, which landed in Jezero Crater on Mars on February 18, 2021, will address high-priority science goals for Mars exploration.

Developed under NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, it will seek signs of past microbial life and characterize the planet’s climate and geology.

It will also collect samples of Martian rocks and dust for a future Mars Sample Return mission to Earth, while paving the way for human exploration of the Red Planet.

Perseverance, the largest, heaviest robotic Mars rover NASA has built, is based on the Curiosity rover configuration.

It is car-sized, about 3 m (10 feet) long not including the robotic arm, 2.7 m (9 feet) wide and 2.1 m (7 feet) tall. But at 1,025 kg (2,260 pounds), it weighs less than a compact car.

Its robotic arm is equipped with a rotating turret, which includes a rock drill, science instruments and a camera.

TGO spotted the Perseverance rover in Jezero Crater on Mars. Image credit: ESA / Roscosmos / CaSSIS / P. Grindrod.

The TGO spacecraft provided significant data relay services around the landing of Perseverance, including supporting the return of the videos and imagery taken by the mission’s onboard cameras during the descent of the rover to the surface of Mars.

“TGO will continue to provide data relay support between Earth and Mars for NASA’s surface missions, and for the next ExoMars mission, which will see the European Rosalind Franklin rover and Kazachok surface platform arrive at the Red Planet in 2023,” ESA researchers said.

“At the same time, TGO continues its own science mission, focusing on analyzing the planet’s atmosphere with a special emphasis on searching for gases that may be linked to active geological or biological processes.”

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The ESA’s Solar Orbiter snaps unreal images of four planets at the same time

January 30, 2021 Admin Leave a comment

We truly live on the cusp of a remarkable new era of space exploration, with SpaceX rockets rumbling almost every month and international probes spread out around the Milky Way capturing wondrous images of asteroids, comets, planets, moons, and our own shining Sun.

With all the activity and media coverage of these spacecraft and probes, it’s easy to become complacent or apathetic towards the data and photos their missions are delivering back to Earth. So let’s pause for a moment and gaze into the heavens at these dazzling new pics from NASA/ESA’s Solar Orbiter as it traverses our solar system studying our home star.

The new video footage below, pieced together with a series of photos, shows an incredibly rare cosmic tableaux of Earth, Mars, and Venus, with the faint light of Uranus also winking at us from beyond.

Video of Solar Orbiter snaps Venus, Earth and Mars

These inspiring images were obtained on November 18, 2020 by the SoloHI camera installed aboard Solar Orbiter. Venus (left), Earth (middle), and Mars (right) are clearly visible in the foreground, with a tapestry of bright stars in the background, all captured while the spacecraft loops around the Sun. Eagle-eyed astronomers also noted that Uranus shares the stage near the bottom edge.

“Solar Orbiter is the most complex scientific laboratory ever to have been built to study the Sun and the solar wind, taking images of our star from closer than any spacecraft before,” ESA researchers noted. “The Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager (SoloHI) is one of the six remote-sensing instruments onboard the mission. During the cruise phase, these are still being calibrated during specific periods, but are switched off otherwise.”

Venus, Earth, and Mars shift slightly in the SoloHI instrument’s field-of-view. Venus is the brightest object seen, hovering roughly 30 million miles away from the Solar Orbiter. When the shots were taken that day, the distance to Earth was 156 million miles and 206 million miles to Mars. Far off Uranus is a mere dot located beside the official time code.

“At the moment of the recording, Solar Orbiter was on its way to Venus for its first gravity assist flyby, which happened on December 27,” ESA scientists explained. “Venus and Earth flybys will bring the spacecraft closer to the Sun and tilt its orbit in order to observe our star from different perspectives.”

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Tag Archives: ESAs

ESA’s Solar orbiter just got smacked by a coronal mass ejection

ESA’s Solar Orbiter Spacecraft Is Skimming Earth for a Gravity Assist – And It’s One of the Riskiest Planetary Flybys Ever

How risky? It’s all relative

All clear?

ESA’s Solar Orbiter to swing past Earth this week • The Register

ESA’s Inspector Gadget-Like Robotic Arm Is Headed to the International Space Station

Perseverance Seen From Space by ESA’s ExoMars Orbiter

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ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter Spots Perseverance Rover in Jezero Crater | Space Exploration

The ESA’s Solar Orbiter snaps unreal images of four planets at the same time

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