Japan and the United States have reached an agreement about the monitoring of space debris in Earth orbit, on May 28. “Sharing information with the United States is beneficial to safe operations of Japan’s satellites and other spacecraft,” said Japan Foreign Minister, Fumio Kishida before signing the agreement with John Roos, the U.S. ambassador in Japan. According to the agreement, [...]
Post Tagged with: “orbit”
IAASS Publishes New Text: Safety Design for Space Operations
The International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS) has just published the book “Safety Design for Space Operations” (Elsevier, 2013). The book comes four years after “Safety Design for Space Systems,” a university level textbook recently translated into Chinese. With contributions from more than 40 authors, chosen from among the best in their respective fields, the project was coordinated by IAASS President Tommaso Sgobba, and edited by Dr. Firooz Allahdadi, Isabelle [...]
How to Target an Asteroid
Credits: NASA Like many of his colleagues at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., Shyam Bhaskaran is working a lot with asteroids these days. And also like many of his colleagues, the deep space navigator devotes a great deal of time to crafting, and contemplating, computer-generated 3-D models of these intriguing nomads of the solar system. But while many of [...]
NASA’s Asteroid Capturing Mission Concept
NASA’s budget proposal for 2014 includes plans for a $105 million robotic asteroid retrieval mission. The mission involves scooping up a 5-7m asteroid and bringing it back to lunar orbit where it can be visited by astronauts for further study. Space News, canvasing NASA’s partner agencies for responses to the surprising mission, turned up some interest, but a good deal [...]
Sun Spews Storms Following Quiet Spell
2013 was supposed to be the year of solar maximum, generally accompanied by a very active solar surface. Instead, the year has been on the quiet side, causing some scientists to even question whether we’re experiencing a maximum at all. But on April 11, the Sun finally woke up and showed its spots. In the early morning hours, an M6.5 [...]
Vega Handed Over to Arianespace for Final Launch Preparation
European launcher Vega has been delivered to Arianespace, entering in the final preparation phase for the May 2 liftoff from the Guiana Space Centre. “By using the same mission campaign procedures as proven for our workhorse Ariane, Vega has become a true member of Arianespace’s launcher family – joining Ariane 5 and Soyuz in side-by-side operations at the Spaceport,” said [...]
Swiss Space System May Build Rocket Plane, Spaceport in Europe
Swiss Space System (S3) has announced a plan to build an unmanned rocket plane by 2017 to launch satellites into orbit. “S3 aims to develop, build, certify and operate suborbital space shuttles dedicated to launching small satellites, enabling space access to be made more democratic thanks to an original system with launching costs up to four times less than at present,” [...]
After ISS – the Next Mir?
In June 2011 cooperating countries agreed to finance the International Space Station (ISS) Program until 2020 with the possibility to operate it until 2028. ISS represents the beginning of a new space era and an excellent example of international peaceful cooperation for the advancement of scientific knowledge. The future of this piece of space history remains unclear. The ISS program, [...]
Secret Colors of the ISS
Most pictures of the International Space Station don’t show much color, we generally see metallic and white elements. The inactive golden colored side of the solar panels – the opposite side of the solar cells – appears to show most of the color over the entire ISS. The active side of the solar panels, where the solar cells are mounted, is actually colorless, [...]
D-Orbit Add-on Deorbits Satellites without Sacrificing Fuel
Luca Rossettini, CEO and co-founder of D-Orbit, a start-up targeting the space debris mitigation market, has always dreamt of going to space. His dream led him from Italy to the US and back, with a revolutionary idea and a reliable business plan on how to deal with satellite disposal. Before starting D-Orbit, Rossettini joined the Italian army as a parachute [...]
