Astronomy, Exoplanets, Space business

Surrey Satellite to design exoplanet satellite mission

An announcement from Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL):

ESA selects SSTL to design Exoplanet satellite mission

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) has been selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) for the competitive design phase of CHEOPS science satellite, which will improve mankind’s understanding of exoplanets – planets orbiting distant stars outside our solar system. The contractor selection for the implementation phase is planned by mid-2014 and the launch is scheduled late 2017.

The CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite (CHEOPS) will finely characterise known exoplanets and their parent stars with an unprecedented accuracy. The satellite will measure the orbit and radius of those exoplanets, enabling the scientists to assess their potential habitability. The mission will also act as a “scout” performing preliminary observations on targets for the future European Extremely Large Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope that will be capable of more detailed analysis.

CHEOPS was selected from 25 missions proposed in response to ESA Call for Small Missions in 2012, which was targeting innovative small science missions that offer high value at low cost. CHEOPS is jointly developed by ESA and a consortium of Member States led by Switzerland: The Swiss-built instrument using a Ritchey–Chrétien optical telescope will observe the stars and their orbiting planets, while ESA is responsible for the provision of the satellite platform and the launch.

Over the next 10 months SSTL will design the satellite platform, which will host the telescope payload. To provide the mission within a short schedule and at low cost, ESA asked that any solution be based on an existing, flight-proven, satellite platform. SSTL’s solution is based on a variant of the highly successful SSTL-150 platform, which has seen recent service in Canada’s Sapphire space surveillance mission and the 5-satellite RapidEye Earth observation constellation.

In awarding the contract to SSTL, Frederic Safa, Head of Future Missions Office in ESA’s Science and Robotic Exploration Directorate stated: “We chose SSTL for this study for a combination of reasons such as their proven ability to build reliable low-cost missions and their past experience with satellites carrying high-performance optical telescopes.”

SSTL’s Head of Science, Doug Liddle, commented: “We are delighted that ESA selected SSTL to design the CHEOPS mission. We will draw on our experience to design a low cost, but high value solution that will demonstrate that ambitious science missions can be launched both quickly and economically.”

CHEOPS is envisaged as the first in a series of missions in the ESA Science Programme that will utilise small satellites for low cost and rapid development, in order to offer greater flexibility in response to new ideas from the scientific community and complement to the larger missions of ESA’s Science Programme.

About SSTL
Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) is the world’s leading small satellite company, delivering operational space missions for a range of applications including Earth observation, science and communications. The Company designs, manufactures and operates high performance satellites and ground systems for a fraction of the price normally associated with space missions, with 580 staff working on turnkey satellite platforms, space-proven satellite subsystems and optical instruments.

Since 1981 SSTL has built and launched 41 satellites – as well as providing training and development programmes, consultancy services, and mission studies for ESA, NASA, international governments and commercial customers, with its innovative approach that is changing the economics of space.

In 2008 the Company set up a US subsidiary, Surrey Satellite Technology US LLC (SST-US) with facilities in Denver, Colorado to address the United States market and its customers for the provision of small satellite solutions, applications and services. www.sst-us.com

Events, Living in Space

Three ISS Expedition 36 crew members back on earth after 166 days in orbit

Three ISS crewmembers returned to earth on Tuesday (US time):

After rentering Earth’s atmosphere, Expedition 36 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Alexander Misurkin of the Russian Federal Space Agency and NASA Flight Engineer Chris Cassidy landed safely on the steppe of Kazakhstan on Sept. 11. The trio completed 166 days in space.

Earlier in the day they did there farewells on the Station to Expedition 37 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, Flight Engineer Karen Nyberg of NASA and Flight Engineer Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency.

Mars, Space Science

Curiosity Rover – update on long drive towards Mount Sharp

The latest on Curiosity’s trek towards Mount Sharp:

Mars Science Laboratory: Long Drive Puts NASA Mars Rover Near Planned Waypoint

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity now has a view of a patch of exposed bedrock scientists selected for a few days of close-up study, the first such study since the rover began its long trek to Mount Sharp two months ago.

'Darwin' Outcrop at 'Waypoint 1' of Curiosity's trek to Mount Sharp
An outcrop visible as light-toned streaks in the lower center of this image has
been chosen as a place for NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity to study for a few
days in September 2013.

Curiosity reached the crest of a rise informally called “Panorama Point.” From Panorama Point, the rover took photographs of a pale-toned outcrop area that the team chose earlier as “Waypoint 1” on the basis of imagery from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Five selected waypoints dot the mission’s route southwestward from the “Glenelg” area, where Curiosity worked during the first half of 2013, and an entry point to the lower layers of Mount Sharp, the mission’s next major destination. Waypoint 1 lies about one-fifth of the way along the approximately 5.3-mile (8.6-kilometer) route, as plotted from examining orbiter images.

Curiosity advanced 464 feet (141.5 meters) on Sept. 5 in the longest one-day drive so far in the 13-month-old mission. The drive toward the elevated Panorama Point combined two segments. For a long initial segment, engineers chose the path from images examined on Earth ahead of time. That was followed by a 138-foot (42-meter) segment, for which the rover autonomously navigated its own path based on images taken during the day’s drive. That Sept. 5 drive plus the next one — 80 feet (24.3 meters) on Sept. 8 — brought the rover to the top of Panorama Point.

For the Sept. 5 drive, “we had a long and unobstructed view of the hill we needed to climb, which would provide an overlook of the first major waypoint on our trek to Mount Sharp,” said Jeff Biesiadecki, a rover planner on the Curiosity team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “We were able to extend the drive well beyond what we could see by enabling the rover’s onboard hazard avoidance system.”

In the Glenelg area, Curiosity accomplished the mission’s major science goal by finding evidence of an ancient environment favorable for microbial life. The evidence came from analysis of rock powder drilled from two outcrops in a shallow depression called “Yellowknife Bay.” When the rover examines multiple rock layers of Mount Sharp, researchers hope to learn more about ancient habitable environments and major changes in environmental conditions.

“We want to know how the rocks at Yellowknife Bay are related to what we’ll see at Mount Sharp,” said the mission’s project scientist, John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. “That’s what we intend to get from the waypoints between them. We’ll use them to stitch together a timeline — which layers are older, which are younger.”

The science team is using images taken from Panorama Point to select precisely where to pause for a few days and use instruments on Curiosity’s arm to examine Waypoint 1. The rock targets being considered are still about 245 feet (75 meters) southwest of Curiosity’s Sept. 9 position.

The trek to Mount Sharp will continue for many months after the planned work at Waypoint 1.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project’s Curiosity rover.

More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ . You can follow the mission on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

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NASA's Mars rover Curiosity captured this view using its Navigation Camera (Navcam) after reaching the top of a rise called "Panorama Point" with a drive during the 388th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Sept. 8, 2013).Curiosity’s View from ‘Panorama Point’ to ‘Waypoint 1’ and Outcrop ‘Darwin’

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity captured this view using its Navigation Camera (Navcam) after reaching the top of a rise called “Panorama Point” with a drive during the 388th Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s work on Mars (Sept. 8, 2013). The view is southwestward and spans approximately from south to west, left to right.

In the upper central portion of the image is a patch of ground paler than its surroundings. This pale-toned patch had been mapped from orbit and selected as the first of a few waypoints for the rover to study for a few days during pauses in the mission’s multi-month trek from the “Glenelg” area to the lower layers of Mount Sharp. The outcrop that is exposed at this “Waypoint 1” site has been informally named “Darwin.” It is about 245 feet (75 meters) from the rover’s Sol 388 position on Panorama Point.

Curiosity finished more than six months of investigations in the Glenelg area in early July 2013 and began the drive of about 5.3 miles (8.6 kilometers) from Glenelg to the Mount Sharp entry point. Waypoint 1 is about one fifth of the way along the route plotted from examining orbiter images.

Space Policy

Space policy roundup – Sept.10.13

Some space policy related items today:

Education, Science and Technology

ESA opens “Spin your Thesis!” student experiments programme

ESA education initiative  with a big centrifuge:

Spin Your Thesis! 2014 call now open

9 September 2013:  Teams of university students are invited to submit proposals for hypergravity experiments for the next ‘Spin Your Thesis!’ campaign which will take place in autumn of 2014. The deadline to submit proposals is 9 December 2013.

ESA’s ‘Spin Your Thesis!’ (SYT) programme gives undergraduate and postgraduate students from ESA Member and Cooperating States* a rare opportunity to design and conduct experiments that need hypergravity, as part of their syllabus.

The LDC at ESTEC

The experiments can be devoted to a broad spectrum of science and technology. They will be conducted in the Large Diameter Centrifuge (LDC) in ESA’s Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands.

Mounted inside the centrifuge gondolas, experiments can be exposed to accelerations of up to 20 times Earth’s gravity. The centrifuge is flexible in terms of experiment scenarios, duration and hardware.

The LDC supports six gondolas, plus one in the centre for control experiments. Each gondola supports a maximum payload of 80 kg, and student experiments can last from a few minutes to several days, if needed.

A review board will select the best experiment proposals to be performed in the LDC.  The European Low Gravity Research Association (ELGRA) will support ESA in the team selection process and provide expert mentors throughout the experiment design and completion.

Students who have taken part in previous campaigns have found them to be valuable additions to their programmes of studies:

“Thanks to my participation in SYT, I have gained experience and knowledge in many areas, from researching the topic that we wanted to study to analysing the really interesting data we recorded,” said Anna Garcia-Sabaté, who participated in SYT 2012.

“It was a great opportunity for me to improve my mechanical and electrical skills, as well as my organisational skills. The results obtained will be a part of my PhD thesis which focuses on the effects of different gravity levels on the interaction of ultrasounds with fluids. I will probably continue to participate in different gravity-related projects.”

The LDC in action

Teams from ESA Member States and Cooperating States are encouraged to register via the ESA Education Office’s project portal and upload their proposals before 9 December 2013.

The conditions to apply and the eligibility criteria can be found here.

The selection of up to four teams is expected to be announced in February 2014.

Spin Your Thesis! 2013

The ‘Spin Your Thesis!’ 2013 programme is already under way. Teams from the Czech Republic, Italy and Belgium have been selected to participate, and their LDC campaigns will take place from 23 September to 3 October 2013.

Their experiments will examine the behaviour of gliding arcs of plasma in noble gases; the effect of hypergravity on the thermal hydraulic behaviour of a closed-loop pulsating heat pipe; the combined effect of hypergravity and barium titanate nanoparticles on bone-forming stem cells; and the effect of hypergravity on the Leidenfrost point.

Background

The first ‘Spin Your Thesis!’ campaign took place in 2010. Since then, every annual campaign has enabled up to four teams of university students to develop and conduct hypergravity experiments using the Large Diameter Centrifuge facility.

As a direct consequence of the research they conducted during these campaigns, some of the student teams were able to present their results at international conferences and/or publish papers in leading scientific journals.

* ESA Member States in 2013
Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Canada (Associate Member)
European Cooperating States
Estonia, Hungary, Slovenia, Latvia
Cooperating states
Cyprus, Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia

Everyone can participate in space