In Brief. Focus on Foton. in brief. experiments aboard the International Space Station.

Transcription

1 in bief In Bief The Foton capsule in the ISS Use Infomation Cente Focus on Foton The ISS Use Infomation Cente at ESTEC has a new exhibit: a Foton science capsule. Maked by the fies of its degee eenty if visitos stand close enough, they can still smell the scoched heat-shield the small Russian spacecaft is the descent module fom the Foton-12 mission, launched in Septembe Foton caft have been flying since the mid- 1980s, caying anything up to 650 kg of scientific expeiments into an obit aound the Eath. This means aound two weeks of excellent weightlessness conditions. At launch, Foton weighs oughly 6.5 tonnes and consists of thee modules: a battey module, a sevice module, and the descent module with the scientific payload. A Soyuz booste fom Plesetsk nea Achangel launches the caft; once its mission is completed, the descent module lands nea the bode between Russia and Kazakhstan and its contents ae usually available to eseaches within a few hous. ESA has been a Foton patne since 1987 long enough to develop an excellent woking elationship between the agency and the Russian manufactues and launch teams. The Foton pogamme gives eseaches the oppotunity fo elatively low-cost wok in weightlessness fo much longe duations than with sounding ockets and a faste tun-aound than they could expect with long-tem expeiments aboad the Intenational Space Station. ESA Technical Office Antonio Vega has woked with Foton fo yeas. It s vey good value fo money. Foton caies a multi-disciplinay payload anything fom biological expeiments to fluid physics and technology testing. Since the spacecaft is unmanned, logistics ae geatly simplified and safety concens ae minimised. Foton is about oppotunity. It s not a museum piece, says Vega. It s thee to show visitos what is possible. Foton-12, its expeiments long since emoved, is not quite an empty shell. You can still see some of its majo chaacteistics: the extenal vacuum venting line, the powe supply inteface and the paachute compatment, fo example. Vega hopes that visitos to the Use Infomation Cente will see it as a potential platfom fo thei ideas fo expeiments. The next Foton mission Foton M-1 is scheduled fo Octobe 2002, and will include expeiments designed by student goups fom Yok, Edinbugh and Zuich. Focus on Foton Semina The Foton goup is oganising a Focus on Foton Semina at the Use Infomation Cente on Wednesday 20 Mach. The semina fo scientists and nonscientists coves facts on Foton as a 0geseach platfom, pogammatic highlights and testimonials by past scientific uses. Fo moe details on the semina and egistation foms contact Antonio Vega (ext. (+31) ) o Pieto Baglioni (ext. (+31) ). Fluidpac on Foton 147

2 bulletin 109 febuay 2002 When Time is Citical: Chate Website to Assist Rescue Opeations On 16 Januay, the membes of the Intenational Chate on Space and Majo Disastes launched a new website that will assist escue teams dealing with sevee disastes. It will enable satellite plannes to acceleate the immediate tasking of space-based esouces, including ESA s ERS, CNES s SPOT, Canada s Radasat-1 and soon selected Indian and US satellites, to acquie new images in ode to assist humanitaian help. The Intenational Chate was set up in the famewok of the UNISPACE III confeence of the UN in 1999 and has been in foce since 1 Novembe It aims to put space technology at the sevice of escue authoities in the event of majo disastes. To date the Chate has been activated to deal with floods, landslides, volcanic euptions, oil spills and eathquakes in all cones of the globe. Fo example, it povided impotant assistance to escue opeations following a seies of eathquakes in El Salvado in Cuent membes of the Chate ae the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the Fench Space Agency (CNES), the Indian Space Reseach Oganisation (ISRO), the US National Oceanic and Atmospheic Administation (NOAA) and the Euopean Space Agency. The new website offes infomation about updates in pocedues, disastes coveed and links to non-govenmental oganisations, civil potection agencies, intenational oganisations involved in disaste mitigation and humanitaian assistance, and the individual patne agencies. Fo moe infomation, check on Jéôme Béquignon, ESA membe of the Intenational Chate s Executive Secetaiat, commented this website is an impotant step fowad in pomoting the Chate and the esults obtained and in assisting escue teams duing eal emegencies. José Achache (photo: CNES/E. Matin 2000) 148 New Diecto fo Eath Obsevation Pogammes On 1 Januay 2002 José Achache took up his duties as ESA s Diecto of Eath Obsevation Pogammes fo a peiod of fou yeas. The ESA Council had made this appointment at its esticted session on 20 Decembe. José Achache, 48, obtained his doctoate in geophysics at the Piee et Maie Cuie Univesity in 1979 and his doctoate in physical sciences at the René Descates Univesity in He joined the Institut de Physique du Globe de Pais (IPGP) in 1978 and was a Visiting Schola at Stanfod Univesity fo one yea. In 1989 he was appointed Pofesso, ceated the Depatment of Space Studies at the IPGP, and fom 1989 to 1995 he was Diecto of the Post-Gaduate School of Eath Sciences. In 1996 he joined the Bueau de Recheches Géologiques et Minièes as Deputy Diecto of the Reseach Division and the following yea became its Diecto. In 1999, he was named adviso to the Pesident of the Fench Space Agency (CNES) and in 2000 was appointed to the post of Deputy Diecto Geneal fo Science. José Achache has published moe than 60 efeeed papes on such subjects as geodynamics, plate tectonics, the magnetic fields and envionments of the Eath and othe planets, natual hazads, Eath obsevation and space technology.

3 in bief 18 Novembe 2001: The Leonids Have Been Back! The Leonids ae small dust paticles that ente the Eath s uppe atmosphee with a vey high velocity of about 71 km/s, bun up and appea in the night sky as shooting stas. They ae visible evey yea in Novembe when the Eath passes though o close to the debis cloud of comet Tempel-Tuttle. They ae called Leonid events because the meteos seem to be coming fom the diection of the constellation Leo. Thee is evidence that this comet has ceated meteo showes and meteo stoms fo moe than 1,000 yeas. Tempel-Tuttle, named afte Enst Tempel and Hoace Tuttle who fist discoveed the comet in 1865 and 1866, has a nucleus about 4 km in diamete and obits the Sun with a peiod of just ove 33 yeas. At its closest appoach to the Sun, it also passes close to the Eath s obit. The Eath passed though that same egion in space on 18 Novembe 2001 and Leonid obseves saw an incease in the amount of cometay debis. The 2001 Leonid meteo stom The intensity of the Leonids is usually measued in zenithal houly ate (ZHR). The ZHR indicates how many meteos pe hou would be visible if the obseved showe wee to come fom the diection of the zenith unde optimum obseving conditions (no moon, no clouds). The limit of visibility is at 100 micogams pe dust paticle that tavel at 71 km/s, which is equivalent to a magnitude of 6.5 o a diamete of about 0.5 mm. The 1999 Leonids wee a vitual stom with an houly ate above 1000, but in 2000 they took it a bit easie with a maximum ZHR of about 500. Still, scientists awaited the aival of the Leonids in 2001 on 18 Novembe with geat suspense. Pedictions by Ashe/McNaught and othe scientists suggested two peaks, the fist one aound 10 UT and a second lage one at about 18:15 UT with possibly 8000 meteos pe hou. The best place to obseve the fist peak was Noth-West Ameica. Fo the late second peak Austalia was a favouable location. ESOC paticipated in an obsevation campaign oganised by Pete Jenniskens fom NASA Ames Reseach Cente. The campaign consisted of two goups: one climbing Mount Lemmon in Aizona equipped with cameas to film the fist peak, the second goup waiting in Alice Spings, Austalia fo the big stom. The fist data aiving fom Mount Lemmon showed that at 10:00 UT the ZHR had passed 500 and inceased continuously until about 11:00 UT when the computed ZHR peaked at about Within a few minutes it dopped back to below 500. The fist peak was about 1 hou late than expected but quite spectacula. ESOC then had to wait about 3 hous until the constellation Leo ose above the hoizon of Alice Spings. The fist data fom thee indicated that Leo was pepaed to oa again with a ZHR of 500 and continuously inceasing. Aound 18:00 UT the activity eached its maximum ZHR of about 2000 and fo moe than one hou 20 shooting stas dashed though the sky evey minute! Pudent spacecaft opeations at ESOC The cuve of the meteo ate was displayed on the ESOC web-page. It was the only website whee people all aound the wold could follow the Leonid peak in eal-time if they wee not lucky enough to be unde a clea night sky with the constellation Leo above the hoizon. Many jounalists and amateu astonomes wee among the hits on the web-site, but the spacecaft opeatos at ESOC wee also keeping a close eye on the activity level of the Leonids. They wee woied about the physical integity of thei spacecaft: ERS-2, XMM, the 4 Cluste spacecaft, Maecs B2 and ECS-4 ae unde ESOC contol, but also SOHO and the Hubble Space Telescope wee unde theat of getting hit by a tiny meteooid. The ERS-2 payload, fo example, was switched off in the evening hous of the day befoe the pedicted peaks to minimise the isk that an impact of a meteooid could pemanently impai the electonics of the spacecaft due to plasma geneated by the collision. Additionally, the thustes and gyos wee wamed up, the spacecaft was switched to Fine Pointing Mode (a moe obust flight mode), the sola aay was placed in an automatic Sun e-acquisition mode, the payload heate thesholds wee loweed and the on-boad memoy and the powe system wee continuously checked. At 21:32 UT the Kiuna gound station eceived telemety fom ERS-2 indicating that the satellite was healthy. In the following hous it became clea that the othe ESA spacecaft had also suvived the Leonids unscathed. This yea, if the pedictions ae as eliable as last yea, thee will be the last Leonid stom fo many decades to come. Fo this stom Euope will be the place to be! 149

4 bulletin 109 febuay 2002 Moe Space fo Space Thee new buildings at ESTEC in Noodwijk (NL) give moe space fo satellites unde test, moe stoage space fo wokshop equipment and of couse moe woking space fo enginees and scientists in offices. The thee buildings wee officially opened on 16 Januay by the Dutch Ministe fo Economic Affais and Deputy Pime Ministe, Ms A. Joitsma-Lebbink, with ESA s Diecto Geneal Antonio Rodotà and ESTEC s Diecto Gaele Wintes also pesent. The most impotant of the new buildings is an extension to the satellite test facilities, which ae aleady among the lagest and most advanced in the wold. The new satellite integation hall povides an additional 19-mete high clean oom and seveal pepaation ooms. This means that thee lage satellites can now be tested at the same time. The othe new buildings ae somewhat moe conventional. Even so, they ae much needed. These buildings will, in pat, eplace tempoay offices that have been in use fo many yeas and will povide a new wokshop with office space and a new wing fo ESTEC s main building to accommodate the ESA enginees and scientists. Ministe Joitsma-Lebbink and the ESA Diecto Geneal on a tou though the new buildings. Automated Tansfe Vehicle Test Model at ESTEC The Automated Tansfe Vehicle (ATV), has successfully stated its 11-month test pogamme at ESTEC in Noodwijk (NL). The fist successful test of the full-size model in the Lage Euopean Acoustic Facility (LEAF) was to simulate with acoustic vibations the stess the ATV will encounte duing the fist thee minutes of launch on top of the poweful Euopean Aiane-5 launche. Detailed compute analysis of the test data acquied duing the acoustic tests will continue in paallel with the post-test inspection and econfiguation of the ATV fo the next tests. Until next Octobe, the ATV mockup will undego a seies of mechanical and citical themal tests, including sola-aay deployment. The 20-tonne cylindical cagoship financed by ESA has been designed to peiodically sevice and e-supply the ISS with up to 7500 kg of cago, stating in Autumn About once a yea a new ATV will fly unmanned and automatically dock with the ISS. The ATV can emain docked fo up to six months befoe being loaded with waste and then disposed of in a destuctive eenty. The ATV is shaing the ESTEC Test Facilities with two othe ESA spacecaft: Rosetta and Integal ae also being tested in Noodwijk befoe they ae launched. Tansfe of the ATV to the LEAF facility 150

5 in bief Fist Flight Hadwae Delivey fo the ESA Pulmonay Function System (PFS) The PFS (top left) integated in the NASA Human Reseach Facility ESA has deliveed a science module, the Pulmonay Function System (PFS), to NASA fo use on boad the Intenational Space Station (ISS). It foms pat of the Micogavity Facilities fo the Columbus pogamme and the co-opeation between ESA and NASA in the field of human physiology eseach. The PFS foms pat of the Euopean Physiology Modules (EPM) facility and was oiginally planned to be launched in the Columbus Laboatoy. Howeve, in view of the high NASA inteest, ESA was offeed an ealie flight oppotunity as pat of the NASA Human Reseach Facility (HRF-2) to be launched on ULF-1 in Novembe 2002 and installed in the US Destiny Laboatoy. The PFS is designed to detemine the concentation of the diffeent components of a espiated gas mixtue (oxygen, cabon dioxide, etc.) by using photoacoustic methods. The gases fo inhalation ae supplied by the Gas Distibution System in the NASA HRF facility. The PFS analyse system is a lowpowe consumption system that can detect gases contained in the beath of the test subject with geat sensitivity. These specific featues of the PFS offe exciting possibilities, both with egad to eseach oppotunities on boad the ISS and also fo clinical medicine on Eath. The flight model has been deliveed to the Johnson Space Cente fo integation in the HRF-2 Laboatoy. Following completion of the testing pogamme, the HRF-2 will be shipped to the Kennedy Space Cente fo launch. The PFS was built by the Danish company INNOVISION S/A and is a fouthgeneation ESA development, with the fist two geneations aleady launched in 1993 and 1995, and the thid planned fo flight in mid INNOVISION S/A, a hightech company specialised in the field of biomedical engineeing, has played a key ole in each of these developments. They have also used the expetise gained fom each space hadwae development to develop and maket a coesponding gound-based instument. The commecial instument deived by INNOVISION S/A fom the PFS is called INNOCOR. The main pupose of this instument is to non-invasively measue cadiac output in patients with cadiovascula diseases. In many cases the INNOCOR eplaces a potentially dangeous invasive method, which involves insetion of a cathete into the patient s heat. INNOCOR was ecently appoved fo CE making and is thus eady fo sale in all EU counties. The potential maket fo INNOCOR is estimated at seveal million Euos, as it is intended fo use with patients with such common diseases as heat complaints and hypetension. Tansponde fo ATV Aives at Astium An impotant step in the development of the communications systems fo ESA s Automated Tansfe Vehicle (ATV) was achieved at the end of Decembe, with the successful delivey of the electical qualification model (EQM) Tansponde to Astium SAS by Alcatel Espacio. This TDRSS-compatible tansponde will handle communication with the TTC gound stations via the NASA Tacking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS). When wok on the EQM is completed, Alcatel Espacio will delive the flight units fo each ATV mission to the Intenational Space Station. It is estimated that thee will be one such mission pe yea, with a fist mission planned by

6 bulletin 109 febuay 2002 Sophisticated Themomete A special device will allow monitoing of the tempeatues in the MELFI payload on boad the Intenational Space Station (ISS). MELFI, the Minus Eighty Degees Laboatoy Feeze fo the ISS will povide cooling and stoage capabilities fo scientific expeiments at thee diffeent tempeatues (4, -26 and -80 C). In ode to confim that MELFI is meeting the equiements in obit, a team at ESTEC has developed, built and tested MOOCE the MELFI ON-Obit Commissioning Expeiment. MOOCE consists of two pats one inside one of the fou MELFI tays and a laptopbased data-acquisition unit on the outside. The connection between the two pats is povided by wies going though the MELFI doo, which caused some initial poblems and hadwae estictions. In ode to give a complete tempeatue map of the tay and the samples, special Multiplexes opeating at -80 C ae used to ead out the 21 tempeatue sensos. Anothe estiction fo MOOCE was that it should minimise the additional wok fo the astonauts. A specific tempeatue measuing scheme has been developed and tested, and almost all sensos ae mounted on the tay o the sample holdes themselves, minimising the need fo the astonauts to place tempeatue sensos diectly on the samples afte insetion. The device has been successfully tested at ESTEC with a tempeatue measuement accuacy bette than 0.5 C. As a next step, MOOCE will be integated into a flight model of MELFI fo a final pefomance and qualification tests to veify compliance with the stict equiements fo ISS payloads. All About Space Weathe: Alpbach Summe School 2002 If you want to lean moe about space weathe, Alpach in Austia is the place to be. This yea s Alpach Summe School fom 23 July to 1 August has the theme Space Weathe: Physics, Impacts and Pedictions. The school has a long histoy. Stated in 1975, it takes place evey yea and addesses diffeent subjects of space eseach. The aim of the Summe School is to offe advanced taining and woking expeience to Euopean gaduates and post-gaduate students as well as young scientists and enginees on subjects that ae not usually pat of the academic cuicula. The Summe School is cooganised by the Austian Fedeal Ministy of Tanspot, Innovation and Technology and the Austian Space Agency (ASA) and co-sponsoed by ESA and the national space authoities of its Membe States. The Summe School is also suppoted by the Govenment of Tyol. Thee will be lectues on the basics of space plasma physics and moe detailed ones addessing the impact of space weathe events ( space stoms ) on the technical infastuctue in space and on the Eath s suface. Students will also be povided with infomation on the scientific instuments and data sets that ae most impotant fo space weathe applications and will be intoduced to the engineeing tools that ae used fo designing space 152 missions. Last but not least, the students will lean about new numeical techniques that ae used in space weathe pedictions. Paticipants can deepen thei knowledge in wokshops, in which casestudies o epesentative space pojects ae conducted. The lectues ae enowned scientists and expets in the field, fom univesities and space-elated agencies. The application deadline fo the Summe School is 29 Mach. Detailed infomation can be found at Two competing teams will each deal with thee topics. The wokshop teams will be guided by expets, who will act as tutos fo the wokshops. The lectues will also paticipate in the wokshops, poviding assistance in the definition of the mission to be designed. The esults of each wokshop team will be pesented by the students on the last day of the Summe School to a eview panel. An accompanying social pogamme will povide students, lectues and tutos with a convivial atmosphee fo infomal discussions.

7 in bief Fist Image Tansmitted by means of an Optic Lase between Atemis and Spot-4 On 30 Novembe 2001, the fist-eve tansmission of an image by lase link fom one satellite to anothe took place. The system used, called SILEX, consists of the Opale teminal on Atemis and the Pastel teminal on the Spot-4 satellite. It was designed in close coopeation between ESA, the Fench space agency (CNES) and manufactue Astium with ove 20 Euopean contactos involved. The teminals exchange high-definition imagey data at 50 megabits pe second. Atemis subsequently beams the data to the eceiving station opeated by Spot Image at Toulouse, using a conventional 20 GHz adio link. Fist image tansmitted by the fist optical link in space between SPOT-4 and the Atemis satellite - Lanzaote, Fiday 30 Novembe 2001 The potential of the new technology extends beyond Eath obsevation; it pomises to evolutionise sat-to-sat communications fo constellations in loweath obit, geostationay satellites and deep-space exploation pobes. Futhe infomation was povided in ESA Bulletin 108, page 114. JOB OPPORTUNITIES IN SPACE Seco is the lagest technical sevices contacto to ESA. We have been suppoting the Agency s pogammes fo ove 25 yeas and egulaly have job oppotunities based at ESTEC (Nethelands), ESRIN (Italy), ESOC (Gemany), ESA/HQ (Fance) and Kouou Spacepot (Fench Guiana). Typical activities within the space field encompass: AIV Engineeing PC Suppot IBM MVS System Ops and Component Testing and Unix System Administation Pogamming Failue Analysis Softwae Development Web Development Antenna Engineeing Database Development and Poject Management Eath Obsevation Management Poduct/Quality Assuance Gound Segment Engineeing Technical Authoing If you would like to be consideed fo futue job oppotunities with Seco please send you full cuiculum vitae to: Jane Macham, Seco Euope Ltd. 5th Floo, Kempton Point 68 Staines Road West, Sunbuy-on-Thames Middlesex TW16 7AX, U.K. Tel.: Seco is an Equal Oppotunities Employe 153