[mafets]

https://www.technology.org/2021/05/24/keeping-it-fresh-a-space-fridge-for-long-duration-missions/

A refrigerator for cold storage is just one of many things astronauts will need as they journey farther into space. The typical household fridge, however, is not designed to work in the absence of Earth’s gravity.

Purdue University Ph.D. student Leon Brendel rotates a highly instrumented fridge experiment designed to work in different orientations – even upside down – to keep food fresh for long durations in space. Image credit: Purdue University / Jared Pike

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[Cabeça de Martelo]

FLPP preparing for Europe's next-generation launcher
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ESA / Enabling & Support / Space Transportation / New Technologies
ESA is preparing new launch systems to respond to Europe’s future institutional needs and to continue at the forefront of new developments in space.

ESA's programme dedicated to the preparation of this future, the Future Launchers Preparatory Programme (FLPP), began in 2003. It oversees system studies and research activities to foster new technologies capable of delivering performance and reliability coupled with reduced operational costs.

FLPP is instrumental in the European strategy for access to space, and aims to:

Identify and prepare the system competence and technology for development with the aim of confining launcher time-to-market within 5 years, reducing recurring cost and development risk, while keeping long-term industry competitiveness.
Promote reusability of existing and new technologies to reduce development costs globally.
Perform system studies to assess evolutions of operational launchers, future launcher architectures, advanced concepts, select technology and elaborate technology requirements.
Safeguard critical European industrial capabilities for the safe exploitation of the current launchers and guaranteed access to space.
Develop environmentally friendly technologies.
Key technology areas include:

Lightweight and high-performance systems,
Spin-in and use of commercial off-the-shelf technologies,
More electric-based launchers,
Mastering the environments of launch,
Orbit injection strategies,
Robust structures and design,
Ease of manufacture, operation and integration,
Reusability of existing and new technologies,
Low-cost structures and systems,
Green launch systems.
How is the programme implemented?
ESA Member States subscribe to FLPP on an optional basis. Of the 22 ESA Member States, 15 are participating.

The programme is structured in a series of partially overlapping periods:

Period 1 (2004–06): studies of reusable launch vehicle concepts driving technology developments carried out and identification of evolutions to reduce expendable launch vehicle costs.
Period 2 Step 1 (2006–09): system studies on reusable and expendable launch configurations plus development and maturation of key demonstrators.
Period 2 Step 2 (2009-13): completion of systems studies on expendable launch configurations; progression through ground demonstrators, in particular for Expander demonstrator/Vinci-2, flight experiments and cryogenic upper-stage technologies.
Period 3/New Economic Opportunities (FLPP NEO) (2013-19): perform system studies to add detail to technology requirements and support launcher strategic planning. Following Ariane 6 and Vega-C development decisions at the Council Meeting at Ministerial Level in 2014, FLPP Period 3 and NEO shall develop a portfolio of flagship demonstrators and associated technologies to ensure the shortest time to market of price-competitive innovations.
Overlaps between the different periods provide the necessary continuity at industrial level.

What are the benefits?
FLPP safeguards Europe’s guaranteed access to space into the long term and ensures it will continue to have effective and economic launchers at its disposal into the conceivable future.

Early-stage technology development saves both time and money when it comes to assembling future launch vehicles, and confirms that it will use thoroughly mastered technologies.

FLPP’s sustained investment in its underlying technologies will greatly reduce the cost and challenge of reaching orbit, responding to institutional and commercial market requirements and bringing space closer to Earth as a result, easing access to space.

Breakthroughs made in launcher technology will also become available for use in the short or medium terms. As a common element of several potential applications for upper stages, a reignitable expander cycle engine (where fuel is preheated before combustion for extra efficiency) has been matured through extensive engineering activities and test campaigns. This engine – the first closed-cycle engine in Europe – is now earmarked for use with forthcoming Ariane launchers beyond the current ECA version.

Paving the way
FLPP carries out work on both technical and programmatic aspects that provide the sound elements to make the right decisions to prepare for new launch vehicles or launcher evolutions.

The programme implements a system-driven approach: technology requirements are derived from the launch system concepts under study, which allows the anticipating technology to mature, which in turn, verifies the assumptions made at system level.

The programme focuses on integrated demonstrators which are the most efficient way to increase the readiness level of new launcher technologies, radically shorten future launcher development time and address system-level capabilities. These integrated demonstrators respond to the short- and medium-term milestones of the programme.

This step-by-step approach strengthens Europe’s technical competencies in the field and brings together European industrial teams to develop identified end products, from their definition to their manufacturing and testing.

FLPP work is weighing up the opportunities and risks of different launcher concepts and associated technologies. Once the final decision is made, the studies already completed on underlying technologies should give Europe's rocket builders a valuable head-start as they begin the demanding work of turning the chosen design into reality.

The programme is structured in three elements:

Study of evolutions of existing launchers and advanced launch system concepts,
Selection and maturation of technologies,
Definition, development and tests of integrated demonstrators.
Evolutions of existing launchers and advanced launch system concept studies
A launch vehicle is a complex system conceived to deliver a payload to a given orbit by providing the right altitude and velocity for orbit injection. This has to be achieved at the minimum launch cost possible and with the maximum reliability and overall quality of launch service.

Launcher systems activities aim to identify and study advanced vehicle concepts and possible evolutions of operational launchers that meet top-level mission requirements, and fulfil both technical and programmatic aspects.

These activities regularly integrate the updated maturity state of technologies.

Technology maturation
Technology activities aim to mature enabling technologies through ground testing or flight experimentation. The objective of the technology maturation activities is to reach TRL 6, which is considered to be the adequate level to mitigate risks before entering in a firm development.

Specification, development and tests of integrated demonstrators
While technology maturation increases individual technology readiness levels, it becomes necessary to integrate different technologies on a single platform to address critical system integration competence and predevelop candidate systems.

This can raise the Integration Readiness Level (IRL), where IRL 4 is considered to be the adequate level to mitigate risks before entering in a firm development.

Technology Development and Verification Plan (TDVP)

The TDVP establishes the link between system, demonstrators and technologies and ensures consistency between these three elements using:

Top-down approach: system concepts define the technical requirements for technologies.
Bottom-up approach: system concepts benefit from promising technology maturation.
The plan also highlights how some technologies could be shared by several launch vehicles.

Technologies and demonstrators cover three major domains of space transportation:

System: to elaborate detailed requirements and assess competitiveness using the launcher system studies and strategic analysis.
Integrated demonstrators: to tackle hardware integration competences and reach ultimate step of technology maturation, before transfer into development environment.
Technologies: most of the demonstrator subsystems are specific and use very few COTS, a permanent generic technology effort (market pull - or technology push) is necessary to enable the integrated demonstrator approach around the following:
Structure and mechanism
Modelling and system tools
Material and processes
Avionics
Cryogenics

Tirando por miúdos, estão a tentar a toral reusabilidade como a Space X.

[HSMW]

Detritos espaciais por altitude.

[Lusitano89]

Nave abastece futura estação espacial da China

[mafets]

https://www.technology.org/2021/05/31/giant-planets-found-in-the-stellar-suburbs/

Giant Planets Found in the Stellar Suburbs

Planetary census illuminates where giant planets tend to reside relative to their stars.

In the neighbourhood that makes up our solar system, the giant planets—Jupiter and Saturn—reside in the chilly outer regions, while smaller planets tend to orbit closer to the sun. Our planet Earth lives in an intermediate tropical zone well-suited to life. Planet hunters have long wondered: Is this same type of planetary configuration common around other stars throughout our galaxy or are we unique?

The best way to find out is to do a census of the planetary denizens of the galaxy. Astronomers began such a census, called the California Legacy Survey, over three decades ago, and are now releasing a new batch of results. One pattern to emerge from the data is that giant planets tend to reside about 1 to 10 astronomical units (AU) from their host stars, a mostly icy region located beyond the temperate zone of a star. An AU is defined as the distance from Earth to our sun, or about 93 million miles.

This Illustration shows where giant planets reside with respect to their host stars. Recent findings from the California Legacy Survey, in which hundreds of stars and planets were surveyed, reveal that giant planets around other stars tend to orbit between 1 and 10 astronomical units (AU) from their stars. An AU is the distance between Earth and the sun. The results are depicted in this chart, such that the taller buildings show where most of the giant planets tend to “live” relative to their stars, i.e., in the zone between 1 and 10 AU from their stars. Giant planets residing very close to their stars, colloquially known as “hot Jupiters,” receive an abundance of light and heat from their nearby host stars, and are thus adorned in sunglasses. More distant giants receive much less light from their host stars and therefore are colder and depicted with hats and earmuffs. Image credit: California Legacy Survey/T. Pyle (Caltech/IPAC)

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[Cabeça de Martelo]

Closest pic of Saturn, from inside its rings, by the Cassini Spacecraft two weeks ago...

[Lusitano89]

[HSMW]

The evolution of SpaceX's Starship

[HSMW]

E o projecto da NASA e da SpaceX para a Lua.

[HSMW]

[Cabeça de Martelo]

[nelson38899]

Agora coisas a sério:

https://45graus.parafuso.net/2020/12/16/100-carlos-fiolhais-fronteiras-da-cincia-buracos-negros-exoplanetas-multiversos-e-muito-mais/

[mafets]

https://astronomy.com/news/2021/06/nasa-to-return-to-venus-with-two-missions-by-2030

NASA to return to Venus with two missions by 2030
The two robotic explorers will be NASA's first to voyage to Venus in nearly 30 years.

Two new NASA missions will study the atmosphere and surface of Venus, seen here in a composite image from Magellan and Pioneer Venus Orbiter missions.

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[mafets]

https://spacenews.com/shenzhou-12-docks-with-tianhe-space-station-module/

HELSINKI — The Shenzhou-12 spacecraft docked with China’s space station module hours after launch from Jiuquan late Wednesday, marking the first crewed visit to the facility.

Shenzhou-12 and its crew of three launched on a Long March 2F from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 9:22 p.m. Eastern Wednesday.

The spacecraft docked with the Tianhe space station core module at 3:54 a.m. June 17, six hours 32 minutes after launch, the China Manned Space Engineering Office confirmed.

A view of the Sun on the horizon from Tianhe ahead of the Shenzhou-12 docking. Credit: BACC/CCTV/screenshot

Saudações

[mafets]

https://spacenews.com/computer-problem-takes-hubble-offline/

WASHINGTON — Spacecraft controllers are continuing to work on a faulty computer memory system on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope that has stopped telescope operations for nearly a week.

A payload computer on Hubble stopped working June 13, the agency said in a June 16 statement. Engineers speculated that the computer, used to manage operations of Hubble’s science instruments, malfunctioned because of a degrading memory module, putting the instruments into a safe mode.

The agency said at the time that it would switch of a backup memory module that day and, after about a day of testing, restart the instruments and resume science observations.

However, in a June 18 statement, NASA said those efforts to switch to a backup memory module failed because “the command to initiate the backup module failed to complete.” An attempt to restore the computer with both the original memory module and the backup unit also failed.

NASA didn’t elaborate on the next steps it will take to correct the problem stating only that the operations team “will be running tests and collecting more information on the system to further isolate the problem.” The instruments themselves, and the rest of the telescope, remain in good health.

The payload computer is a 1980s-vintage system that can use any one of four memory modules, each containing 64 kilobytes of complementary metal-oxide semiconductor memory. A backup computer is also available.

A problem with memory modules in the computer that managers Hubble’s science instrument has taken the telescope offline since June 13. Credit: NASA

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