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Space missions
Elena Fantino
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Geocentric: satellites in orbit around the Earth
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Geocentric satellites
GPS satellites aid navigation, others relay telephone or television
signals, others aid in weather forecasting, national defense, science,
and agriculture, as in monitoring crops and areas of drought.
About 60% are used for communications.
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• As of Jan 2015: about 1100 active satellites, both government
and private. Plus there are about 2600 ones that no longer work.
Russia launched the first satellite, Sputnik 1, in 1957. The oldest
one still in orbit, which is no longer functioning, was launched in
1958.
• Size varies. Communication satellites can be as big as a small
school bus and weigh up to 6 tons. Most weigh a few tons or less.
Some that are used briefly are 4 inch cubes and weigh about 2
pounds (nanosats … cubesats).
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Where are they?
• It depends on their use. Communications satellites relay signals from a fixed
spot on the equator, about 36000 km up. GPS satellites are at 24000 km, high
enough to be accessible to large swaths of the Earth. Others that need a
closer look at Earth are lower. For comparison, the International Space Station
is only about 400 km high, and very few satellites are lower than that. While
some satellites remain over fixed spots on Earth, others fly over both poles or
can move from place to place as needed.
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• Governments, and private companies. More than 50 countries
own a satellite or a significant share in one. There are 502 active
satellites with a U.S. tie; 118 for Russia and 116 for China.
• Old satellites can pose a risk for collisions with active ones, so
there are rules and recommendations to avoid a buildup of junk
in space. Satellites that fly below a certain height are supposed to
be put in an orbit that will make them fall to Earth and burn up
within 25 years. At high altitudes, they are to be boosted up to
still higher orbits to get them out of the way.
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Interplanetary spacecraft
The Moon
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Some data
See also:
• http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/moonfact.html
• http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/sunfact.html
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Planetary data
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Planetary orbits
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(4.3 ly
= 1.3 pc)
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Missions to Venus
43 missions to Venus have
been launched since 1961:
• Russian Venera probes
• USA's Mariner probes.
27 were successful, including flybys, Mariner 10 (1973)
orbiters, landers and aerostatic balloons.
UPC‐ETSEIAT VE‐T01‐2012B
The average conditions on the
Venusian surface are:
T = 737K , P = 92 bar.
Venus Express (ESA,2005)
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Missions to Mars
> 40 missions to Mars have been
launched since 1960:
• Soviet programme Marsnik,
• USA's Mariner probes and
Viking orbiters (60's‐70's)
18 were successful, including
flybys, orbiters, landers and rovers.
The average conditions on
the surface of Mars are:
T = 215K
P = 7mb
MGS (’97‐’06)
MER (Spirit &
Opportunity, 2003)
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4 Missions to Saturn
Cassini‐Huygens: NASA/ESA
launched in 1997 arrived at Saturn
July 2004. Performed 4‐years tour.
Now on extended mission.
Huygens probe plunged
into Titan’s atmosphere.
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9 Missions to Jupiter
Voyager 1,2, Pioneer 10, 11, Galileo,
Cassini/Huygens, Ulysses, New Horizons,
Juno
Juno (2016)
Galileo (1995)
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• Space agencies (government):
– ESA [DLR,ASI,CNES, INTA]
– NASA
– JAXA (Japan)
– CNSA (China)
– Roscosmos (Russia)
– ISRO (India)
– CSA (Canada)
• Private companies:
– RSC Energia ‐ Virgin Galactic ‐ Arianespace
– SpaceX ‐ Lockheed Martin
– Sea Launch ‐ EADS Astrium
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22 member states:
Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic,
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France,
Germany, Greece, Hungary,
Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,
The Netherlands, Norway, Poland,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,
United Kingdom
+ cooperating states
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ESA’s 2015 budget
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ESA’s funding
• ESA’s activities fall into two categories – ‘mandatory’ and
‘optional’. Programmes carried out under the General Budget
and the Science Programme budget are ‘mandatory’; they
include the agency’s basic activities (studies on future projects,
technology research, shared technical investments, information
systems and training programmes).
• All Member States contribute to these programmes on a scale
based on their Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The other
programmes, known as ‘optional’, are only of interest to some
Member States, who are free to decide on their level of
involvement.
• Optional programmes cover areas such as Earth observation,
telecommunications, satellite navigation and space
transportation. Similarly, the International Space Station and
microgravity research are financed by optional contributions.
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ESA’s establishments and facilities
• Headquarters (Paris)
• ESTEC (Noordwijk)
• ESOC (Darmstadt)
• ESRIN (Frascati)
• EAC (Colonia)
• ESAC (Villanueva de la Cañada)
• CSG (Kourou)
• Redu
• ECSAT (Harwell)
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• http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/How_a_mission_is_chosen
The ESA scientific programme is based on a continuous flow of projects that fulfil
its scientific goals
Call for proposals Scientific community (universities, research centers)
Each call for missions usually generates up to 100 responses from academic
groups and the mission proposals may cater to astronomy, solar system or
fundamental physics research needs.
Mission downselect
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What’s next?
• Development of
– Launchers
– Propulsion (engines, thrusters)
– New technologies / concepts: e.g., solar sail, responsive satellites
– New materials
– New techniques: aerocapture at giant planets to make capture feasible
What’s next?
• Manned missions: asteroid? Mars? Moon?
• Services: global positioning constellations, high res. observation of the Earth,
disaster monitoring