Student Contest Launches to Aid Private Manned Mission to Mars

An artist's illustration of the Inspiration Mars Foundation's spacecraft for a 2018 mission to Mars by a two-person crew. 

The private Mars mission would be a flyby trip around the Red Planet.

Credit: Inspiration Mars Foundation

A private manned Mars mission may get some help from students on its way to the launch pad in 2018.

A newly announced contest asks students to propose design concepts for the Inspiration Mars mission, a private effort that aims to launch two astronauts on a flyby of the Red Planet in January 2018.

"Inspiration Mars is looking for the most creative ideas from engineers all over the world," Dennis Tito, executive director of the nonprofit Inspiration Mars Foundation, said in a statement Friday (Aug. 16).

"Furthermore, we want to engage the explorers of tomorrow with a real and exciting mission, and demonstrate what a powerful force space exploration can be in inspiring young people to develop their talent," added Tito, a multimillionaire who in 2001 became the first space tourist when he paid his own way to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

"This contest will accomplish both of those objectives."



The competition, which is organized by the nonprofit Mars Society, challenges teams of university students from around the world to design a two-person 2018 Mars flyby mission as cheaply and safely as possible.

KickSat co-creator, team launches new 'Pocket Spacecraft' project on Kickstarter

One of the team members who successfully launched KickSat on Kickstarter has started a new project called "Pocket Spacecraft" with the aim of launching thousands of CD shaped "space craft" into space and landing them back on Earth or on the moon.

KickSat project was designed to allow anyone (for a small price) to put a tiny satellite aboard a rocket and have it launched and sent into an orbit around Earth.

That Kickstarter project reached its funding goals and is now scheduled for launch sometime later this year.

Upload a profile picture/avatar (left) or school, club or company pennant (middle) to a shared spacecraft, or customise the whole of your Earth or Lunar Scout personal spacecraft! (right)

In this new project, the team wants to give anyone who wishes to do so, the opportunity to send a craft to space and back, or more optimistically, to the moon.

At the heart of the project is the Pocket Spacecraft—it's shape and size is similar to a DVD only smaller and much thinner.

The idea is to pack thousands of them onto a craft that is itself put aboard a rocket.

Upon launch, some of the Pocket Spacecraft will be released into space where they will fall back to Earth—others will continue on to the moon where they will be set free to crash-land onto its surface.

Each Pocket Spacecraft is up for sale—those who wish to purchase one can upload pictures or messages to it, or even add some programming. Each has a solar panel on it, electronic circuitry and communications gear that will allow for its owner to track its movements with their cell phone.

Prices for the Pocket Spacecraft vary depending on whether the buyer wants their craft to fall back to Earth (Earth Scout-£99), or travel on to the moon (Lunar Scout-£199).

Other options are also available to allow for groups to share a craft.

Many of the craft are expected to survive falling to Earth—those falling to moon's surface, on the other hand will perish.

Pocket Mission Control will allow you to monitor your spacecraft telemetry (d), onboard apps (e), your training achievements (f), ground station status (g), and where your spacecraft is in space (h) 

Those who sign up to the project and buy a craft will be able to watch as their Pocket Spacecraft is made, tested, packed and carried to a rocket for launch.

On its Kickstarter page, the team says they hope to collect the £290,000 goal needed for the project to proceed, and that if all goes as planned, would like to create a similar project for launching tiny craft to other planets in the solar system as well.

Russia grounds Proton rocket launches after accident

Image taken on December 5, 2010 shows a Proton-M rocket blasting off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. 

Russia is suspending the launches of Proton rockets after an unmanned rocket carrier exploded on takeoff this week, a source on the cosmodrome said Thursday.

Russia is suspending the launches of Proton rockets after an unmanned rocket carrier exploded on takeoff this week, a source on the Russian Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan said Thursday.

"The investigation commission that is looking into the causes of the accident on July 2 has made a decision to stop the preparations for the planned Proton rocket launches from Baikonur," the source told Interfax news agency.

The next launch was set for July 20, he said, but the rocket, as well as the Briz-M upper stage rocket and the satellite Astra 2E that was to be carried into space were on Thursday being moved to storage.

"Due to the accident the launches will be pushed back to later dates and will resume only after the commission finishes its work and after its recommendations are put to use," the source added.

Other Proton launches this year were scheduled for the American radio satellite Sirius FM6 on August 14, Russia's Kosmos military satellite on September 5, Russian communications satellite Ekspress AM5 in October and Turkish Turksat 4A in November, he said.

The Proton rocket is Russia's most popular for unmanned commercial launches and analysts have said that Tuesday's accident, in which a Proton-M rocket fell apart mid-air, was a major blow that could lead businessmen to look for alternative carriers.

Astra 2E was manufactured by EADS to provide broadcast and broadband services in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The website of SES satellite operator gave its launch date as July 21.

On Tuesday, the ill-fated carrier rocket veered off its vertical trajectory and dramatically erupted into a ball of fire before falling to the ground a couple of kilometres from the launchpad. Locals were told to stay indoors due to the danger of noxious fumes from the rocket's toxic fuel.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said after the accident that "harsh decisions" will be taken and that "Russia's rocket and space industry cannot continue to exist in its current form."

Orbital Sciences: Antares Rocket Launches

The Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket is seen as it launches from Pad-0A of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, Sunday, April 21, 2013.

The test launch marked the first flight of Antares and the first rocket launch from Pad-0A. The Antares rocket delivered the equivalent mass of a spacecraft, a so-called mass simulated payload, into Earth's orbit.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Arianespace Launches Two Satellites

Arianespace Launches Two Satellites

This latest successful launch of Ariane 5, the third in 2010, once again proves the launcher's operational capabilities.

Ariane 5 is the only commercial satellite launcher now on the market capable of simultaneously launching two payloads and handling a complete range of missions, from commercial launches into geostationary orbit to scientific satellites boosted into special orbits.

The 52nd launch of an Ariane 5, and the 38th successful mission in a row, clearly confirms the launcher's reliability and availability. Arianespace's launch Service and Solutions continue to set the global standard and guarantee independent access to space for all customers, including national and international space agencies, private firms and governments.

With this evening's mission, Arianespace has now orbited six out of eleven commercial communications satellites launched worldwide since the beginning of the year, or more than half of the total. At the same time, Arianespace has signed nine new launch contracts for geostationary satellites to be orbited by Ariane 5, and five contracts for dedicated Soyuz launches, a new record.

ILS Proton Launches Arabsat Badr 5

ILS Proton Launches Arabsat Badr 5

Good, Better and Badr - An International Launch Services (ILS) Proton rocket lifted off from Kazakhstan June 4 to successfully place the Arabsat Badr-5 telecommunications satellite into geostationary transfer orbit, ILS and Arabsat announced.

It was the sixth launch of Russia’s Proton rocket this year and the 23rd launch in 22 months.

Badr-5, built by Astrium Satellites and Thales Alenia Space of Europe, carries 56 Ku- and four Ka-band transponders. It will operated from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-based Arabsat’s 26 degrees east orbital slot, where it will be co-located with the Badr-4 and Badr-6 satellites.

Weighing 5,420 kilograms at launch, Badr-5 is designed to provide 14 kilowatts of power to its payload and to permit the 21-nation Arabsat to back up its other Badr spacecraft in the event of an on-board failure on one of them.

The launch was the fourth of a planned seven commercial missions that Reston, Va.-based ILS plans in 2010. Moscow-based Khrunichev, which owns ILS and is prime contractor for the Proton rocket, including its Breeze-M upper stage, is producing rockets at a rate to assure one launch per month, when ILS and Russian government missions are combined.

Arabsat Badr-4 Ku-band BSS @ 26°East - Downlink Footprint

Check out the Arabsat Website and the Arabsat Badr-4 Technical User's Guide. There are some similarities.

China Launches Third Orbiter For Indigenous GPS

China took one step forward in its ambition to build an independent global navigation network (GPS) capable of rivaling foreign congeneric systems with the successful launch of a new orbiter into space early Sunday morning.

Boosted by a Long-March-3III carrier rocket into a geostationary orbit from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, it was the third orbiter China has launched for the network, also known as Beidou, or COMPASS system.

It will join another two already in orbits to form a network which will eventually have a total of 35 satellites, capable of providing global navigation service to users around the world around 2020.

The new orbiter and the carrier rocket were researched and developed by Chinese Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and Chinese Academy of Carrier Rocket Technology respectively.

The network will have five satellites in geostationary orbit and another 30 in non-geostationary orbits, according to a plan for the COMPASS system.

According to the plan, the system will firstly provide navigation, time signal and short message services in the Asia and Pacific region around 2012.

The COMPASS system will provide both open and authorized services, according to China's satellite navigation project center.

The open service will be free of charge for the system's users within service area with a resolution of 10 meters for positioning, an accuracy of 10 nanosecond for time signal and an accuracy of 0.2 meter per second for speed measurement.

The authorised service will provide more accurate services for authorized users.

JAXA: Japan Launches Spy Satellite Under Veil of Secrecy

In an unpublicised launch lacking fanfare, an H-2A rocket successfully boosted Japan's most advanced spy satellite to orbit on Saturday from the country's island space center.

The 174-foot-tall launcher lifted off at 0121 GMT Saturday (8:21 p.m. EST Friday) from Launch Pad No. 1 at the Yoshinobu complex on the southern shore of Tanegashima Island. The rocket's launch occurred at 10:21 a.m. local time.

The two-stage rocket turned south from Tanegashima and jettisoned a pair of solid fuel-burning boosters two minutes into the flight. The hydrogen-fueled first and second stages propelled the top secret Information Gathering Satellite into a polar orbit about 15 minutes after leaving Earth.

Japanese government officials declared the launch a success, according to news reports.

The mission was shrouded in secrecy at the space center, which is operated by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The space agency released no information on the launch, and a JAXA web camera was turned away from the launch complex after the H-2A rocket rolled to the pad.

The supposed payload was a more than $500 million satellite outfitted with an optical camera and telescope to supply imagery to the Japanese government for intelligence, defense and civilian remote sensing applications. The spacecraft will become the fifth operational member of Japan's spy satellite fleet.

Two optical reconnaissance craft and two satellites with ground-mapping radars were deployed on previous launches. Radars in orbit can collect all-weather imagery during day and night passes.

Another set of spy satellites were lost in an H-2A launch failure in 2003, the only blemish in 16 flights of Japan's workhorse launcher.

Japan established the space-based reconnaissance program after North Korea fired a test missile over Japanese territory in 1998. The country's spy satellites have become increasingly more advanced since then, but officials have provided no official specifications on the satellite launched Saturday.

Another North Korean missile test over Japan in April prompted further consideration of an early warning satellite with an infrared sensor dedicated to detecting missile launches.

Saturday's flight was the third Japanese space launch of the year, including the maiden launch of the beefed up H-2B rocket with the HTV cargo ship for the International Space Station.

Russia successfully launches US satellite after 24 hr delay

Russia launched a US Intelsat-15 telecommunications satellite from Kazakhstan after a 24-hour delay for unspecified technical reasons, Interfax news agency said Tuesday.

"The launch went as planned," an official from Russia's Roskosmos space agency was quoted as saying, adding that the Zenit rocket took off at precisely 2100 GMT.

The Intelsat-15 satellite, produced by US-based Orbital Sciences Corporation, is due to provide communications service for customers in the Middle East and Russia.

United Launch: Alliance Launches Intelsat 14

United Launch Alliance deployed its fourth commercial mission of 2009 as an Atlas V rocket successfully launched the Intelsat 14 (IS-14) commercial telecommunications satellite at 1:55 a.m. EST.

Blasting off from Space Launch Complex-41 here, the launch was provided on behalf of Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services, which procured the Atlas V for this mission. Previous ULA commercial launches this year included the Delta IV GOES-O launch for NASA/NOAA on June 27, the Atlas V PAN mission on Sept. 8 and the Delta II WorldView-2 mission Oct. 8.

According to Intelsat, its IS-14 spacecraft will provide high-powered video and data services through its 40 C-band and 22 Ku-band payload to customers throughout the Americas, Europe and Africa. It will replace the Intelsat IS-1R satellite once it's operational.

Intelsat 14 was built by Space Systems/Loral and also hosted a payload for the Internet Router in Space or IRIS program for the Department of Defense.

"ULA congratulates our commercial space partners Intelsat, Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services, and Space Systems/Loral on their mission success," said Mark Wilkins, ULA vice president of the Atlas product line.

"ULA also appreciates the dedicated and professional support from the Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center and 45th Space Wing in the success of the launch. With this launch, nine of the Atlas V's 19 launches since 2002 have been commercial missions, demonstrating the outstanding flexibility of the Atlas V team to support both government and commercial customers."

This mission, designated AV-024, was launched aboard an Atlas V 431 configuration using a Common Core Booster powered by a RD-180 engine, three Aerojet strap-on solid rocket motors, a Centaur upper stage powered by a Pratt and Whitney-manufactured RL10 engine, and a 4-meter diameter fairing. This successful Intelsat-14 launch represents the 35th launch by ULA since it's formation in Dec 2006.

ULA's next launch is the Delta IV Wideband Global SATCOM-3 mission for the Air Force currently scheduled for Dec. 2 with a launch window of 7:21 - 8:53 p.m. EST. The launch will occur from SLC-37 here.