Swiss Space Systems Holding SA (S3): Mock-up test flights of SOAR shuttle planned

The Swiss S3 SOAR shuttle. Initially, the small-scale shuttle mock-up, including its drone systems, will be captive-carried by a helicopter. 

In a second phase, it will be released from a helicopter at an altitude of 5,000 meters, which will enable testing of flight systems and the aerodynamics of the shuttle, in parallel of a wind tunnel testing campaign conducted in the US to validate aerodynamics.

Swiss Space Systems Holding SA (S3) has announced its partnership with the City of North Bay and Canadore College.

This partnership will enable S3 to initiate several technical activities from this Canadian region, a highly interesting zone, because of its geographic situation and its large available test flight corridors.

The first operations to be conducted from the North Bay Jack Garland Airport (YYB) will be drop tests and mock-up test flights of the SOAR shuttle, a reusable suborbital rocket-powered vehicle designed to orbit satellites of up to 250kg.

This campaign will begin in 2014 and will extend throughout the 2015 academic year.

Initially, the small-scale shuttle mock-up, including its drone systems, will be captive-carried by a helicopter.

In a second phase, it will be released from a helicopter at an altitude of 5,000 meters, which will enable testing of flight systems and the aerodynamics of the shuttle, in parallel of a wind tunnel testing campaign conducted in the US to validate aerodynamics.


For this test campaign, S3 will count on the technical and operational support of the North Bay Jack Garland Airport (YYB) and Canadore College, with its dedicated Aviation Technology Campus.

The campus benefits from funding from the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario (FedNor) and the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC), which in turn enables Canadore College to support S3's mock-up test flights.

S3 continues to develop from its headquarters of Payerne, Switzerland. The company has expanded its network of industrial and academic partners, as well as its network of operation centers including Malaysia (Spaceport Malaysia), the United States (Spaceport Colorado and Kennedy Space Center) and the Canary Islands (S3 Spain).

SAR-400: Russia to launch first android robot to ISS

A robot, model SAR-400 android, is destined for the International Space Station (ISS) as helpmate for Russian cosmonauts aboard. Scientists have started testing the first Russian robot designed to work in outer space.

Russia is planning to send its first android robot, SAR-400, to assist Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station.

The robot is currently undergoing tests at the Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Center near Moscow.

Plans for its future were announced by Oleg Gordiyenko, science directorate deputy head at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre Research Institute, announced on Thursday at a space industry conference.

"It's to perform operations both aboard the ISS and outside," he said. "Scientists' plans envision introducing robots in manned cosmonautics. This is a promising avenue of research for coming years."

So far, the robot can perform the tasks that are simple yet involve risk for crew, such as inspections of the station's outer surface for possible damage and subsequent repairs, the center's deputy director Oleg Gordiyenko said at a conference on the development of space rocket equipment and aerospace engineering training.

In particular, SAR-400 can be used for visual inspection of the spacecraft to assess damage and conduct repairs.

The anthropomorphic robot, SAR-400, was developed by the Scientific-Production Association Android Technology.

It has two robotic arms that end with five "fingers" and uses some technologies developed in the former Soviet Union for the Mir space laboratory and Buran space vehicle.

It will set out for the ISS within the next two years and may also be used during potential future missions to the Moon and Mars, Gordiyenko said.

The robot is 144 kilos heavy.

Controllers plan to loft the android to the ISS within two years to partner a US robot already there. Future destinations are likely to be missions to the Moon and Mars.

Soviet-era technologies have been put to use in developing the machine-man. Its manipulators have their roots in the Russian Buran shuttle programme and the pioneering Mir space station, now junk beneath Pacific waves since its work was brought to a close.

ESA and Russia Plan Probe Landing on Jupiter's Moon, Ganymede

An artist's illustration of the JUpiter ICy moons Explorer spacecraft in the Jovian system. The mission will launch in 2022 and arrive at Jupiter in 2030 to study the planet and its largest moons.

CREDIT: ESA/AOES

A Russian probe being designed to land on Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon, could launch toward the gas giant with a European spacecraft being developed to explore Jupiter's icy ocean-covered satellites, according to European space officials.

The benefits of such a joint launch arrangement, including sharing reconnaissance and mapping from Europe's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE), are not lost on scientists. But more Earthly concerns, such as government finances and the realities of technical developments, could thwart the proposal.

"It all depends on if the Russians are ready to fly at the same time as us," said Alvaro Gimenez Canete, director of the European Space Agency (ESA)'s science and robotic exploration programs.

The solar system's giant
JUICE is scheduled to launch in 2022 and arrive at Jupiter in 2030, entering orbit around the huge planet and making repeated flybys of three of its largest moons — Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.

In September 2032, the European spacecraft will arrive at Ganymede, becoming the first probe to enter orbit around the moon of another planet. Equipped with radar, a mapping camera and other instruments, JUICE will measure the thickness of global ice sheets covering Jupiter's moons and produce terrain and mineral maps of Ganymede.

Such data will prove to be a rich resource not only for researchers, but also for engineers planning missions to explore Ganymede's surface and study what lies beneath the moon's crust of ice, Gimenez told reporters at the Paris Air Show this week.

"Russia's plan is to implement a Ganymede Lander, which is a very ambitious mission," said Fabio Favata, head of ESA's science planning and community coordination office, which oversees the strategic direction of the space agency's space science programs.

Favata said the Russian mission, for now known by scientists simply as the Ganymede Lander, has captured the interest of Europe's planetary science community.

An illustration of Russia's planned Ganymede lander that could explore the Jupiter moon as part of the European Space Agency's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer mission.

CREDIT: ESA/Roscosmos

Europa or Ganymede?

Russian mission planners initially proposed the lander to target Europa, another of Jupiter's moons with a frozen crust thinner than the ice cap covering Ganymede. After a NASA mission to orbit Europa never materialized, Russia retooled the project to focus on Ganymede, falling in line with the goals of Europe's Jupiter mission.

There are numerous advantages of landing on Ganymede as opposed to Europa. The radiation environment at Ganymede is less severe than at Europa, which lies closer to Jupiter; this is one of the reasons ESA picked Ganymede as the destination for JUICE, Gimenez said.

According to presentations at a workshop hosted by Russia's Space Research Institute in Moscow in March, Russian scientists say mapping and reconnaissance of Ganymede are required before any attempted landing. Russia's concept for the mission, which assumes no international collaboration for now, includes an orbiter and a lander to be dispatched to Ganymede in 2023 or 2024.

The scope of a potential partnership between Europe and Russia on robotic Jupiter exploration ranges from no collaboration to a completely merged program in which JUICE and the Ganymede Lander would launch from Earth together on the journey into the outer solar system.

Another option — perhaps the most likely, scientists say — is a loose collaboration involving complementary scientific goals, shared development of science instruments, and the use of the JUICE mission to help select a landing site on Ganymede.

ESA Plan for modified Ariane-5 rocket gets backing at Paris Air Show

An Ariane 5 rocket carrying two satellites is pictured after blasting off on February 7, 2013, at the European space centre in Kourou, French Guiana.

Two major figures in the European space industry on Monday backed plans to modify the Ariane 5 rocket to help it shoot larger satellites into orbit.

Two major figures in the European space industry on Monday backed plans to modify the Ariane 5 rocket to help it shoot larger satellites into orbit.

The head of the European Space Agency, Jean-Jacques Dordain, said he would ask ESA member states for fast-track approval to have the modification carried out by the end of 2015.

"The proposal has been made, and this week or next week we will be discussing at the next (ESA) Launchers Programme Board," he told a press conference at the Paris Air Show.

"(...) The goal is to have the modification operational by 2015 at the latest," he said.

The idea had been floated by the new head of satellite launch firm Arianespace, Stephane Israel, whose firm markets services from Kourou, French Guiana, by ESA's Ariane and Vega rockets and Russia's veteran Soyuz.

In an interview with AFP earlier this month, Israel called for a modification of the successful Ariane 5 ECA launcher so that it can handle larger electric-propelled satellites, one of the most promising areas of the satellite launch market.

The proposed "Ariane 5 ECA Adaptation" would have a larger fairing, or nose cone, to accomodate the more voluminous payload.

Separately, the new head of France's National Centre for Space Studies (CNES), a major contributor to ESA and shareholder in Arianespace, said Monday he also backed the "adaptation" plan.

"Obviously, this is something that we fully support, as it's the key to ensuring that the Ariane 5 ECA can meet trends in the satellite market," said Jean-Yves Le Gall, who moved from Arianespace to CNES earlier this year.

Israel's proposal coincides with a mood of belt-tightening among ESA's 20 nations, many of whom are grappling with budget problems at home.

Dordain, though, did not seem to think that getting the modification money would be a problem. "It's not extravagant sums... around 30 million (euros)," or $39.9 million, he said.

France and Switzerland, whose industries would carry out most of the modification work, would be asked to contribute the lion's share, he indicated.

Israel said the Ariane adaptation would not affect plans for an Ariane 5 ME, which ESA hopes will be ready by 2017, or for its successor Ariane 6, whose maiden launch would be in 2021-2022.

Europe has been faced with tough decisions about how to cope with the fast-changing satellite launch market.

Some experts see a movement towards larger satellites but others expect a trend to smaller ones that can be launched in batches.

NASA Cowboys Plan to Lasso a passing NEO /Asteroid - Video update

Sen. Bill Nelson announced a bold plan to 'lasso' a passing asteroid and bring it closer to our planetary system for examination. 

Credit: Nasa

ESA Plan Multi Dome Lunar Base Using 3D Printing

Multi-dome lunar base being constructed, based on the 3D printing concept. 

Once assembled, the inflated domes are covered with a layer of 3D-printed lunar regolith by robots to help protect the occupants against space radiation and micrometeoroids.

Setting up a lunar base could be made much simpler by using a 3D printer to build it from local materials. Industrial partners including renowned architects Foster + Partners have joined with ESA to test the feasibility of 3D printing using lunar soil.

"Terrestrial 3D printing technology has produced entire structures," said Laurent Pambaguian, heading the project for ESA.

"Our industrial team investigated if it could similarly be employed to build a lunar habitat."

Architects Foster + Partners devised a weight-bearing 'catenary' dome design with a cellular structured wall to shield against micrometeoroids and space radiation, incorporating a pressurised inflatable to shelter astronauts.

A 2,205-pound (1,000 kilograms - Metric Ton) piece of what part of the home could look like.

A hollow closed-cell structure - reminiscent of bird bones - provides a good combination of strength and weight.

The base's design was guided in turn by the properties of 3D-printed lunar soil, with a 1.5 tonne building block produced as a demonstration.

"3D printing offers a potential means of facilitating lunar settlement with reduced logistics from Earth," added Scott Hovland of ESA's human spaceflight team.

"The new possibilities this work opens up can then be considered by international space agencies as part of the current development of a common exploration strategy."

"As a practice, we are used to designing for extreme climates on Earth and exploiting the environmental benefits of using local, sustainable materials," remarked Xavier De Kestelier of Foster + Partners Specialist Modelling Group.

"Our lunar habitation follows a similar logic."

The UK's Monolite supplied the D-Shape printer, with a mobile printing array of nozzles on a 6 m frame to spray a binding solution onto a sand-like building material.

NASA Scientist Plan Return to Uranus

A pair of enhanced images of Uranus from the Keck telescope on Hawaii are among the best from the Earth. Credit: Lawrence Sromovsky, University of Wisconsin-Madison/ W. M. Keck Observatory

An image of Uranus, its rings and moons from the Hubble space telescope in 1997. Credit NASA/ESA

While spacecraft continue to study the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, some space scientists are clamouring for missions to the neglected planets of the Solar System.

A NASA probe, New Horizons, is currently racing towards an ex-planet, Pluto, to speed past and tell us more about that world and its Kuiper Belt relatives. But ice giants Uranus and Neptune have not been properly studied from space since the Voyager missions of the 1980s.

There are no plans currently to return to the most distant planet Neptune. However, NASA has made a Uranus mission the third highest priority for planetary exploration in the 2020s, after another martian rover and further study of Jupiter.

The US financial crisis has put many future missions on hold due to budgetary restraints. But planetary scientists are pressing for such a mission to fly as soon as possible, especially after a similar proposal for a European mision, Uranus Pathfinder, was passed over in 2011.

Obama concedes to Putin's demands for reduced anti-missile plan

Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin praised President Obama Friday for canceling a plan for an antiballistic missile system in Eastern Europe that Russia had deemed a threat, suggesting that the move would lead to improved relations between their countries.

“I very much hope that this correct and brave decision will be followed by others,” Mr. Putin said. So look out for more pressure and more demands from the East.

The Obama decision on Thursday replaced the Bush administration antimissile plan with a reconfigured system focused on short- and medium-range missiles.

Mr. Putin and other Russian officials who spoke to reporters on Friday did not say whether Russia would respond with concessions to the United States, particularly on the issue of Iran’s nuclear program and its overall military capabilities.

The Obama administration has indicated that it believes Iran has made significant strides in recent months in developing a nuclear weapon, but Russia, which has veto power in the United Nations Security Council, has resisted increasing sanctions against Iran.

The Russian officials did indicate that the Kremlin would withdraw its threat to base short-range missiles on Russia’s western border, in Kaliningrad.

Also on Friday, in another sign of warming in relations, NATO called for new cooperation between the alliance and Moscow, including possible coordination between antimissile systems.