The Eutelsat-9B satellite with its EDRS-A payload is shown in the anechoic test chamber of Airbus Defence and Space (EADS) in Toulouse, France. It completed its final antenna pattern tests today.
EDRS-A is a hosted package as the first of two nodes of the European Data Relay System set to be launched next year.
Also known as Europe’s SpaceDataHighway, EDRS will use cutting-edge laser technology to capture and relay information gathered by Earth-observing satellites.
By travelling via EDRS’s high-speed links and stationary position over Europe, the satellites’ data reach the ground in near-real time.
On Friday, 28 November the first Earth observation image gathered by Sentinel-1A and relayed to a ground station at the DLR German Aerospace Center in Oberpfaffenhofen,
Germany, via Alphasat will be presented at an event at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany.
On 17 November, ESA signed a contract in Berlin with the Airbus Defence and Space division to develop and build the European Service Module for Orion, NASA’s new crewed spacecraft.
It is the first time that Europe will provide system-critical elements for an American space transportation vehicle.
NASA intends to use this service module for the 2017 unmanned flight of Orion. The vehicle will perform a high-altitude orbital mission around the Moon.
This flight will be a precursor for future Orion human space exploration missions beyond low-Earth orbit.
The official name of Orion is ‘Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle’, because the spacecraft can be used to conduct different missions. Eventually, NASA will use Orion to send astronauts to Mars.
NASA’s Orion spacecraft will carry astronauts further into space than ever before using a module based on Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATV).
ATV’s distinctive four-wing solar array is recognisable in this concept. The ATV-derived service module, sitting directly below Orion’s crew capsule, will provide propulsion, power, thermal control, as well as supplying water and gas to the astronauts in the habitable module.
The first Orion mission will be an uncrewed lunar flyby in 2017, returning to Earth’s atmosphere at 11 km/s – the fastest reentry ever.
Credit: ESA
The design of the European Service Module (ESM) is based on the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), the European supply craft for the International Space Station. It is a major achievement, as this is the first European development of a human spacecraft operating beyond Earth orbit.
“Being selected by NASA to develop critical elements for the Orion project – currently their most important exploration project – is a clear recognition of Europe’s performance in the frame of the ATV programme,” says Nico Dettmann, Head of ESA’s Space Transportation Department.
“Cooperation with NASA is going well. It is fruitful and is happening with the same good spirit as with the International Space Station partnership,” he adds.
The ESM is a cylindrical module with a diameter of 4.5 metres and a total length – main engine excluded – of 2.7 metres. It is fitted with four solar array ‘wings’ with a span of 18.8 metres. Its dry mass is 3.5 metric tons and it can carry 8.6 tons of propellant. Besides propulsion and power, ESM carries consumables.
The Critical Design Review (CDR) is planned for 2015.
The same device that opens doors on buses and planes could be used to meet peak energy demands on satellites.
Most satellites use small rechargeable batteries that can store large amounts of energy.
Supercapacitors do not hold as much, but they have a special ability to deliver very high bursts for a few seconds.
They're durable, too, and can easily last the 15 years of a satellite's life.
On municipal buses, they are charged during braking and supply electricity to open and close the doors when the vehicle stops, and help to get it moving again.
On the new EADS Airbus A380, supercapacitors help to operate the aircraft's heavy doors. In an emergency, they can even do it independently of the aircraft's central power system.
While a typical space battery can deliver around 200 W/kg, banks of supercapacitors can deliver up to 50 times more power for short durations.
The studies carried out under ESA's ARTES programme found that this could keep a satellite's power supply from fluctuating as instruments draw energy.
If the electricity supply to instruments falls too low this could cause them to switch off or work below par.
Bank of supercapacitors. Credit: ESA
Other applications include the pyrotechnic separation mechanisms on rockets, high-power radar for Earth observation, and electric propulsion for repositioning and decommissioning satellites.
On top of this, smaller and lighter batteries could be used in combination with supercapacitors.
"Our work on supercapacitors reflects ESA's commitment to ensuring that the European and Canadian space industries remain at the very forefront of developments in electric energy storage systems for telecommunications," notes ESA's Energy Storage Engineer, Brandon Buergler.
Perlan Project is still seeking sponsors and partners and associates for the mission and its international educational programmes seeking to inspire and promote science and technology education.
Perlan Project is pleased to announce that it has partnered with EADS Airbus Group, a global leader in aerospace, to fly a glider to the edge of space (+90,000 feet - 27,432 metres).
Project Inc. Tom Enders, CEO of EADS Airbus Group, stated, "Our company is built on the shoulders of aviation pioneers who pushed boundaries in their own times, people who flew higher, farther, faster.
Hence, when we learned of the Perlan Project and its quest to soar to record heights, we knew we needed to find a way to be a part of it.
Perlan high altitude glider goes to 90,000 feet in X-Plane simulation
"Partnering with the Perlan team is consistent with our core values of furthering innovation in aerospace and of inspiring the next generation of designers, manufacturers and aviators."
"After a thorough evaluation of the engineering and scientific planning behind the Perlan Project, EADS Airbus Group is convinced that this important mission will be a success," stated Botti.
"We believe it is critically important for us to advance climate science and aerodynamics research. With the Airbus Perlan Mission II, we particularly see an opportunity to gain experience and data related to very high altitude flight; an area of interest for future aerospace applications."
Einar commented that "when Perlan Project began focusing on securing partnerships to help us complete the mission, we never dreamed we would be so fortunate as to secure a partner of the calibre of EADS Airbus Group.
"Thanks to their technological and financial support, we are well on our way to the edge of space. Now it's just a matter of completing the world's most innovative glider and catching the right wave."
"We are proud and excited to be a part of the project team, and we look forward to bringing our engineering and manufacturing expertise to the table to help ensure the success of the (EADS) Airbus Perlan Mission II," added EADS Airbus Group CEO Enders.
Perlan Project is still seeking sponsors and partners and associates for the mission and its international educational programmes seeking to inspire and promote science and technology education.
EADS Airbus chief Tom Enders and Safran (Snecma) boss Jean-Paul Herteman are to meet French President Francois Hollande in Paris early Monday, after which a deal is expected to be announced for their companies to jointly manufacture Europe's Ariane 6 rockets, Les Echos said.
The deal was being made because, "despite proven reliability, Ariane suffers from an overly fragmented industrial organisation... that badly hurts its competitiveness" while SpaceX "works in a totally integrated fashion", Les Echos reported.
The Ariane 6 rockets are designed to put single payloads into orbit and are to be cheaper than the heavier and bigger Ariane 5 rockets currently used, which carry two satellites at once.
SpaceX, a private US company, already sends up smaller, cheaper launch rockets and is steadily taking over some launches that NASA used to handle.
Held on 1-4 May, the tests of Airbus Defence and Space's SpacePlane demonstrator validated the dynamic flight conditions encountered in the end-of-flight phase following a return from space.
The tests, supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board, took place 100 kilometers off the coast of Singapore and involved a fleet of seven ships.
The quarter-scale demonstrator used in the tests was built in partnership with HOPE Technik and Airbus Group Innovations, the corporate network of research centres of Airbus Group.
After being winched from the barge by an AS350 B3e Ecureuil helicopter operated by Airbus Helicopters Southeast Asia, the SpacePlane demonstrator was released at a height of around 3,000 metres.
It was then piloted from the barge as it made its return to the ground, ending its flight at sea before being picked up as planned a few hours later.
An artist's concept of the ESA's Euclid misssion to study dark energy. Credit: ESA/C. Carreau
Euclid is an ESA mission to map the geometry of the dark Universe.
The Euclidmission will investigate the distance-redshift relationship and the evolution of cosmic structures by measuring shapes and redshifts of galaxies and clusters of galaxies out to redshifts ~2, or equivalently to a look-back time of 10 billion years.
Euclid will be equipped with a 1.2 m diameter Silicon Carbide (SiC) mirror telescope made by EADS feeding 2 instruments, VIS and NISP, built by the Euclid Consortium :
a high quality panoramic visible imager (VIS),
a near infrared 3-filter (Y, J and H) photometer (NISP-P) and
a slitless spectrograph (NISP-S).
With these instruments physicists will probe the expansion history of the Universe and the evolution of cosmic structures by measuring the modification of shapes of galaxies induced by gravitational lensing effects of dark matter and the 3-dimension distribution of structures from spectroscopic redshifts of galaxies and clusters of galaxies.
The satellite will be launched by a Soyuz ST-2.1B rocket and then travel to the L2 Sun-Earth Lagrangian point for a 6 years mission.
Members of the Euclid Consortium at the Euclid Meeting in Leiden. Credit: ESA
In this way, Euclid will cover the entire period over which dark energy played a significant role in accelerating the expansion.
NASA will also participate in the ESA's Euclid mission in conjunction with it's own WFIRST-AFTA mission, searching for Dark Energy.
Last year, NASA nominated 40 American scientists to join the 14 American scientists already part of the international Euclid Consortium, the team responsible for the science, data production and instruments for the mission. NASA will also provide 16 infrared detectors for the telescope.
Euclid's goal is to understand the nature of dark energy and its role in the expansion of the universe. To do so, it plans to use two complimentary probes to study the phenomenon. The first probe will study weak gravitational lensing, while the second will examine BAOs.
Orbiting at the second Lagrangian point, Euclid will use two instruments to study a wide region of the sky free from the contaminating light from the solar system and the galaxy. It will also observe two "Euclid Deep Fields" of the early universe.
Of the approximately 10 billion sources Euclid intends to observe, more than 1 billion will be studied for weak lensing, while tens of millions of galaxies will be measured for clustering caused by BAOs.
"WFIRST-AFTA and Euclid will make complimentary observations, with WFIRST-AFTA observing fainter galaxies and Euclid observing more sky," Nasa project manager Gehrels said.
"The combined data set will be much larger and more accurate than any other BAO measurement."
When combined with ground-based observations over a variety of wavelengths, the new observations that WFIRST-AFTA and Euclidprovide, should bring significant insights into dark energy and the expansion of the universe.
"The best constraints on dark energy in the 2020s will come from a combination of Euclid, WFIRST and ground-based data," WFIRST project manager Rhodes said.
This approval gives the green light for the implementation phase, meaning that the initial hardware can now be built in the form of a structural test model.
This model will initially be used for static tests, which are due to start in the next few months. Dynamic tests e.g. simulating loads during launch will then follow over the course of next year.
This is the first time that Europe is producing critical space components for the American Orion mission.
In December 2012, US space agency NASA and the ESA agreed to certify the US' new OrionMPCV in conjunction with the ESM.
This module is based on the design and the experience gained from the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) developed and constructed by Airbus Defence and Space on behalf of ESA and used to carry supplies to the International Space Station.
"The approval of our system design by ESA together with NASA and prime project contractor Lockheed Martin Space Systems is a significant step in the programme."
"We have demonstrated the project's maturity and are now able to move from the paper-based stage to producing the actual hardware," said Francois Auque, Head of Space Systems.
"The fact that NASA has entrusted Europe with system-critical elements is a clear sign of its confidence in the transatlantic partnership and in its European partners' capabilities.
Airbus Defence and Space (EADS) and its European partners have, with ATV, developed and constructed a technological showcase project, thus paving the way for this cooperation," said Thomas Reiter, ESA Director of Human Spaceflight and Operations.
The intention is to use the Orion MPCV for human missions to the Moon, to asteroids and into deep space. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is developing and constructing the space capsule for four or more astronauts on behalf of NASA.
The MPCV-ESM, which is being developed and built by Airbus Defence and Space and based on the ATV, will provide spacecraft propulsion, power supply and life-support systems.
An initial Orion mission, or "Exploration Mission 1", is planned to be an unmanned distant retrograde mission to the lunar Lagrangian points.
The aim of this mission is not only to demonstrate the spacecraft's performance capabilities before it flies with astronauts, but also to achieve qualification for NASA's new Space Launch System rocket. As part of "Exploration Mission 2", the Orion MPCV is scheduled to be launched into space in 2021/22 with astronauts on board.
The third launch by Europe's new small launcher, Vega, has delivered Kazakhstan's first satellite for high-resolution Earth observation into its planned orbit.
Liftoff of flight VV03 from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana came at 01:35 GMT on 30 April (03:35 CEST; 22:35 local time on 29 April).
The DZZ-HR satellite was released into the target Sun-synchronous circular orbit at 750 km altitude and an inclination of 98.54º precisely 55 minutes and 29 seconds after launch.
This satellite feeds a complete range of civilian applications for the Republic of Kazakhstan. The high-resolution images will be used for mapping, monitoring natural and agricultural resources, and search and rescue during natural disasters.
On its second mission, Vega delivered three satellites into two different orbits and then, to help keep space clean, safely disposed of the upper stage to burn up high in the atmosphere over the ocean, a complex mission sequence made possible by the flexibility of the upper stage and the Vespa multisatellite adapter.
Through this launch, Vega has entered into commercial exploitation and is being operated in conjunction with the heavy-lift Ariane 5 and medium-lift Soyuz rockets at Europe's Spaceport to provide a full range of services meeting the varied demands of the launchers market.
We’ve already got electric cars and bikes, but they could soon be joined by aircraft if a bold new concept from Airbus gets off the ground.
The aircraft manufacturer has unveiled its ideas at an E-Aircraft Day including previews of E-Fan and E-Thrust planes that are powered by batteries.
A highlight was the first public flight of the electric E-Fan experimental aircraft pictured here.
The impressive creation is a training plane that comes packed with innovative technology and the maiden voyage represents a significant step forward in the development of electric aircraft.
Airbus is currently putting together plans that will see a production facility built close to Bordeaux.
Adding to the expansion is a plan to produce a four-seater version E-Fan 4.0, which will be a training and general aviation aircraft and could feature a combustion engine within the fuselage to provide an extended range or endurance.
The experimental E-Fan plane will be used as a test bed for Airbus and its move towards electric and hybrid engines in the future.
It was first shown off at the 2013 Paris Airshow and features a cutting-edge design that makes uses of composite materials, which means less weight and better durability.
The more motors allow the plane to remain nimble and easy to maneuver, making it an ideal craft for pilot training.
Although the aircraft is still in development, its lithium-ion polymer batteries can keep the plane in the air for around 30 minutes.
As Airbus increases development of both the plane and the batteries it hopes to take that flying time up to around an hour. Airbus bosses reckon that the E-Fan could be turned into a production model by 2017.
“The E-Fan project and Airbus Group’s commitment to the field of electric and hybrid research show our vision of future technological developments."
"It will not only lead to a further reduction in aircraft emissions and noise to support our environmental goals but will also lead to more economic and efficient aircraft technology in the long run."
"Our focus is to develop innovations that will help define what tomorrow’s aerospace industry will look like,” said Airbus Group Chief Technical Officer Jean Botti.
A contract valued in the hundreds of millions of euros will be signed by ESA and EADS Airbus in due course.
Two of the Metop first generation satellites have so far been launched
The existing Metop series, as it is known, has a profound impact on the quality of weather forecasting.
The satellites' sensors gather profiles of atmospheric conditions, layer by layer.
Studies comparing all the different types of meteorological observations (including surface weather stations, balloons and aeroplanes, etc) have found Metop data to have the biggest single contribution to the accuracy of the 24-hour look ahead, at around 25%.
The improved forecasts of storms and other extreme events are estimated to be worth billions of euros annually in terms of lives saved and property damage avoided.
Thursday's IPC decision is therefore a critically important one for the continent, by ensuring there is continuity of data when the existing series of Metop weather satellites is retired.
"Metop first generation has established itself as an essential series of satellites for weather forecasting. It gives the most detailed measurements from space for such purposes," explained ESA programme manager Graeme Mason.
The new large antenna (12.3m x 0.9m) of the environmental satellite Sentinel-1A´s radar instrument, developed by Airbus Defence and Space (EADS), has successfully unfolded and locked in place in the early hours of this morning (04 April 2014).
Sentinel-1A, built for the European Space Agency (ESA) by Thales Alenia Space Italy as prime contractor, is the first in a series of Earth observation satellites specially developed and built for the European ‘Copernicus’ environment and security programme.
At 23:02 CEST last night, the satellite was successfully launched on board a Soyuz launcher from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana.
“This successful start of the Sentinel-1A mission, and thus the Copernicus programme, marks a new era in Earth observation."
"With the satellite’s powerful radar instrument- the heart of the mission- and its ‘all-weather’ and ‘round-the-clock’ capabilities, Airbus Defence and Space (EADS) is making a decisive contribution to even more effective operational Earth observation that will benefit humans and nature more than ever,” says François Auque, Head of Space Systems.
“The instrument will also deliver unprecedented data to scientists."
After a flight time of only around 25 minutes, the satellite was accurately placed into its designated orbit. Initial communications with the ground showed that the system is working as planned.
Airbus Defence and Space (EADS) engineers supported European Space Agency (ESA) technicians who worked through the night at the satellite control centre in Darmstadt to unfold and lock the solar panels and the five-part, 12.3-metre-long radar antenna in several stages and with that, the Sentinel-1A satellite has passed its critical initial phase with flying colours.
All subsystems will be systematically checked over the coming days, and the radar instrument is due to be switched on in space for the first time in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The radar instrument will be thoroughly calibrated during a commissioning phase lasting approximately three months, after which routine operation can begin.
The planned mission duration is seven years but the spacecraft has resources for a total of 12 years.
59th successful launch in a row: Arianespace continues to deliver the world's most reliable launch service!
Today's successful mission, the 59th in a row for ESA's Ariane 5 ECA (Cryogenic Evolution Type A) launcher, confirms that Arianespace continues to set the standard for guaranteed access to space for all operators, whether national or international space agencies, private industry or governments.
Following the announcement of the orbital injection of the ASTRA 5BandAmazonas 4A satellites, Arianespace Chairman and CEO Stephane Israel said: "Today's successful launch, the 59th in a row for Ariane 5, confirms the unrivaled reliability and availability of the European launcher.
"We take particular pride in being able to offer this service excellence to two leading European operators, SES and Hispasat, both long-standing customers of Arianespace, as well as the European Commission, which has an EGNOS satellite navigation payload integrated on the ASTRA 5B satellite."
"In addition, I would also like to express my thanks to Airbus Defence and Space (EADS), as the industrial prime contractor for Ariane 5, to the rest of the European space industry, the teams at Kourou, the Guiana Space Center, and our partners at CNES for today's magnificent success."
EUTELSAT 3B satellite in the Mistral room for mechanical tests Copyright EADS Astrium / D. Marques
Commercial satellite fleet operators on March 11 said international regulators are using “flawed” documentation in calculating the future radio-spectrum requirements of terrestrial mobile broadband services.
The result, they said, is that overblown estimates of how much spectrum will be required for terrestrial wireless broadband will be distributed to governments worldwide in the run-up to a meeting in 2015 of global radio spectrum regulators.
Satellite companies are expecting a re-run of a 2007 fight with wireless terrestrial operators over a slice of the C-band spectrum heavily used by satellite services, particularly in less-developed nations.
It turns out to have been only a partial victory, and perhaps only a temporary one. WRC-15 is now shaping up to feature a renewed push for C-band by terrestrial wireless operators.
Unlike in 2007, these companies can now point to millions of smartphones in service as Exhibit A in their argument that they need more spectrum.
It is here that the data produced by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the Geneva-based United Nations affiliate that regulates wireless spectrum and satellite orbital positions, may have a disastrous effect on governments now starting to develop policies for WRC-15.
“We have been making good preparation this time,” said Romain Bausch, chief executive of SES of Luxembourg.
He said SES has placed representatives on the regional ITU bodies that help prepare WRC-15, and that SES recently hosted an ITU delegation led by ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Toure to assure that the satellite industry’s views are taken into account.
Bausch said among the subjects brought up with the ITU are “the difficulties we have with the [spectrum] requirements as defined by the mobile guys.”
“Let’s not be naïve,” de Rosen said, allowing as how he did not mean to question the competence of the ITU personnel, but rather that of the political delegates to WRC-15.
“This is a real struggle with people who want to take our lunch.”
After its successful launch in December, European Space Agency's (ESA) Gaia has now taken up its position in space and is ready to survey the skies.
With the help of two onboard telescopes focused onto the largest ever space camera, Gaia is estimated to catalogue nearly one billion stars in its 5-year mission.
Like Hipparcos before it, ESA's Gaia will map stars in the Milky Way. It will do this by measuring the brightest billion objects and determine their three-dimensional distribution and velocities.
It also has the ability to measure the temperature, mass, and chemical composition of these billion objects.
Gaia will be able to discern objects up to 400,000 times dimmer than those visible to the naked eye.
The positional accuracy of its measurements are akin to measuring the width of a human hair at a distance of 500 km.
The process will involve scanning each part of the sky an average of 70 times over its five-year mission lifetime.
This means scanning the entire sky twice every 63 days, once through each of the two telescopes, making it a powerful tool for spotting time-evolving phenomena such as binary systems, supernovae, and exoplanets.
Compared to ESA's Hipparcos Space Telescope, ESA's Gaia will be able to measure 500 times the number of stars, extending to objects 1000 times dimmer than the dimmest that Hipparcos could catalogue.
Test image from Gaia: Slightly shaky to start with, but it’ll get there. Credit: ESA/DPAC/Airbus DS
The technology that makes this possible is the largest camera ever launched into space – 940 million pixels.
That is why a lot of effort before launch was on figuring out exactly how to get the huge amount of data Gaia will produce back down to Earth.
When a picture is taken a number of charged-coupled devices (CCDs), the stuff most digital camera sensors are made off, are dedicated to spotting objects before they fall onto the main focal plane.
This allows the instrument to track the objects as they pass and only retain small regions around the object, reducing the file-size needed to be sent to Earth.
In five years it will send only 100 TB of data (1 TB is 1000 GB).
Once the data arrives to Earth, there is a system in place to analyse the data and distribute alerts to ground-based observatories if anything quickly evolving and potentially interesting is spotted, such as supernovae.
The catalogue produced by Gaia is expected to contribute to many areas of astrophysics;
multiply our database of exotic objects such as'
exoplanets,
white and brown dwarfs, and
supernovae many-fold, contribute to more precise measurements of General Relativity,
help to constrain the measurements of the presence and location of dark matter, and
give us more accurate information about our galactic neighbourhood and its evolution.
EADS Arianespace rockets are said to excel at lifting the heaviest European payloads into space, but a new technology allowing for lighter satellites is causing another headache for an already fast-changing industry.
The number one commercial corporation monopolising the European launcher arena, EADS Arianespace is under intense pressure from a new slate of lower-priced rivals, including US start-up Space X Falcon 9 launcher.
But now lighter-load electric propulsion used by satellites once in space is also attacking the company's hold on the business.
Also known as ion or plasma engines, in 2012 US aerospace giant Boeing was the first to commercially offer a satellite engine that uses electricity from solar panels for thrust.
While the thrust is weaker than chemical propelled engines, thus taking months instead of weeks to move a satellite after its launch to its final orbit, it uses much less propellant.
This can cut a satellite's launch weight by half, allowing it to be lifted by less powerful rockets, thus lowering costs and creating an opportunity for rivals.
To counter the threat by upstart Space X and other new competitors from India and Japan, the 20 nations that are part of the European Space Agency decided in November 2012 to develop a more powerful launcher and start studies on a second one.
The first is an update of their heavy-lift rocket, the Ariane 5, and should come on line by 2018.
The Ariane 5 ME, for midlife evolution, would increase the lift capacity of what is already the biggest commercial rocket to just over 11 tonnes from 10 tonnes.
Simultaneously, at the insistence of France, they began planning for a sleeker Ariane 6 to be ready around 2020 that would be capable of launching 6 tonnes.
To be profitable, the Ariane 5 series must carry two heavy satellites, which can entail delays.
By cutting launch costs, the Ariane 6 makes single satellite launches financially possibile.
Either-or, not both
But France's position has changed and is causing divisions with its ESA partners.
A report by France's national auditor released last week disclosed that Paris now wants to drop the Ariane 5 ME to keep down development costs and push forward with Ariane 6.
The alternative option of "pursuing the two programmes, according to a calendar still to be worked out ... risks a delay to Ariane 6 to a later date -- towards 2025," the auditor said.
Continuing with the Ariane 5 ME is clearly the preference of Berlin, France's top partner in the ESA.
"The German position is that we should continue with the Ariane 5 ME to get it onto the market as quick as possible and reflect on what the future launcher should be," the head of Germany's DLR space agency, Johann-Dietrich Woerner, told reporters.
"It won't be possible to finance both programmes 100 percent at the same time. We still need to decide if we move forward with Ariane 6," he said.
While the necessity of launching two satellites is a constraint, it also reduces fixed costs, he said.
Arianespace itself feels the Ariane 5 ME is well adapted for electric propulsion satellites, the first of which Space X is scheduled to launch at the end of this year.
After conducting a market study about electronic propulsion satellites, EADS Arianespace believes "there will be a lot of small and medium-sized satellites, and no longer the domination of big satellites that we have seen these last years," said chief executive Stephane Israel.
With a capacity to lift a payload of more than 11 tonnes, the Ariane 5 ME will prove advantageous in that it can lift multiple satellites.
"You can even put three satellites in an ME, a big one and two small ones," Israel told reporters.
"And Ariane 6, also powerful enough to lift two small satellites, will provide an "ultra-competitive" launch offer for customers," he said.
But the question remains whether a market exists for Ariane 6 in its current form and if smaller satellites prevail, it will also find itself with the same disadvantage as Ariane 5 of launching in pairs.
And it will be too big for medium-sized satellites, according to France's national auditor, which will be better served by the Russian Soyuz rockets used by Arianespace for that segment.
Economic Risk of Launchers
Launcher experts have been watching the launch vehicle industry for the past several decades and of all the interesting aspects of the business, the one that stands out the most is the fact that it is exceedingly difficult to make a profit in an industry that spends so much money.
Secondly, it is amazing that so many think they can make money providing launch services to so few customers.
A quick look around the world reveals there are dozens of launch vehicle families vying for the few sales that occur.
There is an old saying: "If you want to become a millionaire in the launch industry, you need to first be a billionaire." The road to success is, in fact, littered with bankrupt companies and ex-billionaires.
Low and behold, EADS Arianespace now finds itself faced with another financial dilemma.
Not only is the European launch company feeling the pressure of competition from the new U.S. startup, SpaceX, but the Euro/dollar exchange rate is also forcing a request to its sponsor, ESA, for more subsidies to shore up support for Ariane 5 operations at its Guiana Space Center in Kourou.
Arianespace claims it is taking steps to remain competitive with SpaceX. However, over the past few months Falcon 9 has begun servicing communications satellite operators, having launched its first two commercial GEO missions.
It is important to note that SpaceX is not subsidized, while EADS Arianespace continues to enjoy well over $100 million in annual gifts from the 20-nation European Space Agency.
The reality of the situation is that EADS Arianespace's subsidies make it non-competitive.
Competition is good. It leads to better products and services at lower prices. It is hard to feel sorry for EADS Arianespace, whose subsidies have been cut in recent years, while it complains about having to face real competition.
European Airbus Defence and Space (EADS), number two worldwide in space technologies and ESA's prime contractor, has been awarded a 60-million-euro contract by the European Space Agency (ESA) to continue definition and feasibility studies in 2014, for the new Ariane 6 European launcher.
These studies will pinpoint the detailed architecture developed so far and consolidate the launcher's main characteristics.
The results of these studies will be revealed in November 2014 at ESA's System Requirements Review (SRR).
Validation of the programme's progress should allow ESA to set the specifications of the Ariane 6 launch system, which will then enable member states to decide on continuation of the new launcher's development at the next ESA Ministerial Council meeting, scheduled for December 2014.
European Airbus Defence and Space (EADS) will continue fine tuning the definition of the Ariane 6 launcher, while in parallel developing the Ariane 5 ME launcher and, in particular, developing many features common to both Ariane 5 ME and Ariane 6.
The ESA contracts awarded to EADS Astrium (now owned and integrated into European Airbus Defence and Space, EADS) in 2013 include developing the Ariane 5 ME with the aim of improving Ariane 5 performance by over 20% by 2018.
At the November 2012 Ministerial Council meeting, ESA decided to commence definition studies for the new Ariane 6 launcher and to continue with the development of Ariane 5 ME, while also seeking to maximise synergies between the two future launchers.
None of this comes as any surprise as EADS continues to benefit from its close contact with the directors of ESA and its near-monopoly hold on European Space Technology, Satellite and Launcher systems.
Four test patients suffering from terminal cardiac failure will soon receive artificial hearts from the French company Carmat, now approved for human trials in France. Brainchild of the cardiac surgeon Professor Alain Carpentier, the prosthetic is the result of 15 years of collaboration with aerospace giant Astrium, the space subsidiary of EADS. Credit: Carmat
An artificial heart containing miniaturised space technology will soon beat inside a person, having now been approved for human trials in France.
With heart disease killing over 100 million people in developed countries alone and the demand for transplants far exceeding donations, creating a totally artificial heart has been the holy grail of cardiovascular medicine for half a century.
Brainchild of the visionary cardiac surgeon, Professor Alain Carpentier, the prosthetic is the result of 15 years of collaboration with aerospace giant Astrium, the space subsidiary of EADS.
In 2008, with support from the French Government and investors, Prof. Carpentier founded the EADS spin-off company, Carmat, to complete the work.
Combining the unique expertise of Prof. Carpentier, known worldwide for inventing today's most used heart valves, with Astrium's experience in building satellites, Carmat produced their first completely artificial heart earlier this year.
The Carmat-developed prosthetic heart has been developed utilising the expertise and technologies from European space programmes. In particular, the expertise in guaranteeing the extreme reliability of electronics on satellites helped the Carmat team to build a device that could withstand the tough conditions of the body’s circulatory system and pump 35 million times per year for at least five years without fail. Credit: Carmat
It turned out that space had the ingredients that Carmat needed. Working closely with satellite engineers, the company applied EADS Astrium's expertise in building spacecraft to guarantee the necessary precision and durability for an artificial human organ like a heart.
Fashioned in part from biological tissue and in part from miniature satellite equipment, the device combines the latest advances in medicine, biology, electronics and materials science to imitate a real heart.
The team had to build a device that could withstand the tough conditions of the body's circulatory system and pump 35 million times per year for at least five years without fail.
They needed the ultimate in reliability, and the answer came from design methodologies, testing strategies and know-how for the electronics on satellites.
"Space and the inside of your body have a lot in common," says Matthieu Dollon, Head of Business Development in EADS Astrium's French Elancourt Equipment team, who are working closely with Carmat on the heart.
"They both present harsh and inaccessible environments."
Telecom satellites are built to last 15 years on their own in space, 36 000 km above Earth. The heart might be closer than a satellite but it is just as inaccessible.
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