Quarkson: SkyOrbiter UAV fleet to provide Web Access in remote areas

Web access can transform regions in terms of education, communication and health, during emergency situations, a working Internet signal can be the difference between life and death.

Facebook has already aired a plan to use unmanned drones to get remote areas of the world connected, and Portuguese company Quarkson wants to follow suit with its own SkyOrbiter fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

The SkyOrbiters bridge the gap between satellites orbiting in space and users on the ground, Internet access is provided not by cell towers fixed to underground networks, but by the drones in the air, beaming out high-speed data connections for the population down below to take advantage of.

For remote, rural, undeveloped areas this is a more efficient and cost-effective way of getting people connected.

In some areas, depending on the specific requirements, the SkyOrbiter may connect with a substation at ground level (directly hooked into the Web) rather than a satellite up in space.

4G data speeds can be provided to any area with a line of sight to one of these Quarkson SkyOrbiter drones.

There are a total of nine different SkyOrbiter drones in the pipeline, which operate at either a high or low altitude, 22,000m (72,180ft) or 3,500m (11,480ft) respectively.

The most basic, the LA25, can stay in the air for two weeks and 42,714km (26,540 miles); the most advanced, the HA75, will be able to stay airborne for five years and an incredible 5,000,000km (3,107,000 miles).

That's because the higher altitude planes are powered by solar energy, so they can keep going as long as the sun is shining, with a network of these always-on UAVs circling around the skies above, parts of the planet that were previously cut off can be connected very quickly.

According to the United Nations, Internet access is a human right, and ensuring universal access to it should be a priority for all countries.'

The size and payload of the UAVs in Quarkson's fleet varies significantly.

The LA25 has a wingspan of around 25 metres (82 feet) and a maximum payload of 35kg (77lbs).

This increases with each model until you get to the HA75, with a wingspan of 75 metres (246 feet) and a maximum payload of 280kg (617lbs).

If you haven't twigged, the codename for each drone indicates the altitude it can reach and its wingspan.

It's not just about Internet connectivity, either: the UAV fleet can be used to capture aerial imagery, monitor environmental conditions, track down illegal operations and more besides.

Each drone is controlled by a Constellation Manager unit on the ground.

Memory Reformat Planned for Opportunity Mars Rover

NASA's Mars rover Opportunity captured this view southward just after completing a 338-foot (103-meter) southward drive, in reverse, on Aug. 10, 2014. 

The foreground of this view from the rover's Navcam includes the rear portion of the rover's deck. 

The ground beyond bears wind-blown lines of sand. Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech. 

Curiosity Rover, Opportunity;s big brother is still going strong on Mars.

An increasing frequency of computer resets on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has prompted the rover team to make plans to reformat the rover's flash memory.

The resets, including a dozen this month, interfere with the rover's planned science activities, even though recovery from each incident is completed within a day or two.

Flash memory retains data even when power is off. It is the type used for storing photos and songs on smart phones or digital cameras, among many other uses.

Individual cells within a flash memory sector can wear out from repeated use. Reformatting clears the memory while identifying bad cells and flagging them to be avoided.

"Worn-out cells in the flash memory are the leading suspect in causing these resets," said John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, project manager for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Project.

"The flash reformatting is a low-risk process, as critical sequences and flight software are stored elsewhere in other non-volatile memory on the rover."

The project landed twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity on Mars in early 2004 to begin missions planned to last only three months. Spirit worked for six years, and Opportunity is still active. Findings about ancient wet environments on Mars have come from both rovers.

The project reformatted the flash memory on Spirit five years ago to stop a series of amnesia events Spirit had been experiencing. The reformatting planned for early next month will be the first for Opportunity.

Even after the rover has been active for more than a decade and is currently about 125 million miles (about 200 million kilometers) from JPL, the rover team can still perform this type of upkeep.

Preparations include downloading to Earth all useful data remaining in the flash memory and switching the rover to an operating mode that does not use flash memory.

Also, the team is restructuring the rover's communication sessions to use a slower data rate, which may add resilience in case of a reset during these preparations.

Orbital Science Cygnus cargo ship makes planned re-entry to Earth

This picture provided by NASA shows the Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket launching with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard on July 13, 2014, at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia

Orbital Sciences Corporation's unmanned Cygnus cargo ship disintegrated as planned Sunday as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere after a month-long resupply mission to the International Space Station.

The spacecraft had been released from the orbiting lab on Friday at 6:40 am (1040 GMT), and then stayed in independent orbit for two days, before firing its engines and pushing into Earth's atmosphere.

The de-orbit burn had been scheduled to take just under 30 minutes.

Cygnus reentry [17 Aug 2014]. Alexander Gerst commented on Twitter "In 84 days Reid, Max and I will ride home inside such an amazing fireball!" 

Credit: NASA/ESA/Alexander Gerst

The crew on board the space station watched and documented the spacecraft's plasma trail, posting pictures of the comet-like streak to Twitter.

Cygnus launched July 13 and arrived at the ISS three days later, bearing a load of 3,653 pounds (1,657 kilograms) of gear, food and science experiments.

The resupply mission was part of a billion dollar contract with NASA for multiple journeys to the ISS.

Orbital Cygnus: ISS Commercial Resupply Mission Planned for July 11

Orbital's Cygnus is planned to remain berthed at the ISS for approximately 40 days during which time the station crew will unload cargo from Cygnus and subsequently load it with materials for disposal.

Orbital has established July 11, 2014 as the targeted date for the launch of the Orb-2 mission to the International Space Station (ISS), the second operational cargo resupply mission under the company's Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA.

The targeted launch time from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on July 11 will be 1:40 p.m. (EDT).

The engineering team that is investigating the failure of an AJ26 (NK-33) engine during an acceptance test at Stennis Space Center recommended that certain inspections be performed on the two AJ26 engines that are currently integrated on the Antares rocket.

These inspections were recently completed and program officials have cleared the rocket for flight.

Leading up to the launch, the Cygnus cargo logistics spacecraft was mated to the rocket.

After the loading of the final time sensitive cargo and installation of the rocket's payload fairing, Antares will be rolled out to the launch pad on July 9.

A launch on July 11 will result in a rendezvous and berthing with the ISS on July 15.

The Cygnus spacecraft will deliver 1,657 kg of cargo to the ISS and will be loaded with approximately 1,346 kg of material for disposal upon reentry into Earth's atmosphere.

Mission Description
Cygnus will be boosted into orbit by a two-stage Antares rocket from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport.

The launch sequence will last about ten minutes from liftoff through the separation of Cygnus from the Antares vehicle.

Once in orbit, Cygnus will deploy its solar arrays and undergo initial check-out. The spacecraft will then conduct a series of thruster burns to raise its orbit to bring it within 4 km of the ISS prior to receiving authorization to autonomously rendezvous with the station.

When the vehicle approaches to within 12 meters, the astronauts will use the station's robotic arm to grapple Cygnus and berth it to the Harmony node of the station.

Cygnus is planned to remain berthed at the ISS for approximately 40 days during which time the station crew will unload cargo from Cygnus and subsequently load it with materials for disposal. At the end of the mission Cygnus will depart the station and reenter the Earth's atmosphere.

NASA LADEE Mission ends with planned lunar impact

Ground controllers at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., have confirmed that NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft impacted the surface of the moon, as planned, between 9:30 and 10:22 p.m. PDT Thursday, April 17.

LADEE lacked fuel to maintain a long-term lunar orbit or continue science operations and was intentionally sent into the lunar surface. The spacecraft's orbit naturally decayed following the mission's final low-altitude science phase.

During impact, engineers believe the LADEE spacecraft, the size of a vending machine, broke apart, with most of the spacecraft's material heating up several hundred degrees – or even vaporizing – at the surface. Any material that remained is likely buried in shallow craters.

"At the time of impact, LADEE was traveling at a speed of 3,600 miles per hour – about three times the speed of a high-powered rifle bullet," said Rick Elphic, LADEE project scientist at Ames.

"There's nothing gentle about impact at these speeds – it's just a question of whether LADEE made a localized craterlet on a hillside or scattered debris across a flat area. It will be interesting to see what kind of feature LADEE has created."

In early April, the spacecraft was commanded to carry out maneuvers that would lower its closest approach to the lunar surface.

The new orbit brought LADEE to altitudes below one mile (two kilometers) above the lunar surface.

This is lower than most commercial airliners fly above Earth, enabling scientists to gather unprecedented science measurements.

On April 11, LADEE performed a final maneuver to ensure a trajectory that caused the spacecraft to impact the far side of the moon, which is not in view of Earth or near any previous lunar mission landings.

"It's bittersweet knowing we have received the final transmission from the LADEE spacecraft after spending years building it in-house at Ames, and then being in constant contact as it circled the moon for the last several months," said Butler Hine, LADEE project manager at Ames.

Launched in September 2013 from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, LADEE began orbiting the moon Oct. 6 and gathering science data Nov. 10.

The spacecraft entered its science orbit around the moon's equator on Nov. 20, and in March 2014, LADEE extended its mission operations following a highly successful 100-day primary science phase.

Russian Ganymede Lander Mission more difficult than expected

Russia's proposed landing mission to Ganymede was discussed extensively last week at an international meeting hosted by the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The mission to explore, and perhaps to drill, the Solar system's largest moon, presumably in close cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA), would be a major challenge for Russia's space and science industries.

The project is generally approved, but success is far from assured.

The mission to Ganymede, now better known by the simple name of "Ganymede Lander", is the latest reincarnation of Russia's contribution to the Laplas project, promoted by the European Space Agency (ESA) in the early 2000s.

With Laplas becoming the single-spacecraft project JUICE (JUpiter ICy moon Explorer, until christened officially), Russian plans have also undergone major changes, although their main objective, sending a lander to Jupiter's biggest moon, remained intact.

The initial aim was to explore Europa, a smaller Jovian moon, where there is an ocean of liquid water beneath its frozen surface (around 10 km thick) and is therefore considered a good prospect for the exploration of habitable conditions.

Ganymede also holds liquid water, but much deeper, under an icy crust of around 130-150 km. On the other hand, this moon is farther from Jupiter with less radiation than Europa, putting spacecraft at a much lower risk.

However, the main argument for shifting to Ganymede was that the European mission now no longer plans to stay near Europa long enough to provide the high resolution images needed to select a landing site.

It is supposed now that the JUICE orbiting spacecraft will provide the Russian lander with preliminary reconnaissance data and perhaps act as a communication relay station for data sent between Ganymede and Earth.

Hence, the current scenario is that the European mission is developing independently while Russia's landing spacecraft has its own scientific payload and objectives.

As the success of the landing relies on many technical issues closely concerned with JUICE, the Russian equipment and goals must be taken into account from the start when designing the eventual lander.

A more detailed mission scenario was presented by Maksim Martynov, deputy general designer of the S.A. Lavochkin Association and head of the design bureau.

Following the "play safe" rule, it is supposed that Russia will send two spacecraft to Ganymede, a lander and a small additional orbiter to secure the landing site as a back-up option to information from JUICE.

Even though launched simultaneously from a Proton launcher, they will arrive separately. After reconnaissance and remote studies of the moon, the lander will be delivered to the surface to begin its studies.

The start is planned for 2022-23 with the completion in 2029-30 (JUICE is currently scheduled for 2022) and subsequent arrival on Ganymede within a few months.

India Space - ISRO: Geosynchronous Satellite vehicle-D3 launch planned

ISRO would launch Geosynchronous Satellite launch vehicle-D3 (GSLV-D3), the country's first satellite launch vehicle having an indigenously built cryogenic engine, to put in orbit communication satellite GSAT4 next month, a top scientist said.

GSLV-D3 launch would be followed by launching of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C15 and Cartosat2B (a high resolution remote sensing satellite), PSLV C16 and ResourceSat2 subsequently between May and August, PS Veeraraghavan, Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvanathapuram, said here.

He was speaking at a one-day national symposium - application of nuclear space technologies for the benefit of farmers - organised jointly by Hyderabad-based Consortium of Indian Farmers associations and Puducherry-based Perunthalaivar Kamarajar Krishi Vigyan Kendra.

Veeraraghavan said launching of a series of remote sensing satellites, like Resourcesat-1 and 2 (to provide valuable Earth imaging services) and Cartosat 2A and B (to enable availability of more minute details for farm sector) would lay foundation for the country's development.

ESA: Conference on planned European Data Relay Satellite (EDRS)

More than a hundred senior managers and experts from European space industry, national agencies and ESA packed a Geneva conference room earlier this week to learn about the commercial opportunities offered by ESA's planned data relay satellite system.

The strong attendance from Europe and Canada's space community highlights the growing expectations by industry and potential customers for the planned European Data Relay Satellite (EDRS) system. Once in operation, EDRS will provide exceptionally high-speed data relay capabilities to other satellites, vastly improving services such as Earth imaging, disaster response and environmental monitoring.

"Europe is the only space power that lacks a data relay capability. The requirements for navigation, environmental monitoring and security need this ability, and there is solid interest in building this system," said Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA Director General, who spoke to the gathering via video.

The EDRS system will be developed as a so-called 'public-private partnership' (PPP), an innovative structure in which ESA leads the creation of the initial system and infrastructure that is later taken over for full exploitation and further development by a commercial partner. Hence the intense interest from space industry at this week's EDRS Workshop, organised by ESA's Telecoms directorate and co-sponsored by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and the Swiss Space office.

EDRS Workshop well attended by industry and organisations
The EDRS Workshop, 1-2 December, was well attended by experts from industry in numerous ESA Member States, Canada, national space agencies and government ministries, as well as the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (Eumetsat).

"Autonomous access to space for Europe not only means launchers - it also means communication. We would like to support EDRS fully and we hope other Member States will join us," said Prof. Dr Johann-Dietrich Worner, Chairman of the Executive Board of DLR, who also spoke to attendees by video.

EDRS will boost European-developed technology and make use of a cutting-edge inter-satellite laser communication system as well as new data dissemination infrastructure on the ground.

Magali Vaissiere, ESA Director of Telecommunications and Integrated Applications, explained that the Agency's Artemis relay satellite, launched in 2001 as a technology demonstrator, has already successfully completed thousands of optical communication links with satellites and aircraft.

"We have a significant background in Europe in this field and in particular at ESA. We believe that these communication means will become strategic features of many space missions in the future," she said.