European Parliament adopts Copernicus: Earth Observation programme

The European Parliament on Wednesday gave its green light to Copernicus, the EU's new earth observation programme, according to a statement on its official website.


Copernicus, previously known as GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security), is the European Programme for the establishment of a European capacity for Earth Observation.

The Copernicus Regulation will ensure the regular observation and monitoring of earth sub-systems, the atmosphere, oceans, and continental surfaces, and will provide reliable information in support of a broad range of environmental and security applications and decisions.

This programme, which still needs to be adopted by the European Council, defines Copernicus objectives, governance and funding of some 4.3 billion euros (5.97 billion U.S. dollars) for the period 2014-2020.

The European Commission welcomed the vote of the European Parliament on the Copernicus, said a statement publicised by the EU executive.

European Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani, responsible for industry and entrepreneurship said that "space is a priority for the European Union.

The budget for both European flagship space programmes, Copernicus and Galileo, for the next seven years is secured. Almost 12 billion euros will be invested in space technologies. "

The Copernicus programme is entering the operational phase after years of preparation. The next step is the launch of the first Copernicus satellite, Sentinel-1, beginning of April from Europe's Spaceport in French Guyana.

The data provided by this satellite will enable considerable progress in improving maritime security, climate change monitoring and providing support in emergency and crisis situations.

Under the administration of ESA and its management policies, Copernicus will also help Europe's enterprises creating new jobs and business opportunities.

Studies show that Copernicus could generate a financial benefit of some 30 billion euros and create around 50,000 jobs in Europe by 2030.

Germany cancels 'Euro Hawk' drone programme

Germany has cancelled a planned 'Euro Hawk' drone programme fearing European authorities will not certify them, a defence ministry source said Tuesday after reported European safety concerns.

Thomas de Maiziere

Germany had "no hope" of seeing the unmanned aircraft, part of a programme that would have cost more than one billion euros ($1.3 billion), approved for use, said the source speaking on condition of anonymity.

The European Aviation Safety Agency has said it would only certify the drones to fly over unpopulated areas because of a lack of an anti-collision system to protect airliners, according to German press reports.

"The equipment is not ready for approval without immense expenditure," the source added.

Germany has already spent 508 million euros on a Euro Hawk prototype and was due to fork out a further 500 million on four more models.

The Euro Hawk is a version of the American Global Hawk produced by Northrop Grumman and re-modelled by the European defence and aerospace company EADS.

Berlin has also already spent 40 million euros on modernising the northern Jagel air base where the reconnaissance drones would have been based.

Northrop Grumman also did not want to provide technical documents necessary for the certification process, German press reports said.

In 2011, one year later than planned, the prototype Euro Hawk arrived at the Manching base near Munich in southern Germany.

Germany is in talks with Israel on buying Heron TP drones but German Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere has indicated that any purchase would not take place ahead of September 22 elections, according to German news reports.

Heron TP-2

ESA's ExoMars: Neptec wins contract to develop cameras

The main challenge in the development of these cameras will be to design them to withstand the extreme environmental conditions that will be experienced on the surface of Mars.

Neptec Design Group has signed a contract with EADS Astrium UK Limited for the design and build of navigation cameras for the ExoMars Rover.

The ExoMars Programme has the goals of understanding the Martian environments and establishing whether life had or could now exist on Mars.

The Programme comprises two Missions: an Orbiter in 2016; and a Rover Mission in 2018.

Contracts with European organisations represent an increasing portion of Neptec's Space Exploration business as the company expands beyond its core business with the NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

"We are thrilled to be a part of this exciting journey in exploring the planet Mars," said Mike Kearns, Neptec President of Space Exploration.

"The vision cameras that we are developing will be the eyes of the rover as it explores the surface of Mars." The main challenge in the development of these cameras will be to design them to withstand the extreme environmental conditions that will be experienced on the surface of Mars.

"This ExoMars programme is an example of what can be accomplished when governments and industry work together in the space sector," said Neptec's CEO Iain Christie.

"The contract for these navigation cameras has involved the co-operation of the Canadian Space Agency, and the European Space Agency."

The ExoMars Programme is a European Space Agency Robotic Exploration Mission under the prime contractorship of Thales Alenia Space Italia, with EADS Astrium UK Limited leading the Rover Vehicle developments.

The Plan for Code - An open.NASA

Today (Jan 4th 2012) NASA are launching code.nasa.gov, the latest member of the open NASA web family.

Through their website, they will continue, unify, and expand NASA’s open source activities.

The site is intended to serve to reveal existing projects, provide a forum for discussing projects and processes, and guide internal and external groups in open development, release, and contribution.

In their initial release, they are focusing on providing a home for the current state of open source at the Agency.

This includes guidance on how to engage the open source process, points of contact, and a directory of existing projects.

By elucidating the process, they hope to lower the barriers to building open technology in partnership with their public.

PHASE Two

Phase two will concentrate on providing a robust forum for ongoing discussion of open source concepts, policies, and projects at the Agency.

PHASE Three
In their third phase, they hope to turn to the tools and mechanisms development projects generally need to be successful, such as distributed version control, issue tracking, continuous integration, documentation, communication, and planning/management.

During this phase, they hope to create and host a tool, service, and process chain to further lower the burden to going open.

The GOAL

Ultimately, their goal is to create a highly visible community hub that will imbue open concepts into the formulation stages of new hardware and software projects, and help existing projects transition to open modes of development and operation.


They are going to need your help to get there! Please use the “Share your Ideas” icon (bottom right on their blog) to comment on their blog post, or email them at opengov@nasa.gov to let them know how code can help you, where you would like to see the site go, and how best they can fulfill their purpose.

NASA believes that tomorrow’s space and science systems will be built in the open, and that code.nasa.gov will play a big part in getting us there. Will your code someday escape our solar system or land on an alien planet? NASA's working to make it happen, and with your help, it will.

Visit the open.NASA at The Plan for Code - open.NASA

US Rely on Russian Soyuz Progress programme to support ISS crew

Progress, a Russian cargo spacecraft, Progress M-06M, lifted off toward the International Space Station at 19:35 Moscow time [15:35 GMT] on Wednesday, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said.

It was launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on a Soyuz-U booster rocket. It separated 10 minutes later and successfully entered the designated orbit.

The space freighter will deliver fuel, oxygen, scientific equipment and video and photo equipment to the ISS, as well as food, water and personal items for the crew.

The spaceship is to dock with the space station on July 2 at 20:55 Moscow time [16:55 GMT].

Preparations have already been made for the module's arrival. In early June, Russia's Mission Control readjusted the ISS orbit, raising it by 2.5 kilometers (1.6 miles) to ensure the best conditions for the docking of the Soyuz TMA-19 manned spacecraft and the Progress M-06M.

On Monday, the ISS crew moved the Soyuz TMA-19, which docked with the Zvezda module on June 18, to the Rassvet research module in a 24-minute maneuver to make room for the Progress M-06M.

NASA moon plan was an illusion, wrapped in denial

NASA's Constellation programme, which was going to fly manned capsules to the International Space Station in (maybe) 2015, to the moon in (maybe) 2020, and to Mars someday, is dead. Some people are mourning it. I'm not.

Is manned space exploration important? Yes – not least because it simply works much better than sending robots. When you look past the rhetoric and superstitions and compare the results, today's robots (and tomorrow's too) are pitifully limited, painfully slow, and not really all that cheap. (Case in point – NASA recently gave up trying to free the Mars rover Spirit from a sand pit it had been stuck in for nine months.

But when the Apollo 15 crew's lunar rover got bogged down in loose soil, the astronauts got off, picked it up, moved it, got back on, and drove away – all in maybe two minutes. Robots do fine when everything goes as planned, but that's rarely true on complex, poorly-known planetary surfaces.)

Exploring with robots looks cheaper only because we set our expectations so much lower. Bolder goals need humans on the scene. Nevertheless, I'm not shedding tears for Constellation. Why not? Because it wasn't going to get us there.

First, it probably wasn't going to work. Even so early in its life, the programme was already deep into a death spiral of "solving" every problem by reducing expectations of what the system would do. Actually reaching the moon would probably have required a major redesign, which wasn't going to be funded.

Second, even if all went as planned, there was a money problem. As the Augustine committee noted, Constellation was already underfunded, and couldn't ever get beyond Earth orbit without a big budget increase. Which didn't seem too likely.

Finally, and most important, even if Constellation was funded and worked ... so what? The programme was far too tightly focused on repeating Apollo, which was pointless: we already did Apollo!

Early ideas of quickly establishing a permanent lunar base had already been forgotten. Constellation was going to deliver exactly what Apollo did: expensive, brief, infrequent visits to the moon. That was all it was good for.

Read the full article here at NewScientist...

Indian Space Agency: ISRO planning 36 launches

ISRO is planning 36 launches during the 11th plan with more than six a year, a top space official said here today.

The expanding horizon of the Indian Space Programme, with more number of launches annually and missions like reusable launch vehicle on the anvil, calls for increased productivity with consistent quality and at a competitive cost, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre Director P S Veeraraghavan said.

Partnership with aerospace Indian industries was likely to grow multifold with the expanding activities of Indian Space Programme and ISRO's foray into International Space market, Veeraghavan told a 'National Aerospace Manufacturing Seminar'.

Presently more than 500 small and medium industries partnered with ISRO, he said.

Stating that the aerospace industry faces tough challenges, he said it should adapt to advanced manufacturing methodologies to suit the design function flawlessly.