ESA, together with a partner company in the United Kingdom, it is designing a new hypersonic spacecraft that will allow small satellites to be brought into low orbit at low cost and focusing on maximum reusability. But look at the 2030.
by Mattia Speroni published 17 December 2020 , at 14: 21 in the Science and Technology channel ESA
In addition to the new Themis reusable rocket, the ESA is developing other projects dedicated to reducing costs for accessibility to Space. One of these is a new hypersonic spacecraft that will allow you to reach high heights and then launch small rockets . This is not a completely new approach, but an alternative when the payload is small in size and weight.
Oliver Nailard (Reaction Engines) stated “We are witnessing an incredible pace of development and a change in interior of the space industry. It is important that we understand how SABER propulsion can be used to optimize the operational, performance and economic benefits of this concept “.
ESA’s hypersonic spacecraft with SABER motors
As for Themis, also in this case the focus is on reusability of launch systems (and cost reduction). Unlike the reusable rocket, which could see the first suborbital flight as early as 2023, this system of ESA aims to be completed and to function beyond 2030 though the project only started in July 2020 with a further analysis in November 2020. A project designed for an even longer-lasting vision with the first results that should be shown between 2022 and the 2025.
If the hypersonic spacecraft is still far behind in development, one of the most important components is a little further. We are talking about the SABER engines , acronym of Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine, developed by the English Reaction Engines ( company that had already been financed by ESA )).
The idea is to have a departure like a classic airplane (without the need for ad hoc ramps) and then have a one or two state system. In all cases, the SABER motors could be used, which would also be reusable, thus reducing overall costs. When the spacecraft is in the earth’s atmosphere it will be able to fly at hypersonic speed while reaching higher it will pass to a rocket mode, all using the same engine.
The data speak of a speed of Mach 5 (6154 km / h) burning atmospheric air while above the 25 km of altitude you would switch to rocket mode using instead an oxidizer present in on-board tanks. This will mean not having to carry all the oxidizer necessary for the flight, but only the one for the higher part.
The second stage, with the payload (designed for the ‘low orbit), would detach around 25 km of altitude for then reach Earth’s orbit with the first stage (the spacecraft) which would return to earth and could be reused. The strategy is similar to that of the Aevum Ravn X we wrote about recently.
The term of office of the incumbent ESA chairman Jan Wörner ends in summer 2021. His successor is currently responsible for the Earth observation programs.
Josef Aschbacher
(Image: ESA)
The Austrian Josef Aschbacher will be the next head of the European Space Agency ESA and will succeed Jan Wörner next year. The ESA Council decided on Thursday. Aschbacher is currently ESA Director responsible for the Earth observation programs of the Space Agency and is also head of the European Space Research Institute (ESA / ESRIN) in Italy.
Wörner’s term of office ends on 30. June 2021, he had the position in July 2015 started. Before that he was head of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) for more than eight years.
Wörner’s successor has been since 1990 worked in various positions at ESA and has been jointly responsible for the ambitious Copernicus Earth observation program for almost two decades. Since 2016 Aschbacher has headed the relevant ESA division. He will take up his new position on July 1st 2021, the ESA announced. Last year Aschbacher gave insights into his work and the importance of the program in an episode of our #heiseshow.
ESA Themis is the name of the rocket reusable that will be developed by the European space agency to meet the needs of the market that want increasingly cheaper and more eco-sustainable launches. The first suborbital test since 2023.
by Mattia Speroni published 16 December 2020 , at 16: 50 in the Science and Technology channel ESA SpaceX
SpaceX revolutionized the way we think about space launches with its rockets reusable (first stage and fairing for the moment) Falcon . Now that the road has been opened, others are thinking of “launch” in this enterprise: for example Roscosmos with Amur, Rocket Lab with Electron but also ESA with the new Themis . Of course, we are still in the pre-prototype phase , to see the actual capacities it will be necessary to wait until 2023 when there should be the first flight.
André -Hubert Roussel (CEO of ArianeGroup) stated “Themis will lead to the experimentation and development of low cost launch solutions, while contributing to the energy transition towards a more eco-responsible space launcher sector “.
ESA Themis: aims to reduce costs to go to space
The idea behind ESA Themis is the same that led go on Elon Musk with the Falcon rockets: reuse most of the components to reduce the costs of individual launches. This will allow you to run more launches and do it at lower prices. Europe could not stand by and watch Russia and US private companies move forward without at least trying to argue.
As reported by ESA itself, the 15 December 2020, has signed a contract from 33 million euros with ArianeGroup which will begin the development of the technologies needed to complete the first flight of Themis . The place chosen for the realization is France while the test area (with “i jumps” at low altitude) is expected in Sweden. In the 2023 there will instead be the suborbital tests that will take place in the Kourou spaceport, in French Guiana.
At the base of the ESA Themis reusable rocket there will be the engines called Prometheus which will be fundamental for the initial tests and the static fire . The initial specification of this oxygen / liquid methane (or hydrogen) engine is 1000 kN of thrust (variable) and the ability to turn off and on allow it to be used for core, booster and second stage. The on-board computer will also allow real-time monitoring of the thrust so as to allow the necessary corrections for the return.
The first information on ESA Themis speak of a high rocket 30 meters and 3.5 meters wide. It is therefore a cross between a Falcon 1 (about tall 20 meters) and a Falcon 9 (about 70 meters high). However, we remind you that this version will be demonstrative only.
FTC requests information on the handling of user data from Facebook & Co The US authority for competition law and consumer protection Federal As part of an extensive investigation, Trade Commission asked a total of nine well-known social networks and video streaming companies to provide information on their business practices in connection with the use of user data. Companies include Amazon, Facebook, Reddit, Snap as the parent company of Snapchat, Twitter, Google parent Alphabet, YouTube, Discord, and Bytedance as the TikTok owner. In detail, the FTC is interested in user tracking and the extent to which personal data and demographic information are used for advertising purposes.
Automated AI decisions should be contestable In view of the increasing influence of algorithms on business, society and politics, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights FRA has spoken out in favor of stricter regulation of systems for artificial intelligence. “AI is not infallible,” said the agency’s director Michael O’Flaherty. It is made by people – and this mistake also happened. Therefore, citizens should know “when AI is used, how it works and how automated decisions can be challenged”.
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Airlines prepare for a new start The outgoing General Director of the global airline association IATA, Alexandre de Juniac, has once again put huge pressure on to restart the aviation industry in to accelerate the coming months with the help of mass corona rapid tests. The pandemic took the airlines with it almost last year, but so far only a few have gone under. Only if the corona vaccines, which are about to receive European approval, are distributed quickly and significantly more passengers are allowed to travel with the help of negative rapid tests, the IATA expects by the middle of the year 2021 a recovery in ticket demand.
ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer should 2017 Fly to the ISS with SpaceX Matthias Maurer should 2021 to be flown by SpaceX to the International Space Station as the second ESA astronaut. The German will then live for six months on the outpost of humanity and carry out scientific experiments, said the European Space Agency. Maurer was 2015 accepted into the ESA astronaut corps and has been since 2017 officially part of the team. He is the only one in the group – to which Alexander Gerst also belongs – who has not yet been in space.
The Chang’e-5 mission is about to come to an end with the scheduled landing for tomorrow of the capsule that will bring back the Moon samples to Earth (the last time was with the Apollo missions). The return should take place in the evening, Italian time.
by Mattia Speroni published 15 December 2020 , at 15: 01 in the Science and Technology channel
After the launch, the arrival in lunar orbit, the collection of samples and the phases of reintegration into the lunar orbit, the Chinese mission Chang ‘ e-5 is preparing to return to Earth with the precious load of samples collected on the Moon . We recall that since the end of the Apollo missions in the years’ 70, they were no longer reported on our planet lunar samples. This is therefore a very special occasion.
Chang’e-5 is almost back to Earth
After the lander had finished collecting samples and the capsule had been sealed and brought into lunar orbit by the ascender. A few hours later the latter had transferred to the orbiter modules- returner who were at approximately 100 km above the surface of the Moon. The ascender was then deorbited and returned to the surface to end his days there. However, the mission was not yet completed!
The 13 December with an ignition of the engines there was the transfer of Chang’e-5 from the lunar orbit to the Moon-Earth transfer one. Everything went well and now there are just a few hours left until the actual return to Earth (in Mongolia).
In the last phases of return there will be other critical moments that could jeopardize the end of the mission. In fact, when the probe is very close to our planet (the monitoring of this phase also takes place thanks to ESA) it will use the atmosphere to slow down but also to divert its trajectory and then land correctly where expected.
All that remains is to wait for tomorrow to know the fate of Chang’e-5 and of the precious lunar samples . Landing should take place between 18: 30 and the 19: 00 (Italian time) but there may be some changes as these are estimates of enthusiasts who are monitoring the mission from the ground. We do not yet know how the CNSA will spread the news of the capsule’s return and recovery. There are currently no official video streaming or other releases.
Matthias Maurer is to be flown by SpaceX to the International Space Station as the second ESA astronaut in autumn 2021. The German will then live for six months on the outpost of humanity and carry out scientific experiments, the European Space Agency ESA has now declared.
Maurer was 2015 has been accepted into the ESA astronaut corps and has been since 2017 officially part of the team. He is the only one in the group – which includes Alexander Gerst – who has not yet been to space.
“Cosmis Kiss”: Maurer’s mission badge shows, among other things, earth and moon connected by a human heartbeat and a stylized ISS. A red point points to Mars.
(Image: ESA)
The love of space As the ESA now explains, Maurer was selected by representatives of NASA, CSA, ESA and Roskosmos for his first trip to the ISS. On the SpaceX Crew-3 flight, he is to accompany NASA space travelers Raja Chari and Thomas Marshburn, a fourth place is still vacant. Maurer’s mission will be titled “Cosmis Kiss”, which is also to be understood as a “declaration of love for space”, as he puts it: “The name stands for the special connection that the ISS has between the inhabitants of the earth and the cosmos. ” The model for the badge was, among other things, the Nebra Sky Disc as the oldest known realistic representation of the night sky, as well as the Pioneer badges and the Voyager Golden Records.
(Source: ESA) Matthias Maurer is 50 years old and comes from the Saarland. He studied materials science and engineering, 2004 he received his doctorate in materials science. When the ESA 2008 set up its current astronaut corps, it was one of 8500 applicants and made it into the top 10. But since only six were selected, he had to wait. In the meantime, however, he has been preparing for his first flight into space for years. Before he finally gets going next year, his colleague Thomas Pesquet will fly to the ISS for his second stay. The French flies in the SpaceX Crew-2 mission with the US astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur and the Japanese Akihiko Hoshide.
Six wheels, solar panels and a cute face – with the ExoMy, the Mars rover for the front yard becomes a reality. The European Space Agency ESA provides all necessary files and detailed instructions online for the replica. Schools or students in particular could use the templates to venture into robotics, so the hope of the ESA. There are already some replicas.
There is more about robotics in the special issue 2019 of the Make.
From Mars to University The replica should take a total of one to two weeks and around 500 cost euros. A 3D printer (or printing service) is required for this. For the other components, readily available standard parts such as small motors, converted game controllers and the Raspberry Pi craft computer are used. With 42 centimeters high, the finished ExoMy is then significantly smaller than its “big sister” Rosalind Franklin, who from 2022 should drive over Mars. Various features such as the drill and the spring system are modeled on the design – instead of the camera, ExoMy has an individually changeable head with face and hat.
The hardware and software files as well as the print templates have been uploaded to Github by ESA . Originally developed for a one-time use as a demo device in 2018, ExoMy is now intended to be a cheap prototyping platform for robotics experiments. Therefore, one is also open to further developments and new ideas, according to ESA.
ExoMy: Mars rover for home (3 pictures) ExoMy is modeled on its big “sister” Rosalind Franklin.
(Image: ESA) The large Rover Rosalind Franklin was originally supposed to have been since 2018 be on duty and explore our neighboring planet as part of the ExoMars mission. The joint mission of ESA with the Russian space agency Roskosmos has already been postponed several times – most recently due to the coronavirus pandemic.
China has already made many trips to the moon. Nevertheless, the Chang’e 5 launched this week is something very special. The space probe named after the Chinese moon goddess is not only supposed to drop a rover on the surface, as in previous missions, but also return to earth with rock samples.
Landing already at the weekend? The space agency of the People’s Republic has not yet announced an official date for the landing on the moon after the successful launch on Tuesday. However, US experts assume that the time will come this Sunday.
A greater challenge than landing a probe on the moon, as already happened, is the second for the Chinese researchers Part of the mission. If successful, it would be the first time in 35 years that rock samples have been returned to earth would be brought back. After the USA and the Soviet Union, China would be in the 60 he and 70 years only the third space nation to succeed in such a project.
“Landing on another celestial body is always complicated,” says Paolo Ferri, the former head of the mission operations of the European space agency ESA in the space control center in Darmstadt. The Chinese succeeded in landing a probe on the moon twice.
Repeat after 50 years ago The real sticking point, Ferri believes, is the return. The lander laden with stones is supposed to dock on the orbiter that is orbiting the moon: “The rendezvous in orbit will be a new challenge and when landing on earth the calculations have to be very precise.” The whole process is the same as the first manned space flight to the moon of Apollo 11 more than 50 years ago. However, the technology is much more advanced today.
Planetary geologists such as Ulrich Köhler from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) would also be happy about a successful mission. While the earth is extremely dynamic and changes both inside and on the surface, the much smaller moon, on which there is neither plate tectonics nor a disturbing atmosphere, has been barely active for about three billion years, Köhler explains a geological one Difference in the earth’s satellite.
The moon, explains Köhler, was created when our “proto-earth” collided with a Mars-sized body about 4.4 billion years ago. Rock samples from the moon are therefore like a “window into the early days of the solar system”.
There are still gaps in knowledge about the moon According to Köhler, thanks to the earlier missions of the Americans and Soviets, there are already around 382 kilograms of sample material from the moon in laboratories on earth, which would have made a “huge gain in knowledge” possible. Nevertheless, there are still gaps that could now be closed by the mission of the Chinese, who want to bring back about two kilograms of stones.
According to the US experts, the space probe will be one after the German on Sunday Astronomer Karl Rümker (1788 – 1862) called volcanic area, which is located in the “Ocean of Storms” – in the upper, left part of the earth-facing side of the moon. From a geological point of view, the landing site chosen by the Chinese is “a real dream destination,” says Koehler.
Chang’e 3 and Yutu on the moon ( 35 Photos) All of China’s pride
(Image: Chinese Academy of Sciences / China National Space Administration / The Science and Application Center for Moon and Deepspace Exploration) Space expert Ferri from ESA sees the start of the second Chinese lunar mission within two years not only as a geological mission , but an important technology test for manned flights to the earth’s satellite.
The Chinese would have chosen “a very complicated mission to bring samples from the moon to earth,” says Ferri: “It would have been much easier for them can do.” It is assumed that the entire technology is to be tested that will one day be necessary for a manned landing on the moon – and probably beyond.
The Chinese already have their first rover in the summer Started towards Mars. “Much of what you do on the moon can also be used on Mars,” says Ferri.
China launched tonight ( Italian time) the new Chang’e-5 lunar mission! This is a critical step as it will bring rock samples back to Earth from the Moon and serve as a base for future manned missions.
by Mattia Speroni published 23 November 2020 , at 21: 41 in the Science and Technology channel NASA ESA
The space missions continue and in particular towards Moon! Tonight (at 21: 30, Italian time) it was the turn of China send a new mission to our satellite! And it is a very special mission. In fact, with Chang’e-5 we aim to bring back to Earth samples of lunar rock, which which had not happened since the end of the years’ 70.
The launch took place as planned as well as the separation of the fairing (which showcased the components of the sample collection system and for their return to the ground), the separation of the side boosters (which provided much of the necessary thrust) and the separation of the main stage from the upper one.
With Chang’e-5, China points to the Moon
Using a rocket Long March 5 (a carrier with a power that places it on top of a Falcon 9) with a weight of just under 900 tons, the robotic system was launched, Chan g’e-5 , for sample collection. The latter has a weight of 8.2 tons.
The sample collection system is very complex and should comprise four distinct modules, even if all the details were not provided by the Chinese space agency. This modular system would appear to be a “dress rehearsal” to bring China to the satellite with a human crew. Those that appear to be ancillary operations recall what was done by United States during the Apollo moon missions where the command and service modules remained in orbit around the Moon , while the actual lunar module descended to the surface.
Of the four modules of Chang’e 5 , two will remain in lunar orbit . The other two will be used, one for the collection of samples (with a mechanical shovel and a drill that will reach up to 2 meters deep), the other to bring the samples back to the modules in orbit and from there the return to Earth. . It is estimated that the samples collected should be approximately 2 kg .
The intended landing zone is the one called Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of storms) which in the past had already been explored by the Apollo mission 12 and from the robotic missions Luna 9, Luna 13, Surveyor 1 and Surveyor 3. The mission will have a short duration considering that the lunar rock samples should land in the desert of Mongolia in mid-December.
Also the ESA was involved by China for this mission. In fact, the European space agency will monitor two fundamental steps for the mission. The first phase, after the launch which took place a few minutes ago, is carried out by the communication station in French Guiana (Kourou) which will monitor the rocket moving away from Earth. In December, instead, a Spanish communication station (Maspalomas) will be used, which will follow the return to Earth. In both cases the ESA will provide the information to the Chinese space agency thus helping it in the management of the mission.
SpaceX has postponed the launch of the 34 Starlink satellites from this morning (Italian time) to 24 November 2020 for reasons yet to be clarified. It would be one of the record-breaking pitches with the first stage making its seventh pitch.
by Mattia Speroni published 23 November 2020 , alle 16: 51 in the Science and Technology channel SpaceX
This morning, around 3. 30 (Italian time) there should have been yet another launch of the Starlink satellites by by SpaceX . The company of Elon Musk has however decided to postpone the launch for reasons still unclear until tomorrow morning , Italian time (at 3. 34).
The launch of new SpaceX Starlink satellites postponed
No problem with the load of 60 satellites or the launcher as reported by the same SpaceX in a tweet . The message reads “We have given up on today’s Starlink launch. The rocket and payload are in good condition . I team will take additional time to complete the data reviews and are now working on the backup opportunity for Monday 23 November at 21: 34 but keeping an eye on the time in the recovery area “.
This would not have been a satellite launch like the others for SpaceX . In fact the first stage had already been used in six missions. With the one that should have started today there would have been seven: a record . In particular, the first mission was in September 2018 (Telstar 18 VANTAGE), then January 2019 (Iridium -8) and four missions dedicated to Starlink (from May 2019 to August 2020).
The mission should have departed from Cape Canaveral in Florida with the first stage that was supposed to land on the OCISLY drone barge (Of Course I Still Love You). fairing , ie the load covers, had already been used: one half once while the other two. We remind you that even these components that seem “economic” actually cost about $ 6 million.
This mission of SpaceX would also have been important due to its proximity to the satellite launch NASA / ESA Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich always happened with a Falcon 9 , which took place on the evening of 21 November. In fact, they would have been two launches made by a private company at a very short distance from each other.
We also remember that as the constellation of Starlink satellites there will be more and more possibilities for users to connect. The phase of beta testing has begun in recent weeks public call “Better Than Nothing Beta” with the delivery of the kits to the various users, with an astronaut among them. In March 2021 it could be the turn of the European market with the first users who will be able to connect to the satellites of SpaceX .
Spahn plans to be permanently on sick leave exclusively via video consultation Employees should be given the permanent opportunity to contact in certain cases exclusively via To have video consultation hours on sick leave. This is what the editorial network Germany reports, citing a draft law by Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn. According to this, the first sick leave and extension should be possible digitally even if there is no personal contact between patient and doctor.
Ransomware attack on Capcom Data of up to 350. 000 Customers of the games company Capcom are affected by a ransomware attack. Capcom announced this in a blog post. The attack came on November 2nd: Members of the criminal organization Ragnar Locker are said to have encrypted data on the Capcom servers with the ransomware of the same name and then demanded a ransom. So far, only the theft of personal data from nine current or former employees of the Japanese games company has been confirmed. In addition, however, up to 350. 000 other employees, business partners and customers are affected, writes Capcom.
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Huawei sells smartphone subsidiary brand Honor The Chinese tech group Huawei sells its smartphone brand Honor. The customer is a newly founded consortium of various Honor- related companies and the Shenzhen Smart City Technology Development Group. Huawei explains in its statement that the decision was made to go into the mobile business due to the shortage of technical components. Under new ownership, Honor would probably no longer be affected by the US government’s trade restrictions. It is conceivable that Honor cell phones will get access to Google’s play services again.
Another crash of a Vega – Launcher The 000. Start of a Vega rocket failed. As the European space agency ESA announced, the mission failed because eight minutes after the start the ignition of the motor of the fourth stage produced an error, which is why the rocket deviated from the planned trajectory and burned up together with two satellites in the earth’s atmosphere. The telemetry data of the flight is currently being evaluated to determine the cause of the error. This second crash of a Vega rocket could possibly have an impact on the program of the successor file Vega-C.
Tomas Rawlings had gotten cheese everywhere. At a lunch with some of the best and brightest minds of the European Space Agency, he dropped a roll that exploded “like a cheese grenade.” Melted goo fused with the wirey carpet. Those brilliant scientists and researchers he’d hoped to impress were now treading it all over.
“I had this nightmare scenario of a future thing where like, the ExoMars mission would crash because they found a piece of cheese wedged in some critical solar panel,” Rawlings says.
Rawlings isn’t just a menace to clean carpets; he’s also CEO of Auroch Digital and a game designer. Together with ESA, the team at Auroch has been working to create a strategy simulation that feels true to how agencies operate. In Mars Horizon — available for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch today — the goal is to complete a crewed mission to Mars. But first, players will have to secure the funding and do proper research to get there.
Mars Horizon kicks off in 1956, at the dawn of the space race, but extends into the not-so-distant future. It offers players an “alternative history” to explore, rather than restricting players to the past, by giving them the freedom to choose what agency they’ll act as. Players can pursue joint missions and cooperate or advance more competitively.
The game is about reducing risk. Each mission offers different support that will prepare their agency for Mars. Certain tasks will increase your chances of a successful landing, but it’s also important to calculate potential losses. Failing a crewed mission, for example, might lead to lost resources or even dead astronauts. Being an agency with a high mortality rate won’t shut you down; it will make rebuilding funds hard, meaning you may lose your chance to be first.
For developers working on games about space exploration, agencies like ESA can be an invaluable educational resource. “If somebody mails you and says ‘I don’t think you’ve got that satellite right,’ you’re like, ‘Well I think we have. We did our research,’” Rawlings says. “But if somebody mails you and says, ‘I don’t think you’ve got that satellite right because I designed that satellite,’ I guess I’ll go with you on that.”
But getting their approval, let alone cooperation, is another matter. ESA doesn’t work with just anyone. “We are approached quite often by game companies who want to create a game of going out, seeking new life, and blowing it to bits,” says Emmet Fletcher, head of partnerships for ESA. “But that’s not what we’re about.”
ESA’s goal is to answer the big questions, Fletcher says: where did the Universe come from? Why are we here? Is there life on other planets? Destruction may serve an important narrative purpose in a video game, but the realities of Earth’s space agencies are far tamer. It’s a peaceful agenda pursued by thinkers who are more interested in studying than growing a military arm. “How does that reflect into video games? It’s tough,” Fletcher says. “Blowing things up is spectacular. Launching stuff is pretty spectacular — hopefully it’s not too spectacular. We like to keep the spectacular level in our launches to a specific level. But looking at the things that we’ve found in our Universe so far, far outweigh going out and developing a new weapon.”
During Mars Horizon’s development, ESA and Auroch worked together to hammer out the details of how agencies run. Development team members went to events, saw mission control at the European Space Operations Center, and spoke with, in some cases, rocket scientists to create an experience that feels authentic. Sometimes that means incorporating actual prototypes from missions as players combine research and resources to build their vehicles. Sometimes it boils down to the relationship between agencies across the globe. In the real world, cooperation is fundamental to success.
“While governments have competed a lot, space is one of the areas where cooperation has proceeded, even at some of the darkest moments of the Cold War,” says Rawlings. “I think that speaks to actually a quite positive thing of humanity, where we can make these things work when we try. Ultimately, there’s too much to be gained by cooperation and too much to be lost by conflict.” Mars Horizon doesn’t simulate the politics of the world around it, but it does, inevitably, butt against it — whether players choose to manage their agency as a solo operation or use diplomacy.
There’s a bigger philosophical argument as to how and why this all matters, even when it’s contained within a video game. “The exploration of space puts a huge perspective onto what we’re doing on Earth,” Fletcher says. “Critical disputes, ideological disputes, when you look at just how many things are out there that are completely mind-boggling. The more we travel away from our planet, the more we realize how important the planet is to us.” The ratio of what we know about space versus what we don’t is staggering. One horrifying example: some astronauts living in zero-g find that, upon returning to Earth, their vision is altered because the shape of their eyeballs has changed. “Not everybody,” Fletcher says. “We don’t know why.” (Mercifully, that is not part of Mars Horizon.)
The point, then, is not to definitively understand the how and why of space travel. It’s that every inch of progress made in space travel has come from incremental steps, Fletcher says. No one can jump in immediately and declare they’re ready for a Mars mission. “This is something that Mars Horizon does reflect,” Fletcher says. “You’re developing all this [knowledge and tech] to reduce the risk in order to make your chances of success higher. There’s no guarantee because everything we do is the first time we’ve done it. There’s always something unknown there.”
Attacks via encrypted data traffic are increasing by leaps and bounds With almost 200 Million attacks in the first nine months of the year, phishing ranks first among attacks spread over SSL. This is one of the findings of Zscaler’s State of Encrypted Attacks Report, for which the company’s ThreatlabZ team analyzed more than 6.6 billion attacks detected in the Zscaler cloud. Zscaler cites the corona-related increase in the use of collaboration and file sharing applications from the cloud as a factor in the explosive growth. Thus 30 percent of all SSL-based attacks were hidden in services such as Google Drive, OneDrive, AWS or Dropbox.
What the ARM-Macs lack At Apple’s keynote yesterday, a lot of the innovations of the first three ARMs -Machines spoken. The M1 chip, which Apple uses for the first time in the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro with 13 and Mac mini, is said to offer the best battery life of any Mac and beat any comparable PC in terms of performance. However, Apple’s choice of design also leads to compromises: The new computers have no Thunderbolt 4, no new webcam and no support for eGPU.
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Truck toll depending on CO2 emissions is the “central instrument” Heavy goods traffic in Europe is responsible for a large part of CO2 emissions on the road responsible. Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze would like to change that in terms of climate protection. It has therefore called on the EU transport ministers to quickly agree on including greenhouse gas emissions in the truck toll. Staggering the truck toll according to CO2 emissions is a “central instrument for technology change,” said the minister.
NASA and ESA can bring soil samples from Mars to Earth NASA and ESA are able to bring soil samples from Mars to Earth in order to have them examined more closely. That is the conclusion of an independent commission of inquiry on the “Mars Sample Return” mission, which also recommends continuing the preparation. With the Mars rover Perseverance, the first spacecraft required for this is already on its way to the Red Planet. After the beginning of his landing 2021 he should take soil and rock samples with a drill and put them on the surface in small containers. 2026 ESA’s “Sample Fetch Rover” is supposed to collect the samples and use them to equip NASA’s “Mars Ascent Vehicle”. This should then be the first spacecraft to leave Mars and bring the samples to the ESA’s “Earth Return Orbiter”.
NASA and ESA are now able to bring soil samples from Mars to Earth in order to have them examined more closely. That is the conclusion of an independent commission of inquiry on the “Mars Sample Return” mission, which, among other things, recommends continuing the preparation.
At the same time, the auditors have made a lot of suggestions to address potential problems preventively. The US space agency feels just as confirmed by the report as it is with its European counterpart. ESA is a partner of the ambitious mission and welcomes the result of the review.
A complicated, multi-stage undertaking The Mars Sample Return mission is based on several spacecraft, NASA explains once more. With the Mars rover Perseverance, the first of these is already on the way to the Red Planet. After the beginning of his landing 2021 he is supposed to take soil and rock samples with a drill and pack them up in small containers the surface. With two more rocket launches 2026 their transport should be initiated. For this purpose, ESA will deliver the “Sample Fetch Rover”, which collects the samples and uses them to equip NASA’s “Mars Ascent Vehicle”. It should then be the first spacecraft to leave Mars and bring the samples to ESA’s “Earth Return Orbiter”, which will wait in orbit and bring the samples to Earth.
The review of the extremely ambitious project that has now been presented took place earlier in the course of development than in any such mission before, explains NASA. Normally such checks would not be carried out until much later. Among other things, one wants to guarantee a success of the mission, which is one of the most important of the US space agency and should not only help to answer important questions about the history of Mars, but also to prepare manned missions to the red planet. The main recommendations of the report now mainly concern differences in management and organization between NASA and ESA, which must not cause problems.
“Great news” The result is great news for the campaign, says David Parker, ESA Director for Robotic and Astronautical Exploration: “It reinforces our shared vision of bringing scientists to pristine pieces of the Red Planet That they can study with laboratory equipment and techniques that we could never take to Mars. ” NASA chief Jim Bridenstine says the mission must be carried out by his space agency as a leading member of the global community. You know about the challenges and therefore look particularly closely at this architecture: “And that is the reason why we ultimately achieve great things.”
NASA rover Curiosity on Mars (25 images) Curiositys View of your own tracks in the Martian sand
(Fig : NASA / JPL-Caltech) (mho)
Coastal cities could be regularly under water, hurricanes and storm surges could increase their destructive power and island paradises sink into the sea: The rise in sea level is one of the greatest threats that climate change brings with it. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assumes that with unchecked climate change it could be more than a meter by the end of the century. This is likely to be a problem not only for the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, whose highest point is just over two meters. The coasts of Europe are also in danger.
In order to measure and map the rise in sea level, scientists want to use a new earth observation satellite from the Looking at the oceans in space – more precisely than ever before. Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich scans within ten days 90 percent of the global ocean surface – from a height of more than 1300 Kilometers with an accuracy of less than one millimeter.
Measurement of the sea level with millimeter accuracy Earth observation satellites have been around for decades. “But Sentinel 6 has a new radar on board, with a higher precision, which will be able to measure a rise in sea level even more precisely,” says the director for earth observation programs at the European space agency ESA, Josef Aschbacher. As part of the European Earth observation program Copernicus, the satellite will be controlled from Darmstadt by a new, ultra-modern control center of the European meteorological satellite agency, Eumetsat, says the head of the program at the Darmstadt satellite specialists, Manfred Lugert.
Many experts had to pull together to make the spacecraft a reality. The mission is a cooperation between ESA, the US space agency NASA, Eumetsats and the US weather and oceanography agency NOAA. The satellite is the first of two identical satellites to be launched into space. It is named after the recently deceased Michael H. Freilich, the former director of NASA’s Earth Observation Department.
The satellite should initially be on 10. Launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on November 11th. Now the start is delayed a little because the engines of the launcher have to be checked again. A new date was not initially set. The second, identical satellite is to follow in five and a half years. According to Aschbacher, the entire project cost those involved in the USA and Europe around 400 million euros.
The Radar pulses from the satellite are transmitted, reflected by the sea surface and received again. “Nobody can do anything with the data at first. That has to be converted into high-precision distance measurement,” says Lugert. “The exact determination of the location in orbit is the great challenge of the mission.” Wave heights would have to be resolved and atmospheric influences would have to be factored out in distance measurements. There are two independent navigation systems on board for determining the location, and the satellite orbit is regularly measured with a laser. According to Aschbacher, in conjunction with other satellites, conclusions can be drawn about the density and thickness of the ice. This is important, for example the melting of the Greenland ice has tripled since the 90 years.
The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich Earth observation satellite is being refueled.
(Source: ESA ) Precise picture of the situation “We now get a global dimension every ten days, so a picture like that Location is, “says Aschbacher. “The satellite provides data that has not been available so precisely before.” As a state-of-the-art and high-precision component, it will complement the monitoring of the planet from space. “There are certainly some 100 satellites that are currently in orbit and monitoring the earth,” says Aschbacher. The Europeans are in the lead here because the system covers everything – from science to weather forecasts to civil protection.
“But there is still a lot to be done,” Aschbacher is certain. There are still parameters that need to be measured more precisely. “One of the greatest challenges is the more accurate measurement of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.” It is still not precise and comprehensive enough. For the future, he would like to see a satellite system that measures all of these parameters. The data could then be linked and coupled with artificial intelligence. This makes it possible to make real predictions and simulations around the system earth, for example how high the sea level rise will be in different temperature scenarios.
( olb)
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