Earth Sky Stars » Space Missions http://earthskystars.net/blog blog for earthskystars Mon, 26 Jul 2010 08:35:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Is Ending NASA’s Constellation Program a Bad Move? http://earthskystars.net/blog/2010/03/03/is-ending-nasas-constellation-program-a-bad-move/ http://earthskystars.net/blog/2010/03/03/is-ending-nasas-constellation-program-a-bad-move/#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:06:06 +0000 Bill Clugston http://earthskystars.net/blog/?p=209 Probably not, IMHO. Doing a manned spaceflight program on the cheap was a bad idea. Shifting money from NASA’s unmanned science program to fund this bad idea was even worse.

Many former astronauts believed that Constellation was an accident waiting to happen. Instead of recycling old ideas and hardware let’s do the research and engineering required for a successful space program.

Obama did the right thing by killing a poorly conceived program.

]]> http://earthskystars.net/blog/2010/03/03/is-ending-nasas-constellation-program-a-bad-move/feed/ 0 Build Your Own Lunar Lander Computer … http://earthskystars.net/blog/2009/07/14/build-your-own-lunar-lander-computer/ http://earthskystars.net/blog/2009/07/14/build-your-own-lunar-lander-computer/#comments Wed, 15 Jul 2009 04:01:12 +0000 Bill Clugston http://earthskystars.net/blog/?p=181 Talk about “old school”! Here’s a link to building your own working replica of the Apollo 11 LEM guidance computer. It took John Pultorak, who is a 54 year old Lockheed Martin software engineer, 4 years to build and program it in his basement. He even documented the construction and posted the plans here. The computer contained a whopping 4k of RAM!

]]> http://earthskystars.net/blog/2009/07/14/build-your-own-lunar-lander-computer/feed/ 0 ESA’s Earth Explorer Satellite Program http://earthskystars.net/blog/2009/03/17/esas-earth-explorer-satellite-program/ http://earthskystars.net/blog/2009/03/17/esas-earth-explorer-satellite-program/#comments Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:31:38 +0000 Bill Clugston http://earthskystars.net/blog/?p=159 ESA (European Space Agency) will be launching a series of satellites named Earth Explorers. Each of these satellites will examine our planet with a different set of instruments. Our planet is changing in many ways and these robotic explorers will help us understand how and why.

The first mission, Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE), just launched from Russia and will map the Earth’s gravitational field in detail. An unique mission, the GOCE satellite flies at the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere with constant orbital corrections provided by an ion engine. The next missions are listed below from ESA’s web site:

ADM-Aeolus
The prime aim of the Atmospheric Dynamics Mission is to demonstrate measurements of vertical wind profiles from space, using a high performance Doppler Wind Lidar based on direct-detection interferometric techniques. ADM-Aeolus is due for launch in 2011.

EarthCARE
Earth Clouds Aerosols and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) will improve the representation and understanding of the Earth’s radiative balance in climate and numerical forecast models. EarthCARE is due for launch in 2013.

Opportunity missions:

SMOS
The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, scheduled for launch in 2009, will exploit an innovative instrument designed as a two-dimensional interferometer for acquiring brightness temperature observations at L-band (1.4 GHz) for the estimation of soil moisture and ocean salinity to further our understanding of the Earth’s water cycle.

CryoSat-2
The CryoSat-2 satellite replaces CryoSat, which was lost as a result of launch failure in October 2005. Scheduled for launch towards the end of 2009, CryoSat-2 will measure fluctuations in the thickness of ice on both land and sea to provide conclusive evidence as to whether there is indeed a trend towards diminishing ice cover, furthering our understanding of the relationship between ice and global climate. CryoSat-2 will carry an innovative SAR/Interferometric Radar Altimeter (SIRAL).

Swarm
The objective of this mission is to provide the best-ever survey of the geomagnetic field and its temporal evolution in order to gain new insights into the Earth system by improving our understanding of the Earth’s interior and climate. Swarm is due for launch in 2010.

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