With less than three weeks to the scheduled landing of the Curiosity rover on the Red Planet, leaders of Mars Science Laboratory team field questions form media about the mission, the most difficult ever undertaken in the history of interplanetary robotic exploration.
Category: Astronomie
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ESA at Farnborough 2012 – Fernando Doblas, Head of the ESA Communication Department
An interview with Fernando Doblas, Head of the ESA Communication Department, in the Space Zone at Farnborough air show 2012. Fernando answers questions on ESA’s presence in the Space Zone, and how such events foster international cooperation and the role of ESA.
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ESA at Farnborough 2012 – A Tour of the ESA Stand
Tour of the Space Zone at Farnborough International Air show 2012 in the UK. ESA’s exhibition, alongside other space agencies and industries, is in the Space Zone between 9 — 15 July.
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ESA Euronews: Private Space
Boldly going where no private company has gone before.
On 25 May 2012 the first commercial spacecraft berthed with the International Space Station. A private company achieved something only national agencies have ever done before: flying and recovering an orbital craft. With private companies launching their own spaceships and designing their own orbital stations, it’s the dawn of commercial spacefaring.
We talk to people involved in that development and we explore the world’s first commercial spaceport. -
Kuipers landing highlights
On 1 July 2012, ESA astronaut André Kuipers, NASA astronaut Don Pettit and Russian Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko returned to Earth in their Soyuz capsule. It marks the end of PromISSe, the fourth ESA long-duration mission aboard the International Space Station.
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Within Temptation dedicate ‘Faster’ to André
Within Temptation is the internationally known symphonic rock band, founded in the Netherlands in 1996 by vocalist Sharon den Adel and guitarist Robert Westerholt. The band members are interested in all things science-fiction and space-related, and have been following the PromISSe mission of ESA astronaut André Kuipers. When they heard that three of their songs (“Faster”, “Mother Earth” and “The Promise”) had been included in André’s playlist to be played in space, the band were very excited to support his mission. They helped us to produce this video, recording a special message and dedicating their song “Faster” to André, wishing him a high-speed but safe return later this week.
Within Temptation are Sharon den Adel, Robert Westerholt, Stefan Helleblad, Jeroen van Veen, Ruud Jolie, Martijn Spierenburg and Mike Coolen.More information at: www.within-temptation.com
Thanks to the ORTS for the live band footage.
Video copyright ESA/Within Temptation.
Faster written by S. den Adel, R. Westerholt & D. Gibson.
Video produced by ESA/J. Makinen. -
Bettina Boehm, explains why it’s great to work at ESA
Bettina Boehm, Head of Human Resources, talks about the different entry options available at ESA and why this is a great organisation to work at.
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Challenges of Getting to Mars: Curiosity’s Seven Minutes of Terror
Team members share the challenges of Curiosity’s final minutes to landing on the surface of Mars.
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ESA – Space to Relax / Stellar Works of Art
Journey through galaxies, past star-forming clouds, around mammoth stars, and inside gas and dust nebulas. A relaxation programme of astronomical wonders by the European Space Agency.
Originally produced for Lufthansa inflight entertainment (released June 2011).
Credit images: XMM-Newton, Herschel, Planck, Cluster, Integral, Joint ESA/NASA Hubble Space Telescope and ESA amateur ground-based cameras.
Credit music: “Dream Elements” by Green Sun, licensed by AmbientMusicGarden.com -
Rosetta’s view of Lutetia, July 2010
This movie shows a sequence of images taken as ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft flew past the main-belt asteroid (21) Lutetia, during the spacecraft’s 10-year journey towards comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
The flyby took place on 10 July 2010, when Rosetta flew past the asteroid at a distance of 3168.2 km and at a relative speed of 15 km/s. The first image shown in the sequence was taken nine and a half hours before closest approach, from a distance of 500 000 km to Lutetia; the last image was taken six minutes after closest approach, at 6300 km from the asteroid.
The OSIRIS camera on board Rosetta has surveyed the part of Lutetia that was visible during the flyby – about half of its entire surface, mostly coinciding with the asteroid’s northern hemisphere. These unique, close-up images have allowed scientists to study the asteroid’s surface morphology, composition and other properties in unprecedented detail.
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Transiting the midnight sun
Time lapse movie of the transit of Venus, as seen from the land of the midnight sun in Svalbard. Interference from cloud gives an eerie feel to the scene.
Credits: ESA – Andy Oates
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Venus Express and transit of Venus
This movie was compiled from images taken by the Venus Monitoring Camera on Venus Express as it approached the planet on its elliptical orbit on 1 June 2012. Initially, the spacecraft is looking at the south side of the planet from a distance of 63 000 km and clouds can be seen moving below. As the spacecraft draws closer, Venus starts filling the field of view and the equatorial regions can be seen. The sequence finishes with observations of cloud features at high latitudes.
Copyright: ESA/MPS/DLR/IDA
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A Last in our Lifetime event on This Week @NASA
NASA Television helped observe the last transit of Venus we’ll see here on Earth until 2117 by showcasing live-streaming Websites the world over, including observations made by scientists in central Australia, by the NASA Edge team, stationed atop the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii, by scientists at NASA Headquarters and other NASA Centers around the country. Also, development of technologies to enable exploration of extreme environments such as those found on Venus, The Voyage of Space Shuttle Enterprise concludes in New York, Girl Scouts Rock at NASA Headquarters, Development of inflatable spacecraft and the NASA family mourns the passing of Ray Bradbury, one of our era’s greatest and most noted science fiction/fantasy writers.
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Girl Scouts Rock @NASA to celebrate the big 100!
NASA helped mark the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts of America by hosting a Girl Scouts Rock@NASA event on June 8 at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, former astronauts Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Pam Melroy and other scientists and invited guests spoke with attendees about NASA’s missions, discoveries and careers.
NASA and the Girl Scouts share a common goal to encourage and educate young girls about science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in exciting and innovative ways. The Girl Scouts began in 1912 with only 18 girls. Today, there are 3.2 million girls and adults who are members. In 100 years, the organization has graduated more than 59 million women in the United States.
The event is part of the Women@NASA project, which is a continuing joint effort by NASA and the White House Council on Women and Girls to relate science, technology, engineering and math fields to young females.
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Venus Transit seen from Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen
Cloudy weather did impact on the Venus transit observations at Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen. Still most of the Venus transit could be captured.
Credit: ESA – M. Breitfellner, M. Perez -
Venus Transit seen from Canberra, Australia (part 2)
Almost the whole Venus transit could be captured despite of some clouds did get into the way of those observing the Venus Transit in Canberra, Australia.
Credit: ESA – Manuel Castillo-Fraile and Miguel Sanchez-Portal -
Venus Transit seen from Canberra, Australia (part 1)
Almost the whole Venus transit could be captured despite of some clouds did get into the way of those observing the Venus Transit in Canberra, Australia.
Credit: ESA – Manuel Castillo-Fraile and Miguel Sanchez-Portal -
Venus solar transit 2012 – Proba-2’s journey across the Sun
This movie shows the transit of Venus on 5-6 June 2012 as seen from SWAP, a Belgian solar imager onboard ESA’s PROBA2 microsatellite. SWAP, watching the Sun in EUV light, observes Venus as a small, black circle, obscuring the EUV light emitted from the solar outer atmosphere – the corona – from 19:45UT onwards. At 22:16UT – Venus started its transit of the solar disk
The bright dots all over the image (‘snow storm’) are energetic particles hitting the SWAP detector when PROBA2 crosses the South Atlantic Anomaly, a region where the protection of the Earth magnetic field against space radiation is known to be weaker.
Note also the small flaring activity in the bright active region in the northern solar hemisphere as Venus passes over. Towards the end, you can see a big dim inverted-U-shape moving away from the Sun towards the bottom-right corner. This is a coronal mass ejection taking off.
Credit: ESA/ROB
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NASA TV Hosts 2012 Venus Transit
Pre-ingress coverage from NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, of the last-in-a-lifetime event.
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Earth from Space: Mississippi River Delta
Earth from Space is presented by Kelsea Brennan-Wessels from the ESA Web-TV virtual studios.
In the twenty-fourth edition we look at the Mississippi River Delta, where the largest river in the United States empties into the Gulf of Mexico. -
ESA Euronews: Desvelando los secretos de Venus
Es conocido como el lucero del alba o la estrella de la mañana, pero no es una estrella: es un planeta. Venus es, junto con Marte, nuestro vecino más cercano, y al mismo tiempo, un gran desconocido. Levantamos el velo que esconde los misterios del planeta ardiente.
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ESA Euronews: Quand Vénus se dévoile
On l’appelle l’étoile du berger ou encore l’étoile du matin, mais c’est tout sauf une étoile. C’est même une planète de notre voisinage immédiat. Vénus est, avec Mars, la plus proche planète de la Terre. Proche peut-être mais au combien différente. On commence tout juste à lever quelques pans du voile qui entoure le mystère de la planète brûlante.
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ESA Euronews: Unveiling Venus
It can be called the morning or evening star, depending on where you are or what time it is, but it is anything but a star. In fact, it is one of our nearest planetary neighbours. Venus and Mars may be Earth’s close cousins, but they are oh-so different. Only now are we starting to peer through Venus’ clouds to reveal the burning planet’s secrets.
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SPACEX/NASA DISCUSS LAUNCH OF FALCON 9 ROCKET AND DRAGON CAPSULE
During a press briefing at The Kennedy Space Center on May 22, SpaceX and NASA officials discussed the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule on a demonstration flight to the International Space Station. Falcon 9 and Dragon lifted off Tuesday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 3:44 a.m. EDT. On Thursday, May 24, Dragon will perform a flyby of the space station at a distance of approximately 1.5 miles to validate the operation of sensors and flight systems necessary for a safe rendezvous and approach. Following analysis of the flyby by NASA and SpaceX managers, the Dragon capsule will be cleared to rendezvous and berth with the space station on Friday, May 25, marking the first time a commercial company has attempted this feat.
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Proba-2 catches solar eclipse
ESA’s space weather microsatellite Proba-2 observed the solar eclipse on the evening of 20 May 2012. It passed through the Moon’s shadow a total of four times, imaging a sequence of partial solar eclipses in the process. The first contact was made on Sunday May 20 at 21:09 GMT. The last contact finished at 03:04 GMT.
Credits: ESA/ROB
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SPACEX/NASA DISCUSS LAUNCH ABORT OF FALCON 9 ROCKET
During a press briefing at The Kennedy Space Center on May 19, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and NASA Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Manager Alan Lindenmoyer discussed the launch abort of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule on a demonstration flight to the International Space Station. Early data shows that high chamber pressure in Engine #5 caused a cutoff of all nine engines at T- 0.5 seconds. SpaceX will continue to look at the data and inspect the engine before setting a new launch date. The next possible opportunity is May 22 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
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NASA/SpaceX Hold NASA Social for Falcon 9 Launch
NASA and Space Exploration Technologies invited a group of their social media followers to a NASA Social at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The event was in anticipation of the launch of SpaceX’s second Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration flight. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is targeted to lift off at 4:55 a.m. EDT on May 19, in an attempt to become the first commercial company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station.
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Sir Elton John greets the ‘Rocket Men’
This video was specially recorded during Sir Elton John’s Million Dollar Piano Show in Las Vegas, on 17 April 2012, 40 years to the day after his single Rocket Man was released around the world.
Continuing the celebration of ESA astronaut André Kuipers’ music in space, British rock legend Sir Elton sent a special message to ESA, André and the crew of the ISS on the 40th anniversary of this classic song.
Sir Elton said, “When I was a boy Dan Dare was a comic book hero, and space travel just a romantic idea, not a reality. I was 14 years old when Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space; my songwriting partner Bernie Taupin was just 11. Bernie and I did not meet until 1967, and two years after we met, Neil Armstrong became the first man to step on to the moon.
“Our generation was smitten with the glory and excitement of space travel. ‘Rocket Man’ – and indeed ‘Dan Dare’ on the Rock of the Westies album – came from those boyhood dreams of travelling beyond the stars and looking back on Earth.
“Not long after the Rocket Man single was released, my band and I were invited to the NASA headquarters in Texas and shown around by Al Worden, Apollo 15 command module pilot. It was thrilling to find that real astronauts liked our song, Rocket Man, which was about an imaginary astronaut.
“Now, 40 years later, it’s amazing to hear from the astronauts at the European Space Agency that they like the song and that it has been on the playlist on the International Space Station. I send my best wishes to ESA and all the crew, and my thanks for keeping those boyhood dreams alive.”
André said, “This song has been an inspiration to many people who are interested in space, and especially those who wanted to become astronauts, including myself. It is certainly one of the most played songs here on the ISS, and we know it will accompany more astronauts into space in the future.”
Rocket Man appeared on Elton John’s album Honky Château, released also 40 years ago next week, on 19 May 1972.
Video copyright ESA/Rocket Music
Rocket Man written by E. John and B. Taupin
Music and concert excerpts, courtesy Rocket Music
Video produced by ESA/J. Makinen -
ESA astronaut André Kuipers and astronaut Don Pettit greet WWF
ESA astronaut and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) ambassador André Kuipers and his Expedition 31 crewmate, NASA astronaut Don Pettit, took part in a video call with the WWF annual meeting that took place in Rotterdam, the Netherlands on 8 May 2012.
WWF representatives worldwide heard what André and Don had to say about our planet. Their unique vantage point on the International Space Station and ESA’s Earth observation satellites help us understand how fragile our planet is.
The Dutch branch of the WWF — Wereld Natuur Fonds — is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
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NASA Asian-American History Month Profile — Allen Chen
Allen Chen is a systems engineer in the Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) Systems and Advanced Technologies group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. (JPL). On the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) team, he is the lead for EDL operations and Flight Dynamics, co-leads the joint science/engineering Mars atmosphere characterization team. Chen has been a member of the MSL EDL Systems Engineering Team and the MSL Flight System Systems Engineering Team since his arrival at JPL in 2002. He also worked on the Mars Exploration Rovers project, performing EDL reconstruction analysis and testing. He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. and an M.B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles.
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NASA’s Dawn Defines Vesta’s Role in Solar System History
During a NASA Television Science briefing, scientists discussed the findings of the first global analysis of the giant asteroid Vesta by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft. The Dawn mission has confirmed Vesta’s status as a special fossil of the early solar system and revealed a more varied, diverse world than originally thought. Dawn has shown Vesta is the only known intact, layered planetary building block with an iron core surviving from the earliest days of the solar system. It therefore more closely resembles a small planet or Earth’s moon, not another asteroid.
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Dream team – ESA assistants
Dream team – ESA assistants Kerstin, Marita and Tatiana talk about the daily challenges of their jobs.
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NASA Transports Space Shuttle Enterprise to New York
On Friday, April 27 Enterprise, the first NASA space shuttle was transported atop a 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft from Dulles International Airport, near Washington, D.C. to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. Enterprise eventually will be displayed at New York’s Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. Though Enterprise, the first space shuttle orbiter never flew in space, it was crucial to the Space Shuttle Program because its series of approach and landing tests in 1977 proved the orbiter could fly in the atmosphere and land like an airplane, except without power — like a glider. Includes footage of Enterprise on the ground at Dulles and takeoff from Dulles.
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Space walks in 3D and other recent imagery from the ISS
ESA astronaut André Kuipers’ stay on the International Space Station (ISS) started on 23 December 2011 and continues until 1 July 2012. Apart from his demanding tasks as Flight Engineer for Expeditions 30/31, André is providing us with amazing imagery of Earth and of life and work on the ISS. For the first time, digital 3D still photos have been taken of cosmonauts carrying out extravehicular activities in their spacesuits. This short clip collects a selection of 3D images footage taken with the Erasmus Recording Binocular (ERB-2) and some 3D stills from a Fuji W3 camera. Stereoscopic images are a unique tool for providing viewers with a sense of presence in the constrained and dense habitat in which the astronauts live.
Stereoscopic 3D glasses are required to properly enjoy the full 3D effect of this footage.
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Earth from Space: The future of Earth observation
Earth from Space is presented by Kelsea Brennan-Wessels from the ESA Web-TV virtual studios.
In the nineteenth edition we look at an example of what a high-resolution image could look like from the future Sentinel-2 mission — envisaged for launch next year. The mockup was constructed using 82 images from the German RapidEye satellites.
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Discovery Flyovers Delight D.C. Area as Seen From NASA Headquarters
Space Shuttle Discovery, atop its Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, NASA 905, is shown from various vantage points around the National Capital region on April 17 on the final leg of its ferry flight from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to Dulles International Airport in Virginia.
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NASA Features FameLab Finalists
The finals of the NASA-sponsored Astrobiology FameLab showcase up-and-coming new scientists who’ve honed their skills in communicating complex scientific concepts. Held at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center in Atlanta. Nichelle Nichols, known for her portrayal of Lt. Uhura in the original “Star Trek” television series, serves as host.
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NASA Doctor Discusses Providing Medical Care to Astronauts in Space
In an interview aired on NASA Television during the International Space Station Update hour, NASA Flight Surgeon Ed Powers discussed how flight doctors work with crew members on board the station to keep the astronauts healthy. Powers also talked about some of the difficulties encountered in diagnosing patients who are not there in person and about the impacts of space medicine to life here on earth.
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NASA Centers rumble in FIRST Robotics Regional action
The annual FIRST Robotics competition is in full swing with some 60-thousand high school students competing in regional challenges using robots they built in six weeks from a common kit of parts. NASA is the largest sponsor of the national FIRST program, supporting five regional competitions and more than 280 teams. Since January, high school FIRST Robotics teams across the country have worked tirelessly to build, program and test robots in preparation for this year’s challenge called Rebound Rumble.
