A rendering of how the ClearSpace-1 mission will grapple a discarded payload adapter with its four-arm claw.
The European Space Agency (ESA) today finalized a contract to launch a mission in 2025 that will be the first to capture and dispose of a piece of orbiting space junk. The ClearSpace-1 mission, built by Swiss startup ClearSpace, will home in on a piece of debris the size of a washing machine, grapple it with a four-armed claw, and escort it down to a lower orbit where the duo will enter the atmosphere and burn up.
Other things to check out:
Orbits explained: It's hard to get into space -- but great once you're there - CNET
SpaceX's Crew Dragon Resilience hurls sideways above the Earth as it approaches to the International Space Station earlier in 2020.
The hardest part about space, it turns out, isn't so much getting there as staying there. That's where the idea of orbiting comes into play. Once you accomplish the hard work of getting a spacecraft into orbit, you can get years of use out of it as it loops more or less effortlessly around the planet on its own invisible track.
European Space Agency to launch ‘space claw’ to clean up junk orbiting Earth
Scientists have come up with an out-of-this-world idea to clean up nearly 1 million pieces of space junk orbiting Earth.
The ESA will ink a contract with Swiss startup ClearSpace to launch its first removal mission, called ClearSpace-1.
The claw’s first target is a 250-pound Vega Secondary Payload Adapter — aka VESPA — that’s been orbiting Earth for seven years after helping launch a rocket.
The one-time mission is scheduled to begin in 2025 and is estimated to cost well over $100 million — making its long-term value questionable.
Nasa confirms mystery object orbiting Earth is a 54-year-old rocket, not an asteroid | Stuff.co.nz
A mysterious object temporarily orbiting Earth is a 54-year-old rocket, not an asteroid after all, astronomers confirmed Thursday.
Observations by a telescope in Hawaii clinched its identity, according to Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
The object was classified as an asteroid after its discovery in September. But NASA's top asteroid expert, Paul Chodas, quickly suspected it was the Centaur upper rocket stage from Surveyor 2, a failed 1966 moon-landing mission.
Not to change the topic here:
Follow Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich in Real Time As It Orbits Earth, Gathering Critical
The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California on Nov. 21. NASA’s Eyes visualization tools lets you track the spacecraft as begins its mission to measure sea level height as it orbits Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The app provides a 3D visualization of the sea-level-monitoring satellite, letting you see where it is right now as it glides over the cloud-covered globe.
“What we create for Eyes is an engineering model of the real thing. You can get lost in the detail – not just in how the sunlight reflects off the spacecraft’s solar panels but how you can track its exact location in orbit,” said Jason Craig, visualization producer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “We have data streaming from space missions near and far, and we’ve put that data to work.
A68a: World's biggest iceberg is fraying at the edges - BBC News
.css-14iz86j-BoldText{font-weight:bold;} Iceberg A68a has been imaged at high resolution for the first time in months - and it's in a ragged condition.
The world's biggest berg is riven with cracks. Battered by waves and under constant attack from warm waters, it's now shedding countless small blocks.
If it grounds there in the shallows, it could cause immense problems for the British Overseas Territory's wildlife.
It has a fleet of orbiting spacecraft called SkySats that can resolve details at the Earth's surface as small as 50cm across.
China completes lunar sample collection ahead of schedule | Reuters
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Chang'e-5 lunar vehicle has finished collecting samples of lunar rocks and soil more than a day ahead of schedule in the first lunar sample retrieval mission since the 1970s, the country's space agency said on Thursday.
The robotic vehicle has stored the samples and will now dock with the orbiting Chang'e-5 for the return journey to Earth.
China launched a robotic spacecraft on Nov. 24 to bring back rocks from the moon in the first bid by any country to retrieve samples since 1976.
Operational Acceptance Of GPS III SV04 By USSF – SatNews
Global Positioning System III Space Vehicle (SV) 04 received United States Space Force 's Operational Acceptance approval on December 1, marking yet another significant milestone for the GPS III program, Space and Missile Systems Center and USSF.
This is the fourth GPS III satellite delivered into the operational constellation in the past 12 months and the second in the past three months. Additionally, this is the first GPS III vehicle delivered to the warfighter through an expedited satellite control authority transfer process, which cuts ten days off the previous operational acceptance timeline.
Happening on Twitter
Europe plans space claw to capture orbiting junk: https://t.co/Uzrb6HaOwM https://t.co/Mwy3cRDjdl NewsfromScience (from Washington, D.C.) Tue Dec 01 19:31:00 +0000 2020
No comments:
Post a Comment