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Built by Space System/Loral of the United States, XTAR-EUR is fitted with 12 high powered X-band transponders. XTAR is a joint venture of Loral and Hisdesat of Spain. The XTAR satellite will provide governmental and military communications, in particular for the United States and Spain. The MAQSAT-B2 structure is an instrumented model designed to measure the launcher’s behavior during the mission, transmitting both technological measurements as well as images from two onboard DVCAM cameras. In addition, this structure carried the Sloshsat microsatellite, which will test fluid dynamics in microgravity after its successful separation from MAQSAT-B2 during Flight 164. MAQSAT-B2 was designed and produced by Germany’s Kayser-Threde. Sloshsat, built by the Dutch space agency NLR, is part of a European Space Agency technology program.
Eighth launch for Brazil The Star One C2 satellite is being built by Alcatel Space at its Cannes and Toulouse facilities using a Spacebus 3000B3 platform. Weighing about 4,100 kg. at liftoff, it will be placed in geostationary orbit at 65 degrees West. It will be fitted with 45 C-, Ku- and X-band transponders to handle both direct TV broadcasts for South America and international and domestic long-distance telephony for Brazil and Mexico. With this contract, Arianespace now has an backlog of 40 spacecraft to be launched: 35 on Ariane 5 (including nine ATV missions to the International Space Station), three with Soyuz at the Guiana Space Center and two for Soyuz from Baikonur. Its Starsem subsidiary has a backlog of five satellites to be launched. For more information, please visit: www.arianspace.com
In May - June 2005 a spectacular balloon campaign will take place at Swedish Space Corporation’s operational base Esrange near Kiruna in the northern part of Sweden. One large and heavy sub-millimetre-telescope (BLAST) will be launched as well as an engineering test flight of a newly developed ultra-long duration balloon vehicle (ULDB).
BLAST will be lifted up by a giant balloon (1.2 million m3) with the objective of carrying the payload across the Atlantic from Sweden to Alaska. The payload (2.700 kg) will reach an altitude of 40 km and the flight will take about 6-9 days. Never before has such a flight been made, regarding payload weight in combination with altitude, duration and flight trajectory. "BLAST will address some of the most important cosmological and galactic questions regarding the formation and evolution of stars, galaxies and clusters. It makes use of bolometric arrays to achieve highly sensitivity images at three sub-millimetre wavelengths, while at the same time testing technology used in the future ESA sub-millimetre space telescope Herschel to be launched in 2007." The NASA Balloon Program's capabilities are being expanded with the development of the ULDB developed by Aerostar (formerly Raven). This balloon is made of advanced materials and uses a new pumpkin-shaped balloon design to achieve flights with duration of up to 100 days. The ULDB is completely sealed and pressurized in order to maintain constant altitude day and night. With mission duration of up to several months, this new balloon will significantly increase the amount of data that can be collected in one balloon mission. Read more about NSBF and SSC and Esrange For more information please contact: Tomas Hedqvist, Campaign Manager, SSC Esrange - Phone: + 46 980 72016 Johanna Bergström-Roos, Information Manager, SSC Esrange - Phone: +46 980 72024 or +46 70-544 6021 Danny Ball, Site Manager NSBF - Phone: +1 903 729 0271
Paris - le 31 janvier 2005 - Troisième étape d’un projet qui a vu la construction d’un lycée et de son centre sportif, l’arrondissement de Sig-Noghin, situé dans la périphérie de Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), est à présent connecté à l’Internet Haut Débit grâce à un financement de l’AIMF. Cette réalisation est rendue possible grâce au projet de « mise en place de points d’accès facile à l’Internet » initié par l’Union Postale Universelle (UPU) au profit de la SONAPOST et avec l’appui et le savoir-faire du Groupe La Poste et de l’opérateur de satellites Eutelsat. L’Association Internationale des Maires Francophones (AIMF), présidée par le Maire de Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, a été créée en 1979 sur l’initiative des maires de Paris et de Québec. L’AIMF est aujourd’hui un réseau de 137 villes réparties dans 46 pays, attachées à agir au plus près des citoyens pour promouvoir la bonne gouvernance municipale et le bien-être des populations. Depuis 1990, cette coopération décentralisée entre villes francophones a permis de réaliser près de 400 projets. Le projet de Sig-Noghin s’inscrit dans un programme global de l’AIMF en faveur du développement durable par la formation. L’objectif du projet était de déconcentrer les équipements scolaires de Ouagadougou afin de réduire les accidents lors des trajets pour rejoindre les établissements situés en centre ville. Ainsi a été décidée la construction d’un lycée et d’un complexe sportif dans l’arrondissement de Sig-Noghin pour un montant de 515 000 euros financé par l’AIMF et les Ministères français des Affaires Etrangères et de l’Education Nationale. Afin de présenter des conditions de travail identiques à celles des villes modernes en plein essor, l’accès du collège à l’Internet à haut débit était une des composantes importantes du cahier des charges. A défaut de solutions terrestres disponibles, l’AIMF a confié à Eutelsat et au groupe La Poste le déploiement d’une solution locale d’accès au haut débit par satellite s’intégrant dans le projet « Mise en place de bornes d’accès à l’Internet dans les bureaux de poste » de la Société Nationale des Postes du Burkina Faso. Les deux entreprises étaient déjà intervenues conjointement en 2003 au Burkina Faso, aux côtés de la SONAPOST, dans un premier programme d’accès au haut débit à Ouagadougou et à Ziniaré (30 km de Ouagadougou), initié par l’Union Postale Universelle. A propos de cette nouvelle initiative, M. Simon Campaoré, maire de Ouagadougou a déclaré : « Le nouveau lycée municipal de Sig-Noghin, le plus grand de la ville de Ouagadougou, tout en participant à l’accroissement de l’offre éducationnelle dans la capitale, règle en partie la question du déplacement des scolaires sur l’avenue Yatenga (seule voie d’accès à l’arrondissement de Sig-Nohin) et réduit considérablement les nombreux accidents de la circulation, quelquefois mortels, enregistrés en ces lieux. C’était un défi majeur pour le conseil municipal. Aujourd’hui ce lycée fait la fierté de tous et nous remercions les partenaires qui ont fait de ce rêve une réalité ». Pour sa part, Monsieur Arthur Kafando, directeur général de la Sonapost a commenté l’arrivée du haut débit à Sig-Noghin ainsi : « Je me réjouis tout particulièrement de l’aboutissement de ce projet qui s’inscrit bien dans la mise en œuvre de la politique du gouvernement burkinabé de réduction des inégalités numériques dans notre pays. La SONAPOST à travers son vaste réseau de bureaux de poste, vise avec ce programme d’Internet à haut débit, à offrir aux populations toutes les possibilités en matière de santé, d’éducation, de formation ou encore d’accès universel à l’information»
L’équipement déployé dans l’arrondissement est constitué d’une antenne parabolique pointée vers le satellite W3A d’Eutelsat. Cette antenne dialogue avec la station terrestre de Skylogic Italia (Turin - Italie), filiale d’Eutelsat dédiée à l’exploitation et la commercialisation des services haut débit de l’opérateur. La station de Turin, elle-même connectée à la dorsale Internet par fibre optique, peut établir immédiatement une liaison à haut débit avec l’Internet pour toute antenne située dans la zone de couverture du satellite. L’antenne parabolique est raccordée à un terminal D-STAR, qui permet d’alimenter le réseau local de la commune avec des débits globaux allant jusqu’à 1 Mbps montant et 40 Mbps descendants. Ces équipements collectifs desservent un ensemble de besoins en haut débit au profit des élus, des entreprises, des professeurs et des étudiants de l’arrondissement. Mutualisés entre le bureau de poste, le centre de santé et le lycée, ils ont permis notamment de créer au sein du lycée une classe dédiée aux Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication mais également, par le biais d’un terminal Cyberkiosque de La SONAPOST (installé au bureau de poste de Tampoui) de faciliter l’information et les démarches administratives des foyers et des entreprises locales auprès des services publics. Le déploiement de ces équipements à Sig-Noghin marque pour Skylogic, l’entrée en service commercial du service D-STAR/W3A. Utilisant la plate-forme Ku/Ka du nouveau satellite W3A d’Eutelsat, qui associe des faisceaux en bande Ku en Afrique avec des faisceaux en bande Ka en Europe, l’ouverture de ce nouveau service vient doubler les ressources de Skylogic sur le marché de l’accès à l’Internet à haut débit en Afrique sub-saharienne. En outre, l’utilisation de la bande Ku pour ces services haut débit bidirectionnels permet de diviser par trois le coût des terminaux utilisateurs par rapport au prix des terminaux en bande C, ce qui constitue un atout très important pour le succès de cette offre sur le continent africain.
Arlington, Va. – The Aerospace Industries Association announced Wednesday it is endorsing legislation that would task the federal government with addressing a looming shortage of qualified workers in the sector. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Vern Ehlers (R-Mich.) directs 11 federal agencies, led by the Department of Labor, to form a task force for the purpose of developing strategies to expand public and private aerospace job training programs. The Ehlers bill (HR 758) specifically requires the task force to report to Congress each year on the status of federal policies and partnerships designed to advance training programs in the areas of science, engineering, technology, mathematics, and skilled vocational trades. “This legislation would bring together the most talented minds in the federal government to produce a national plan for increasing the number of students who choose aerospace-related scientific or engineering careers,” said AIA President and CEO John W. Douglass. In its November 2002 report to the president, the bipartisan Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry recommended the establishment of multi-agency strategy panel to counter what it termed “the nation’s apathy toward developing a scientifically and technologically trained workforce.” The commission warned that this apathy could lead to “intellectual and industrial disarmament” and pose a “direct threat to our nation’s capability to continue as a world leader.” Douglass also pointed out the bill responds to a significant shortage of younger, technically-skilled professionals in the aerospace industry. The average age of the American aerospace employees is now older than 50. In 2008, 27 percent of aerospace workers will become eligible for retirement. Representative Ehlers introduced H.R. 758 with three co-sponsors, Representatives Dave Weldon (R-Fla.), Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), Fred Upton (R-Mich.), and Adam Smith (D-Wash.). For further information: www.aia-aerospace.org
Ariane 5 ECA et Ariane 5 Générique
Les technologies de propulsion mises en œuvre sont innovantes, permettant ainsi d’atteindre les objectifs de performance visés.
Plus spécifiquement, le travail de la Direction des Lanceurs du CNES a consisté :
L’Industrie a été fortement responsabilisée dans ce programme au travers de contrats à forfait de résultats.
Le lanceur Ariane 5 ECA entrera alors en phase d’exploitation pour Arianespace. Le CNES aura désormais pour rôle de certifier le maintien de la qualification du lanceur tout au long de sa vie opérationnelle. C’est toute la communauté spatiale européenne,
Today's "rocket boys" and "rocket girls" are getting a hands-on challenge through the Student Launch Initiative -- an education program that gives high school students practical experience in aerospace and engineering activities. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the national competition, and the Arnold Engineering Development Center at Arnold Air Force Base in Tullahoma, Tenn., co-sponsors the event.
The teams completed their first step in the competition during preliminary design reviews in December 2004. The next steps include critical design reviews Feb. 8 and flight readiness reviews for their rockets April 8. They will display and launch their vehicles in late spring during "Southern Thunder 2005," a regional rocket launch event in Manchester, Tenn. Their vehicle must carry a science payload weighing between one-quarter and one-half-pound and reach an altitude of one mile. The rocket and the payload must be recoverable, contain a tracking device and be reusable. The team must collect data from the payload, analyze it and report the results. NASA engineers and scientists will evaluate each rocket design, including propulsion, materials, payload and safety features. They also will look at the target altitude, formal reviews and Web site designs. This is the second year schools from outside Alabama have been invited to join Huntsville-area schools in the launch event. The visiting teams were chosen from schools that competed in the May 2004 Team America Rocketry Challenge at Great Meadow in The Plains, Va. The top 10 teams at the 2004 Challenge were invited to submit proposals to participate in the 2005 Student Launch Initiative. Huntsville-area teams chosen to participate in the Student Launch Initiative were selected by NASA scientists, engineers and education specialists. NASA requested proposals from local schools within a 50-mile radius of Huntsville. All teams receive a $2,500 grant to participate in the event. For more information, visit the Marshall Center's Academic Affairs Web page at: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/education/index.html
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has discovered two huge intergalactic clouds of diffuse hot gas. These clouds are the best evidence yet that a vast cosmic web of hot gas contains the long-sought missing matter - about half of the atoms and ions in the Universe. "An inventory of all the baryons in stars and gas inside and outside of galaxies accounts for just over half the baryons that existed shortly after the Big Bang," explained Fabrizio Nicastro of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and lead author of a paper in the 3 February 2005 issue of Nature describing the recent research. "Now we have found the likely hiding place of the missing baryons." Nicastro and colleagues did not just stumble upon the missing baryons - they went looking for them. Computer simulations of the formation of galaxies and galaxy clusters indicated that the missing baryons might be contained in an extremely diffuse web-like system of gas clouds from which galaxies and clusters of galaxies formed. These clouds have defied detection because of their predicted temperature range of a few hundred thousand to a million degrees Celsius, and their extremely low density. Evidence for this warm-hot intergalactic matter (WHIM) had been detected around our Galaxy, or in the Local Group of galaxies, but the lack of definitive evidence for WHIM outside our immediate cosmic neighborhood made any estimates of the universal mass-density of baryons unreliable. The discovery of much more distant clouds came when the team took advantage of the historic X-ray brightening of the quasar-like galaxy Mkn 421 that began in October of 2002. Two Chandra observations of Mkn 421 in October 2002 and July 2003, yielded excellent quality X-ray spectral data. These data showed that two separate clouds of hot gas at distances from Earth of 150 million light years and 370 million light years were filtering out, or absorbing X-rays from Mkn 421. The X-ray data show that ions of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and neon are present, and that the temperatures of the clouds are about 1 million degrees Celsius. Combining these data with observations at ultraviolet wavelengths enabled the team to estimate the thickness - about 2 million light years - and mass density of the clouds. Assuming that the size and distribution of the clouds are representative, Nicastro and colleagues could make the first reliable estimate of average mass density of baryons in such clouds throughout the Universe. They found that it is consistent with the mass density of the missing baryons. Mkn 421 was observed three times with Chandra's Low-Energy Transmission Grating, twice in conjunction with the High Resolution Camera in May 2000 and July 2003 and once with the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer in October 2002. The distance to Mkn 421 is 400 million light years. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington. Northrop Grumman of Redondo Beach, Calif., formerly TRW, Inc., was the prime development contractor for the observatory. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Mass.
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Seismic surveyor WesternGeco, has been working with ESA for the last three years to integrate satellite data into its working practices. What Earth Observation can provide is a detailed preview of a region's topography and geology, valuable for assessing areas that will produce the best and worst seismic quality – meaning the sending and receiving of vibration signals – far in advance of commencing the survey.
"But, until we started using satellite imagery, we could only guess at the coupling and data quality in advance of an actual survey. Space-derived topographic information is also important because rises or falls in the landscape delay signal arrival time, and if they are not compensated for, they cause blurring of imagery. "These two variables set the scene for a broad range of information we require. For example, we must know if there is anywhere we can't go due to steepness and roughness of terrain. Also, we need to know if there are any rivers to cross or infrastructure to avoid such as oil wells or pipelines whose activities may interfere with our signal." The process begins with a digital elevation model, available from many sources including space shuttle mapping and ESA's ERS-tandem mission. This provides topographic and gradient information for logistics and safety planning. Next comes radar imagery – from spacecraft such as Envisat and ERS – to measure surface roughness, forming the basis of a map of coupling potential. Visible light images provide infrastructure and land use information that help determine accessibility for vehicles and people. Also, surface vegetation detected in this imagery may indicate sediment-buried water channels that weaken signal propagation.
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Experiments on moss grown aboard two Space Shuttle missions showed the plants didn't behave as scientists expected them to in the near-absence of gravity. The common roof moss (Ceratodon purpureus) grew in striking, clockwise spirals, according to Fred Sack. He is the study's lead investigator and professor of plant cellular and molecular biology at Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. The researchers expected random, unorganized growth as seen with every other type of plant flown in space. "We don't know why moss grew non-randomly in space, but we found distinct spiral patterns," Sack said. The findings are reported in the online edition of the journal, Planta. Common roof moss is a relatively primitive plant in which certain cells, called tip cells, are guided by gravity in their growth. This gravity response is only seen when moss is kept in the dark, as light overrides gravity's effect. "The way these tip cells respond to gravity is exceptional," Sack said. "In most plants, gravity guides the growth of roots or stems, which are made up of many cells. But in moss, it is just a single cell that both senses and responds to gravity," he added. Common roof moss was grown in Petri dishes in lockers aboard Shuttle missions in 1997 and 2003. The second mission was the Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-107), which broke apart during reentry on Feb. 1, 2003. Most of the hardware holding the plants was recovered, and 11 of the recovered moss cultures were usable. Astronauts followed similar experimental procedures on both flights. They chemically "fixed" the moss cultures before each mission reentered Earth's atmosphere. This process stopped all growth in the moss, capturing their state during flight. Control studies conducted at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida used hardware and procedures similar to those used aboard each flight. However, these moss cultures were either kept stationary or turned at a slow spin on a clinostat - a machine resembling a record turntable placed on its edge. It is used to negate the effects of gravity. On Earth, gravity controls the direction of moss growth thoroughly; it grows straight away from the center of the Earth, just like shoots in a field of corn. In space, scientists expected the cells to grow erratically in all directions, since there was no gravity cue. Instead, the moss grew non-randomly in two successive types of patterns: The first pattern resembled spokes in a wheel. The cells grew outward from where they were originally sown. Later, the tips of the filaments grew in arcs, so the entire culture showed clockwise spirals. The same patterns were found when the moss was grown on a clinostat on the ground. "The results are unusual, as this is the first time researchers report seeing this kind of plant growth response in space." Sack said. "Unlike the ordered response of moss cells in space, other types of plants grow randomly," he said. "So in moss, gravity must normally mask a default growth pattern. This pattern is only revealed when the gravity signal is lost or disrupted." Sack added. Sack conducted the study with Volker Kern, who is now at KSC. Kern was at Ohio State during the study; David Reed, with Bionetics Corp. based at KSC; former Ohio State colleagues Jeanette Nadeau, Jochen Schwuchow and Alexander Skripnikov; and with Jessica Lucas, a graduate student in Sack's lab.
After developing several tools used in many of the nation's busiest airports and air traffic control centers, NASA has completed its pioneering Advanced Air Transportation Technologies (AATT) project. The AATT project was established in 1996 to improve air travel. It focused on technology development to improve the capacity of transportation aircraft operations at and between major airports within the National Airspace System. During the past nine years, the AATT project worked with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the airline industry. It helped develop decision-support tools for air traffic controllers, airline pilots and air operations managers to handle the growing demand for safe and efficient air travel. "NASA drew upon its aeronautics roots and engineering expertise to venture into a different aspect of aeronautics research," said NASA's Associate Administrator of the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, J. Victor Lebacqz. "AATT has established NASA as a technology development leader for the modernization of the National Airspace System. We are building on that expertise, as we continue to work with other agencies like the FAA." A tool developed by AATT, the Traffic Management Advisor, is operational at eight Air Route Traffic Control Centers including Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis and Oakland, Calif. These centers control high-altitude aircraft approaching and departing an airport. The tool helps controllers manage air traffic by sequencing aircraft, as they approach their destination airport. Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport realized a five percent increase in arrival capacity since the tool's implementation. Other AATT technologies include tools that help aircraft fly the most direct route to their destinations and help controllers and traffic managers collaboratively manage in-flight aircraft. New communication and visualization technologies also help by increasing understanding of air traffic patterns and future trends. "Although the AATT Project is officially completed, many technologies and concepts developed by the project will be incorporated into the Next Generation Air Transportation System," added Mike Landis, manager of the AATT Project. The project was managed by NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate. NASA continues work to transform the nation's air transportation system to meet the needs of the year 2025, while providing substantial near-term benefits through its role in the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO). The JPDO includes the Departments of Transportation, Commerce, Defense, and Homeland Security; NASA; the Office of Science and Technology Policy; and other experts from the public and private sectors. The JPDO mission is to develop a national plan for the Next Generation Air Transportation System. For more information about the Advanced Air Transportation Technologies Project visit: http://as.nasa.gov/aatt
Scientists detected a flash of light from across the Galaxy so powerful; it bounced off the moon and lit up the Earth's upper atmosphere.
Statement by NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe about the Administration's fiscal year 2006 budget proposal and the Vision for Space Exploration. "The fiscal 2006 NASA budget reaffirms the President's commitment to the Vision for Space Exploration and provides us the next step in implementing it. The exploration Vision provides a historic opportunity to focus NASA for the long term, and the process is well under way. We are transforming NASA and making great progress. "We at NASA have embedded a safety culture that both embraces competition -- to bring out the best ideas from industry, universities and NASA centers -- and seeks innovation, to find the best solutions to technical and management challenges. We have enhanced our long-range planning to improve our decision making, and we have built a sound management foundation, based on the President's Management Agenda, to streamline our corporate structure and invigorate our field centers. "The preparations for returning the Shuttle fleet to flight are continuing. On the International Space Station, we are in our fifth year of continuous presence on orbit. Our programs to explore the solar system continue to amaze us with the new and unexpected information returned from Mars, Saturn's moon Titan and other distant points in the universe. "We are laying the groundwork for future exploration by beginning the design competition for the Crew Exploration Vehicle, which will have flight demonstrations in 2008. Building blocks are being placed to return astronauts to the moon. We have awarded more than 100 contracts for exploration technologies, based on 600 proposals and 5000 letters of interest. The more than 17 billion hits to our NASA Web site are a testament to the intense, world-wide public interest in our activities. "The Vision for Space Exploration remains an Administration priority even in this challenging budget environment. The continued priority for and support of exploration has enabled a gradually growing NASA budget over the next five years. The budget maintains resolute focus on exploration priorities and critical milestones, based on our science priorities. "The budget supports critical national needs and revolutionary technologies. In our Aeronautics Mission Directorate, it protects aviation safety, security and airspace systems activities. It restructures vehicle systems work to focus on technology breakthroughs and near-term demonstrations. "The President's fiscal 2006 budget request for the Science Mission Directorate builds on our recent scientific successes and projects a 23 percent increase in the total science budget by 2010. The budget proposal maintains investments in next-generation Earth-observing satellites to support our climate research efforts. In our education endeavors, the budget allows us to continue to inspire the next generation of explorers with programs such as explorer schools and scholarships for service. For the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, the request includes an 18 percent increase. The budget supports exploration systems' research and technology to enable designs for sustainable exploration; funding for Project Prometheus to test a nuclear reactor in 2008 and fly a demonstration mission within a decade; and more than $800 million for human systems research and technology, directly linked to exploration requirements for human missions to the moon and beyond. "The budget proposal maintains the return-to-flight of the Space Shuttle fleet as our top priority, and it includes close to $2 billion for the Space Station. This level of funding will enable NASA to meet obligations to international partners. NASA will also proceed with plans to retire the Shuttle in 2010, while ensuring safe missions for the life of the fleet. "The fiscal 2006 budget assumes an ongoing effort to retool our institution based on best achieving our priorities for the Vision for Space Exploration. This will require adjustments to work-force skill distribution, physical capital, facilities and innovations in management structure. The end result will transform NASA field centers for the coming decade through improved agility and competitiveness. "The sustainable implementation of the Vision will provide our legacy to future generations. With this budget, the torch is passed from the pioneers, who first took us to the moon, to their heirs, who will take us into deep space to stay." Glenn Mahone/Sarah Keegan
"It's also possible that auroral electrons don't originate from the solar wind at all, but are drawn from the cool, dense ionosphere into the magnetosphere, where they are energized through mechanisms that are not yet entirely known.
Dr. Knudsen is involved in the captivating Swarm mission of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Earth Explorer program.
Space launches are incredibly violent, where instruments get a real shake-up, so glitches can be expected. "During SII's first flight, a malfunction caused the booms holding it and its twin to deploy prematurely. Despite the violent deployment, the SII hung on and was able to complete its mission. One of my students trying to make sense of the data realized that everything came into focus if he considered the resulting position of the boom's early deployment."
Julie Simard - Communications Advisor, Media Relations
The combination of the SMR and OSIRIS instruments makes Odin well adapted for atmospheric studies of higher altitudes. For instance water can be measured as high as 90 km. Odin has already provided a long-term data set, now to be continued. Key trace species related to the ozone destruction process in the stratosphere are studied, among those ClO. Studies are also made of the global dynamics throughout the stratosphere and mesosphere, noctilucent clouds, and high-altitude sub-visual clouds. For further information, please contact:
By taking the opportunity of attending the Earth Observation Summit III to be held in Brussels, Belgium on February 16, 2005, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) signs the "Charter On Cooperation To Achieve The Coordinated Use Of Space Facilities In The Event Of Natural Or Technological Disasters (hereinafter called "The International Charter Space and Major Disasters")" and accedes to the International Disaster Charter for the purpose of promoting its contribution to the disaster management by the earth observation satellites. The International Charter is an international cooperative framework participated mainly by the space agencies across the world. At the occasion of a large-scale disaster, it aims to contribute to the understanding of its cause, the restoration of affected areas and follow-up management by providing the earth observation satellite-acquired data. It stipulates to provide free data on the request of an Authorized User (it is a national government body in charge of disaster management to which a participating space agency of the International Charter belongs. It will be the Cabinet Office in Japan).
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