Copernical Team
How NASA keeps Ingenuity going after more than 50 flights
More information is always better when it comes to publicly funded space exploration projects. So it's welcome when a NASA engineer takes time out of the assuredly busy work lives to provide an update on everyone's favorite helicopter on Mars. Ingenuity has been having a rough few months, and a new article entitled "The Long Wait," posted by Travis Brown, Chief Engineer on the Ingenuity project, on NASA's website, provides a good amount of detail as to why.
The problems started when Ingenuity took off for flight #52 on April 26th. When the helicopter landed, it was out of range Perseverance, its rover companion, and the helicopter's radio link back to its controllers on Earth. This was intentional, but it meant that Ingenuity's minders didn't know whether the flight had been completed successfully.
Dr. Brown explains why the team would intentionally choose to land the helicopter out of range of Perseverance and details the four main mission priorities for the helicopter's secondary mission.
Collaboration is key to providing security during crises
Representatives of the space industry came together with individuals from ESA member states, user communities and academia on 22-23 November to discuss how space data are being made more secure and accessible in response to an increasing number of crisis situations, such as climate-change related natural disasters.
Watch live: Launch of EIRSAT-1
Watch the live launch broadcast of Ireland’s first satellite EIRSAT-1 on ESA Web TV Channel 2 and ESA YouTube, currently scheduled for 29 November. Coverage of this historic moment is set to begin shortly before 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET) (times to be confirmed).
Ariane 6 hot-fires: the highlights
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Cinq, quatre, trois, deux, un. Allumage Vulcain! This is the moment Ariane 6’s main engine was sparked into life, and the entire main stage of the new rocket and the many parts of the launch pad in Kourou, French Guiana, practised for the full duration of a launch. Of course, as planned, the test model did not leave the ground.
Without its boosters, instead of piercing the clouds Ariane 6’ created its own on Earth: a clean byproduct of the Vulcain 2.1 engine’s oxygen and hydrogen propellants, which came together to send out impressive swirls of H2O.
After the
Week in images: 20-24 November 2023
Week in images: 20-24 November 2023
Discover our week through the lens
‘The making of Juice’: the story behind the film
One giant planet. Three icy moons. An eight-year journey. One special spacecraft.
Building a mission to Jupiter took years of planning and thousands of people. Now that Juice is finally en route to its destination, our documentary ‘The making of Juice’ takes a look behind the scenes at the development and testing of the spacecraft in the three years leading up to launch. We hear from Juice Project Manager, Giuseppe Sarri, about how and why the film was made.
HummingSat: a new chapter in space innovation unveiled
ESA and SWISSto12, a leading manufacturer of advanced satellite payloads and systems, have signed a contract for the full development of a new product line of satellites called HummingSat.
Earth from Space: Salty lakes
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The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission captures the colourful waters of two salty lakes in East Africa: Lake Natron in northern Tanzania and Lake Magadi in southern Kenya. Europe's Ariane 6 rocket successfully completes hot-fire test
The European Space Agency's Ariane 6 rocket successfully completed a dress rehearsal on Thursday, test-firing its engine in preparation for a maiden voyage scheduled for 2024.
The final results of the ignition test, which involved firing up the Vulcain 2.1 engine and running it for more than seven minutes, will not be released until November 30, pending a full analysis.
But manufacturer ArianeGroup already called the rehearsal "successfully completed".
The hot-fire test at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana "simulated a complete launch sequence and thus validated the entire flight phase of Ariane 6's core stage," it said in a statement after Thursday's rehearsal.
ArianeGroup CEO Martin Sion praised the team for the "real industrial feat", but added that "a few additional tests", notably fault tolerance, were still needed before the rocket was ready for launch.
Ariane 6 Core Stage fires up for long-duration test
In a significant step towards the maiden flight of Ariane 6, the collaborative efforts of ArianeGroup, the French Space Agency (CNES), and the European Space Agency (ESA) culminated in the successful execution of a long-duration hot-fire test of the Ariane 6 core stage. This test, conducted on November 23, 2023, at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana, marks a pivotal advancement in the launch ve