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SMART-OLEV—An orbital life extension vehicle for servicing commercial spacecrafts in GEO
Kaiser, Clemens; Sjöberg, Fredrik; Delcura, Juan Manuel +1 more
Orbital Satellite Services Limited (OSSL) is a satellite servicing company that is developing an orbit life extension vehicle (OLEV) to extend the operational lifetime of geostationary satellites. The industrial consortium of SSC (Sweden), Kayser-Threde (Germany) and Sener (Spain) is in charge to develop and industrialize the space and ground segm…
Chandrayaan-1 mission to the Moon
Goswami, Jitendra Nath; Annadurai, Mylswamy
Chandrayaan-1 is the first Indian planetary exploration mission that will perform remote sensing observation of the Moon to further our understanding about its origin and evolution. Hyper-spectral studies in the 0.4- 3µm region using three different imaging spectrometers, coupled with a low energy X-ray spectrometer, a sub-keV atom analyzer,…
The microbial case for Mars and its implication for human expeditions to Mars
Horneck, Gerda
Mars is considered as key target for the search of life beyond the Earth. As well as carbon based chemistry and an adequate energy source, water in liquid phase has been considered a prerequisite for habitability. By analogy with terrestrial extremophilic microbial communities, e.g., those thriving in arid, cold, salty environments and/or those ex…
The MESSENGER mission to Mercury: Status after the Venus flybys
Solomon, Sean C.; McNutt, Ralph L., Jr.; Grant, David G. +2 more
NASA's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft, launched on 3 August 2004, is well into its voyage to initiate a new era in our understanding of the terrestrial planets. The mission, spacecraft, and payload are designed to answer six fundamental questions regarding the innermost planet during three flyb…
Rosetta in the year of the swing-bys
Montagnon, Elsa; Ferri, Paolo; Accomazzo, Andrea +1 more
The International Rosetta Mission, a cornerstone mission of the European Space Agency Scientific Programme, was launched on 2nd March 2004 on its 10 years journey towards a rendezvous with comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Once reached the comet nucleus in summer 2014, Rosetta will orbit it for about 1.5 years down to distances of a few kilometres and …
The Rosetta video approach: An overview and lessons learned so far
Zender, J.; Schwehm, G.; Wilke, M.
After an interplanetary cruise of 10 years, the Rosetta spacecraft and Philae lander, will arrive in 2014 at comet Churyomov-Gerasimenkov. All involved parties are aware of the knowledge decrease during these years and the potential complications that might arise during problem resolution before or during cometary operations. The Rosetta Science O…