Nasa is using lasers to build an internet in space for near Earth as well as deep space missions

The LCRD. Image: Nasa.

In a step towards verifying the efficacy of laser communications for speedier data rates for connections between spacecraft and the Earth, Nasa said it is developing a trailblazing, long-term technology demonstration mission. The Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) mission, scheduled for launch in 2019, will help Nasa understand the best ways to operate laser communications systems, the US space agency said in a statement on Wednesday.

They could enable much higher data rates for connections between spacecraft and the Earth, such as scientific data downlink and astronaut communications. “LCRD is the next step in implementing Nasa’s vision of using optical communications for both near-Earth and deep space missions,” said Steve Jurczyk, Associate Administrator of Nasa’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, which leads the LCRD project.

Image: Nasa.

“This technology has the potential to revolutionize space communications, and we are excited to partner with the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate’s Space Communications and Navigation program office, MIT Lincoln Labs and the U.S. Air Force on this effort,” Jurczyk said. Laser communications, also known as optical communications, encodes data onto a beam of light, which is then transmitted between spacecraft and eventually to Earth terminals.

This technology offers data rates that are 10 to 100 times better than current radio-frequency (RF) communications systems. Just as important, laser communication systems can be much smaller than radio systems, allowing the spacecraft communication systems to have lower size, weight and power requirements. Such capability will become critically important as humans embark on long journeys to the moon, Mars and beyond.

A Nasa scientists works on assembling the optical module of the LCRD. Image: Nasa.

“LCRD is designed to operate for many years and will allow Nasa to learn how to optimally use this disruptive new technology,” Don Cornwell of the Space Communications and Navigation programme office at Nasa Headquarters said. “We are also designing a laser terminal for the International Space Station that will use LCRD to relay data from the station to the ground at gigabit-per-second data rates,” Cornwell said.

“We plan to fly this new terminal in 2021, and once tested, we hope that many other Earth-orbiting NASA missions will also fly copies of it to relay their data through LCRD to the ground,” Cornwell added. The LCRD team is led by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Partners include NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory.

Publish date: March 23, 2017 2:49 pm| Modified date: March 23, 2017 2:51 pm

NASA to launch CYGNSS hurricane tracking constellation from the belly of Orbital ATK’s Pegasus aeroplane

By tech2 News Staff /  12 Dec 2016 , 14:56

NASA is launching a constellation of eight satellites to better monitor hurricanes. The Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) is a flock of eight micro-satellites, which which will improve weather forecasts for the intensity of cyclones. Although forecasts of hurricanes have improved by 50 percent since the 1990s, there has been little progress when it comes to correctly predicting their intensities.

A CYGNSS craft being prepared in a lab. Image: NASA

The CYGNSS constellation will scrutinise the regions beneath the eyewall, as well as the inner rainbands of hurricanes. Both measurements are possible for the first time from space because of the CYGNSS flock. Frank Peri, director of the Earth Systems Science Program Office (ESSPO), based at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, says “This mission will help us get a better idea of the intensity of tropical cyclones.”

The launch for the CYGNSS constellation is not a regular rocket launch. Instead of being a passenger on board a rocket that lifts off a launchpad, the rocket with the payload will be launched in mid air from the belly of Orbital ATK’s Pegasus aircraft, at an altitude of 39,000 feet. The rocket will free fall for five seconds, before firing in the air, and re-orienting itself upwards towards space. Three stages of the rocket will fire and fall away, before the CYGNSS constellation is released into orbit. The Pegasus is the world’s first privately developed launch vehicle.

There is a 40 percent chance that the launch could be delayed because of bad weather. If that happens, the launch will be postponed by one day, with a 20 percent chance of disruption by bad weather. The launch coverage will begin Live on NASA TV and can be seen here from 5:30 PM, IST, today.

NASA releases enthralling 4K fly-through of the International Space Station

By tech2 News Staff /  01 Nov 2016 , 16:28

NASA has uploaded an Ultra High Definition (4K) video of the International Space Station (ISS) shot with a fisheye lens on YouTube. The video was produced by Harmonic, a video infrastructure provider, for NASA TV. The video explores the various modules that make up the ISS, but is not a single take continuous shot. Equipment and containers are attached to the surfaces in all directions, which shows how claustrophobic the interiors of a space station can get.

The Cupola, photographed by one of the Expidition 40 crew members. Image: NASA.

The video starts and ends at the Cupola, an observation deck with seven windows which offers a spellbinding view of the Earth. The tour then takes viewers through the Unity module, a passive connecting block to which the other modules are attached. It functions as a passageway on the ISS, and was the first US built segment of the ISS to be launched. Up next is the Zarya Functional Cargo Block, a Russian built module that was the first component of the ISS to be launched. The Zarya module is used mainly for storage.

Inside the Russian Zarya Storage module. Image: NASA.

The Pirs docking module has ports to interface with Russian Spacecraft Soyuz and Progress. The Pirs is a Russian made airlock, one of the two on the ISS. The video does not show the other Russian docking module, Poisk. The Destiny module is a centrally located US laboratory for space experiments, and is full of scientific equipment. Harmony is a connecting node module. Two ports are permanently attached to the Columbus module and the Kibo Laboratory module. The other two ports are used for docking by visiting spacecraft.

An exterior view of the Kibo Laboratory attached to the ISS. Image: NASA.

The European made Columbus module and the Japanese Kibo Laboratory module are both laboratories for conducting scientific experiments. The Kibo laboratory is the single largest module in the ISS. The Kibo laboratory has an airlock, through which scientific experiments are taken in and out of the ISS. Tranquility is another node module, that connects to both Unity and the Cupola. There are waste management systems on this module, and the oxygen for the crew is generated here. The video ends with another visit to the Cupola.

NASA also casts a livestream from the ISS. These show the crew operations on the interiors or at times, just the Earth passing below the station.

European Union plans to develop rockets to stop dependance on Russia

Image: Reuters

  27 Oct 2016 , 12:42

EU officials said on Wednesday they planned to invest 12 billion euros by 2020 to develop new rockets to launch satellites for defence and data-driven businesses and reduce reliance on Russian launchers. With limited options to launch orbiters and Russia controlling a large share of the market, businesses currently wait years for a window to put satellites in space.

The European Commission wants to help Europe’s top rocket contractor, Airbus Safran Launchers, to develop the Ariane 6 rocket by 2020 to better compete with U.S. and Russian rivals on cost and payload size. Existing Ariane launchers cost roughly 150 million euros compared to 80 million for Russia’s Soyuz, EU officials said.

“We don’t want to use the other launchers. We are now using the Soyuz because there is no other way,” Europe’s Industry Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska told reporters. With the global space industry growing faster than any other sector, the EU unveiled its strategy on Wednesday to ensure it does not fall behind in sectors, including defence, that use earth-observation data.

“We know who are the biggest global space powers: It is the U.S., it is Russia and China and India are coming so we want to be second or third,” Bienkowska said. The Commission plans to promote the use of its own global satellite navigation system Galileo in mobile phones and make the data available for business. Europe will launch more than 30 satellites over the next decade to complete Galileo, which will work in tandem with the U.S. GPS system, EU officials said.

“Galileo data will be much more precise than GPS,” Bienkowska said. Russia and China have launched their own global positioning systems to underpin their defence industries and civilian commerce. Europe is the world’s third largest satellite manufacturer and the 28-nation bloc hopes investment in the space sector can increase the number of related jobs from the current 230,000.

“The benefit for the economy from one euro invested in space is seven euros back,” Bienkowska said.

Reuters

Chinese manned spacecraft Shenzhou 11 successfully docks with Chinese space station

Tiangong

  19 Oct 2016 , 09:23

China’s Shenzhou 11 manned spacecraft has successfully docked with China’s Tiangong 2 space lab, and two astronauts have entered the lab, China’s official news agency Xinhua said Wednesday. China is the third country after the United States and Russia to complete space rendezvous and docking procedures, Xinhua said.

According to the mission schedule, the astronauts will remain in the space station for 30 days and spend a total of 33 days in space, making the mission the longest in space so far for China. In a manned space mission in 2013, three Chinese astronauts spent 15 days in orbit and docked with a space laboratory, the Tiangong 1.

Advancing China’s space program is a priority for Beijing, with President Xi Jinping calling for the country to establish itself as a space power. China insists its space program is for peaceful purposes. Shenzhou 11, whose name translates as “Divine Vessel”, will also carry three experiments designed by Hong Kong middle school students and selected in a science competition, including one that will take silk worms into space.

The U.S. Defense Department has highlighted China’s increasing space capabilities, saying it was pursuing activities aimed at preventing other nations using space-based assets in a crisis. China has been working to develop its space program for military, commercial and scientific purposes, but is still playing catch-up to established space powers the United States and Russia.

Reuters