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Quick Update from IAC2022 Paris

By Gurbir Dated: September 20, 2022 Leave a Comment

Some of the highlights include

Bill Nelson – NASA
Expects Boing’s Starliner to start taking NASA astronauts to the ISS next year
Regarding relations with Russia’s space program. Nelson recalled Tom Stafford shaking hands with Alexi Leonov during the Apollo-Soyuz program in 1975. Stafford adopted two boys at Leonov’s request. They have now completed college in the USA. When Leonov passed away in 2019, Stafford went to Moscow to read his eulogy.
He is open to meeting with Roscosmos Director General when circumstances allow.
Commended ESA’s decision to select a para astronaut.
USA committed to ISS until 2030.
Developing a “magic potion” is underway at NASA. To mix with lunar regolith and build in situ lunar structures.

Josef Aschbacher – ESA Director General of ESA

ESA has been involved in over 540 international collaborative programs during its lifetime.
Received over 2300 applications for the next round of astronaut selection
On February 16 2022 a meeting was held in Toulouse with European Ministers responsible for Space and the European Commission, and a European Space Agency (ESA) Ministerial Council.
Europe should stick together to develop a common space infrastructure
Space is key to maintaining the standard of living.
That three ESA astronauts will go to the Moon has already been agreed.
ESA will support the ISS until 2030 and then support a commercial replacement.

Walther Pelzer – DLR
Most of Germany’s space budget will go towards collaborative ESA projects
The message to Putin in Moscow is that the EU will stick together (the only time that Putin got a mention) This unity is Germany’s top priority.
For the first time, the USA is relying on mission-critical parts that do not originate in the USA (referring to the European Service Module – part of the Artemis program).

S Somanath – ISRO
Plans for ISRO to handover the building of spacecraft and launching of rockets to industry
Human Spaceflight program, Gaganyaan, crew module testing coming along but slow.
Looking to a future where the government will an “anchor” customer.
Pawan Goenka, chairman of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center (IN-SPACe) is present at IAC222. IN-SPACe making progress in helping the Indian private sector to make use of ISRO facilities and services.
When asked if India’s human spaceflight program will fly foreign astronauts, he replied “we need to ensure it is safe for Indian astronauts first”. Whether foreign astronauts will fly has yet to be decided and announced.
When asked what the colour of the flag that land on the Moon should be Somanath said “White because it includes all the colours”.


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ISRO under lockdown

By Gurbir Dated: June 16, 2021 Leave a Comment

Free online webinar from the British Interplanetary Society. 18:00 BST Friday 18th June 2021

Mission Control Centre

How has the Indian Space Program fared through the Covid-19 lockdown? In this hour long webinar including Q&A, I will offer a personal and tentative view of how India’s space activity has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. In the webinar I will look at how ISRO:

  • has supported the Covid-19 national medical emergency
  • space missions have impacted operationally
  • strategic plans have been delayed by the pandemic
  • especially the impact on the ambitious human spaceflight program – Gaganyaan

The webinar is free but you need to register here https://www.crowdcast.io/e/isro-under-lock-down- . It will be recorded and links to the recording will be available to all who register.

I recorded an interview with two senior ISRO representatives during IAC2019 in Washington. It is a fairly good indicator of ISRO’s plans for some of its key missions then (October 2019) prior to the the Covid-19 outbreak 6 months later.

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Mars – some resources

By Gurbir Dated: February 22, 2021 Leave a Comment

Now that Perseverance has arrived safely, we can look forward to some exciting images and scientific data in the coming weeks. Some links worth keeping an eye on include.

NASA Perseverance
Perseverance Instruments  
Mars Helicopter Objectives
Nasa.eyes.gov
Chronology of Mars Exploration
RAW unprocessed images here
Mars Weather Report

Latest images from NASA Perseverance

Perseverance Descent and Landing
  • Panorama from Jezero crater
  • Close-Up of Perseverance on the Martian Surface
  • High-Resolution Still Image of Perseverance’s Landing
  • Close-Up of Perseverance Parachute on the Martian Surface
NASA Perseverance imagery

Some interesting pictures from Mars. First a video of Curiosity observing Deimos passing in front of the Sun.

Some pictures of Meteorites, Sunset and Earth as seen from Mars

  • Earth from Mars
  • Meteorite on Mars
  • Sunset on Mars
  • Thin layer of water frost

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Episode 93: Exploring the surface of Titan

By Gurbir Dated: January 14, 2021 Leave a Comment

Prof. John Zarnecki

In the early hours of Christmas day 2004, a small probe called Huygens separated from larger spacecraft Cassini. Three weeks later on 14 January it descended through Titan’s atmosphere to make the most distant soft landing in the solar system to date. Huygens transmitted data during its 136 minute descent through the thick atmosphere and a further 130m minutes from the surface until Cassini disappeared below the horizon.

Prof. John Zarnecki was the principal investigator for the UK based team that built the instruments that first made contact on the surface of Titan, Saturn and the solar system’s largest Moon.

In this conversation, recorded in December 2020, prof. Zarnecki recalls the how the mission came about, the science Huygens revealed at the time and today, a decade and a half later. Cassini-Hugens was a joint mission between NASA and ESA. He also shares his views on the value of international collaboration in space.

https://media.blubrry.com/astrotalkuk_podcast_feed/astrotalkuk.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Episode-93-John-Zarnecki.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:42 — 48.4MB) | Embed

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A video of this interview is available on Youtube.

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