AstrotalkUK

Not for profit podcast. Astronomy, Deep Space Exploration and International Collaboration

Episode 84: NASA after the Shuttle. SLS and The Gateway

By Leave a Comment

David Baker

David Baker has been involved with the USA since childhood. First attending a US school in England and then studying in the US under a scholarship program sponsored by Senator Clinton P Anderson. He returned to the USA and worked for NASA on various programs from Gemini to the SpaceShuttle. He was present in mission control in 1970 and witnessed the drama of Apollo 13 first hand.

He joined the British Interplanetary Society in 1965, published his first article in the society’s journal Spaceflight in 1969 and since 2011 has been the editor of that very journal -Spaceflight. To date, he has published a remarkable 110 books by the close of 2018 with a few more in the pipeline for 2019 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Apollo 11.

(Note – following questions on the veracity of his Phd, David Baker resigned from the BIS as the editor of Spaceflight on 25th March 2021.)

In this episode, we talk about the current status of the space programme in the US and the changing role of NASA.

  • The USA has not been able to launch US astronauts from the USA since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011. NASA found itself in a similar position between 1975 (Apollo Soyuz Test programme) and the first Space Shuttle in 1981.
  • Why NASA dropped the Ares programme and why its replacement, the Space Launch System (SLS) schedule remains unclear. The first SLS mission, uncrewed – Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) by 2020 and the second crewed mission, Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2) by 2023.
  • The successor to the ISS, the “Gateway” is an international project for a space station in lunar orbit. Only about a third of the size of the ISS and it will have fewer international partners.
  • The gateway is seen by Russia as an American lead programme. Will Russia participate with the gateway or consider a joint Russia/China human spaceflight programme?
  • China/USA cooperation in space has been prohibited ny US law. What prospects that this will change?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:55 — 24.8MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | More

Episode 83: India’s Human Spaceflight Programme with R Umamaheswaran

By Leave a Comment

R. Umamaheshwaren. Credit: Author

R Umamaheswaren was born in 1963, the same year that India initiated its space programme with the first-ever launch of a rocket into space from Indian soil. He is currently serving as the Scientific Secretary to the chairman. This was recorded at the IAC2018 (so a little noisy background). Audio and video available below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:32 — 14.9MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | More

He first joined ISRO in 1987 as an avionics and communications engineer at the VSSC and has held several posts including

  • Deputy director for the GSLV launch vehicle
  • Mission director for 3 GSLV launches
  • GSLV Mk3 to launch in November 2018 with high throughput satellites GSAT-29 to support the Digital India programme. A total of 100GBPS will be available from space once the other two satellites  are launched.
  • Dr. Lalitambika. Directeor of ISRO Human Spaceflight Programe. Credit TEDX
  • Pad Abort Test. Credit ISRO
  • Pad Abort Test. Credit ISRO
  • Pad Abort Test. Credit ISRO

Fundamental system and engineering challenges have been addressed and  India is ready for human spaceflight. ISRO conducted a Pad Abort Test on 5th July 2018 – Youtube video here. Currently, the roadmap looks like this

  • Crew selection – discussion underway.
  • Two uncrewed missions will take place – no animals required. Sensors and instruments will be sufficient.
  • Astronaut training – under discussion. Astronaut training support will be required from a third country – yet to be announced. 
  • Not necessary for potential applicants to be test pilots.
  • Prospect for a female to be part of the first crew is “very high”.
  • First uncrewed flight start in late 2020.
  • A longer vision for Human Spaceflight –  priorities not yet defined.

Episode 82: Jaxa and International Collaboration with Professor Fujimoto Masaki

By 2 Comments

Prof. Fujimoto Masaki
Prof. Fujimoto Masaki. Credit author

 The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was founded in 2003 through the merger of three existing organisations and has an annual budget of around 2 billion USD. It has a remit for research and development of technology, space exploration and supporting human spaceflight aboard the ISS through collaboration with the European Space Agency. This episode is available in audio and video below.

In 2003, JAXA launched Hayabusa-1 to explore the asteroid Itokawa. It arrived at Itokawa in 2005 and returned to the Earth with a tiny sample in 2010.  In 2014, JAXA launched Hayabusa-2 to explore asteroid Ryugu.  Hayabusa2 arrived at Ryugu on 27 June 2018 and will remain in Ryugu orbit until 2019. It will collect three discrete samples (between 0.1g and 1g in each case), store them in separate sealed containers on board for return to Earth in December 2020, in the Woomera test range in Australia.

All four rovers. Credit ESA
Hayabusu 2 and Ryugu. Credit ESA
silhouette of Hayabusa2 on Ryugu. Credit JAXA

Hyabusa2 has four rovers.

  • MINERVA-II-1 contains two rovers, Rover-1A and Rover-1B, which were deployed on 21 September 2018.
  • Mascot – a rover developed by the German and French space agencies. Deployed on 3rd October 2018.
  • The MINERVA-II-2 contains ROVER-2, a payload developed by several universities in Japan and planned for deployment in July 2019.

JAXA is also considering

  1. 1 The launch of the world’s smallest lunar lander is intended to be launched on NASA’s Space Launch System in the 2020s.
  2. Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon (SLIM) will demonstrate precision landing technology. 
  3. Selene-R – a tentative joint JAXA/ISRO Moon mission to soft-land a rover on the Moon. Jaxa would supply the rover, and ISRO would supply the lander.
  4. MMX – Martian Moons Exploration. A martian sample return mission. Only possible with international collaboration (US, France, Germany). To be launched around 2024. Following a period of 3 years at Mars, it will return to Earth with a sample from Phobos in 2029. 
Prof. Fujimoto Masaki. Credit Author

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:35 — 18.1MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | More

Episode 81: United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs

By Leave a Comment

Simonetta Di Pippo. Director, United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. Credit: Author

Ensuring the peaceful uses of outer space has been the primary objective of the United Nations, as set out in the Outer Space Treaty, established in 1968. The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) achieves this by promoting international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space. This interview with UNOOSA director Simonetta Di Pippo was recorded at IAC 2018. Some parts may be a little noisy. An audio and video of this episode are available below.

UNOOSA serves as the secretariat for the General Assembly’s only committee dealing exclusively with international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space: the  United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS).

UNOOSA Projects. Credit UNOOSA
UN GNSS. Credit UNOOSA
Credit UNOOSA

Some of the highlights include:

  • UNOOSA is responsible for maintaining the public register of all space objects ever launched to Earth orbit and beyond.
  • United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER)  is a flagship programme established in 2006.  UN-Spider has access to multiple space agencies to acquire historical and current satellite images to help with emergency disaster management from wherever they arise – Earthquakes, flooding, forest fires and threats from outer space, including Space weather and near-Earth Asteroids. 
  • Outer Space Treaty is a “masterpiece”. The UN operates through a consensus-based mechanism. It is this consensus that the Outer Space Treaty is so resilient. Still operational and relevant more than fifty years after it was founded. It remains coherent and powerful and will remain so through the coming phase of commercial space operations. 
  • UNOOSA acts as a broker to promote International Collaboration. The Japanese Space Agency is promoting small-satellite projects from developing nations and university students, thereby fostering the development of National Space Agencies worldwide (currently about 70 countries). The Japanese Space Agency, JAXA, is helping new countries such as Kenya, Hungary, UAE, Guatemala, Mauritius and Indonesia to have some level of space presence.
  • UNOOSA supported the China National Space Agency’s  Announcement of Opportunity to host payloads on the China Space Station. A total of 36 proposals were received for payloads aboard CSS. A selection process is now underway.
  • As a separate announcement, CNSA announced that China will host Pakistan’s first astronaut aboard the CSS by 2022. However, Pakistan’s Space Agency SUPARCO has not yet mentioned it on its website.
Simonetta Di Pippo. Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:12 — 20.2MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | More