Not for profit website/blog on astronomy, space and my writing
A space startup based in The Netherlands – www.satsearch.co is attempting to establish a single digital global marketplace for space components, products and services. Ultimately,
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The
Sven Grahn has been working in the space field in one way or another for over fifty years. Officially retired, he continues to work as a project leader of a student satellite at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
He is perhaps best known for his work in tracking satellites launched by the secretive Soviet Union during the 1960s and 1970s.In those pre-internet days, his work along with others helped to identify individual mission characteristics such as mission types, members of the crew, take off and landing times. He recorded over 1000 conversations from orbiting spacecraft as they flew over Sweden.
In this interview, he speaks about
As an 11-year-old, Sven had seen Sputnik in the sky over Sweden with his own eyes. I started by asking him how the onset of the space race had impacted his choice of career?
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One of the earliest characteristics of human civilisation (large populations living together in organised cities) was the creation of rules or laws that everyone who lived there agreed to abide by.
The 50th anniversary of first humans to visit the Moon is celebrated later this year. In 1968 it was pretty much just two countries and a few space missions per year. Today, over 70 countries have something in the way of a space programme and along with a blossoming private space sector, space is likely to become very busy in the next decade or so. This surge of space activity will determine how the laws in space will apply and begin to set the scene for human civilisation beyond Earth. On earth, most nations follow international laws most of the time.
International rules for operating in space were defined by the UN in five treaties established between 1967 – 1984.
How will these laws fair in space? For example, will all governments
These are some of the questions I discuss with Bayar Goswami, a Doctoral student at the Institute of Air and Space Law, McGill University (IASL) in Canada. A TedX speaker, Bayar has an interest in space as well as law and I started by asking him what came first.
The distinction between terms, such as signed, ratified and accessioned, is described here. A status of which nations have signed which treaty is maintained by the UN here. A summary of the five treaties is available here.
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One mission two spacecraft, China is going back to the Moon with Chang’E 4 mission that I think is the most exciting lunar mission since the 1970s. By the end of 2018, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) will launch Chang’E 4 that will explore the far side of the Moon with a lander and a rover. Since it is on the other side of the Moon, it will be totally out of sight from the Earth. To facilitate communication, a relay satellite will be launched in advance of the lander/rover’s arrival at the Moon.
In addition to engaging private sector companies in China, Chang’E 4 will include a significant level of international collaboration in this mission with payloads from Germany, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and Sweden.
Ye Quan-Zhi is a postdoc astronomer who specialises in small bodies in the solar system. Like me, he started off as an amateur astronomer but now uses telescopes with apertures measured in meters rather than inches! In addition to his research, he writes about space in the Planetary Society’s blog. As a Chinese national, Quan-Zhi has an interest and an insight into the Chinese Space Programme and in this episode, we spoke about the upcoming Chang’ E 4 mission and the prospects of collaboration between India and China in space.
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Relay Satellite
Named as “Queqiao” or magpie bridge will be launched in May 2018 and placed in the Earth/Moon L2 orbit (also known as a halo orbit) about 60,000km from the Moon (450,000 km from the Earth) in the opposite direction of the Earth. From there it will always have a line of sight of the far side of the Moon and Earth at the same time. Its primary purpose is to act as a relay providing all the communications from the Lander/Rover that will land on the Moon in late 2018 or early 2019.
The two microsatellites from the Netherlands are called “Longjiang-1″ and “Longjiang-2”. The will enter an elliptical lunar orbit and conduct low-frequency radio astronomy experiments.
Lander & Rover
Due for launch in December 2018 or early 2019
The lander and rover are the backup lander and rover to the highly successful 2013 Chang’E 3 mission. Whilst identical in most respects, lessons learnt from Chang’E 3 have been incorporated in modifications to Chang’E 4.
Lander
• Landing Camera (LCAM)
• Terrain Camera (TCAM)
• Low-Frequency Spectrometer (LFS) to investigate radiation burst from the sun and cosmos.
• Lunar Lander Neutrons and Dosimetry (LND), a neutron detector from the University of Kiel University in Germany
• A mini “lunar biosphere” experiment designed by 28 Chinese universities consisting of a 0.8 litre capacity enclosure weighing 3 kilograms. The biosphere contains silkworm eggs, and seeds fro cress and potatoes. Once on the lunar surface, this mini biosphere will maintain a humidity and temperature (1 to 30 degrees centigrade) whilst the lunar surface temperature varies from +100 to -100 degrees centigrade. A HD camera will live stream from the lunar surface the hatching eggs and sprouting seeds during the first two weeks of the mission.
Rover
• Panoramic Camera (PCAM)
• Ground penetrating radar (LPR) to investigate the lunar crust and mantle
• Visible and Near-Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (VNIS), for imaging spectroscopy
• Advanced Small Analyser for Neutrals (ASAN), to investigate how solar particles interacts with the lunar surface.