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IAC2019 Heads of Space Agency – Press Conference

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This audio recording captures most of the Q&A that took place on Monday 21st October.

Heads of Space Agency Press Conference.
21 October Washington DC

The agencies represented included

  • S. Somanath, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), India
  • Jim Bridenstine, Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States
  • Hiroshi Yamakawa, President, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japan
  • Sergey Krikalev, Executive Director for Piloted Spaceflights, State Space Corporation ROSCOSMOS, Russian Federation
  • Johann-Dietrich Woerner, Director General, European Space Agency (ESA)

The audio quality is poor in a few brief instances.

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Episode 85 – Russia’s Space programme with Brian Harvey

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Brian Harvey

Brian Harvey is a Dublin based writer who has authored more than 14 books on space. His books have covered the space programmes of USSR/Russia, USA, India, Japan and China. He has a deep understanding of the motivations and politics as well as the space technology that has emerged since the space age. In this episode, we speak about Russia/USSR’s space programme what it was at the outset and its status today.

Some of the topics we discuss include

  • Russian rocket engines still the best in the world.
  • The first factory to build rocket engines for spacecraft was established in Leningrad in 1927.
  • Age profile in Russian space programme – not enough younger people. Compared to the programme in China which is largely less than 40.
  • In 1935 Konstantin Tsiolkovsky invited as a guest of honour at the mayday speech “I believe the first person in space is alive today”. This was in 1935 when Yuri Gagarin was one year old.
  • There were several reasons for the failure for the USSR not get a crewed mission to the Moon. The main one was the lack of programme management.
  • With 39 launches in 2018, China was the leader. Until a few years ago Russia was the world leader of launches. Russia’s planned 45 launches in 2019 is not realistic.
  • China, India and Japan were on par about a decade ago but China has now emerged with a “superpower” status. India has made progress in the number of annual launches, science missions and recently announced its plans to initiate a human space program.
    We discussed the movie Salyut 7 the movie. This is the space station that Rakesh Sharma had visited in 1984.
    Russia space programme, minimal new investment, an ageing workforce, reliability and quality control on a decline.

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Episode 75: China -back to the Moon with Chang’ E 4

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Ye Quan-ZhiOne 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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Change’ E 4 Mission – An overview

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.

London 2nd June 2018 – 38th BIS Russian Sino Technical Forum 2018

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Anatoly Artsebarsky

Speakers include Cosmonaut Anatoly Artsebarsky and Phil Clark, Andrew Knight, Phil Mills, Galina Nechitailo, David Shayler, Bert Vis, Andrew Thomas, Bert Vis, Brian Harvey, Bart Hendrickx, Sven Grahn.

During the weekend of 2nd and 3rd June 2018 the BIS will be holding its annual Russian/Sino Technical Forum at the Society’s Headquarters in London. This Forum has been running for a glorious 38 years, under the title Soviet/Chinese; last year, we modernised the title to reflect the content more accurately.

For this year’s draft Programme, please click here. We are honoured to have our usual excellent crew of speakers and delighted that cosmonaut Anatoly Artsebarsky is joining us again this year!

The Russian/Sino Technical Forum is one of the most popular and longest running events in the Society’s history and has hosted some star guests over the years. We are proud to say that we have sufficient material for a two-day programme this year and we will continue the tradition of featuring a wide-ranging agenda. Details of the programme are being finalised but will feature presentations, films and debates on the history, current activities and future plans of both the Russian and Chinese space programmes. We encourage members to support the event, visit the heart of the BIS and take the opportunity to meet old friends and establish new contacts.

All speakers and delegates are welcome to join us for an informal dinner on Saturday evening at the Riverside pub, Vauxhall. This dinner will be self-funded so you need only let us know whether you definitely want to join us, so that we can give an accurate head count for the booking. (Please add a comment in the notes field in the shopping basket). It’s possible the pub will want to take pre-orders and we will email you if that turns out to be the case.

To register please click here or call 020 7735 3160.