Monday, February 27, 2012
Georges Lemaitre teaching at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. In 1927, Georges Lemaitre exposed a family of solutions to Einstein's relativity equations that describe an expanding Universe quite than a static one, and provide the first observational opinion of the Hubble steady. The theory later became much improved known as the Big Bang theory. Identification ESA's fifth Automated Transfer Vehicle after Belgian scientist Georges Lemaitre continue the custom of drawing on great European visionaries to reflect Europe's bottomless roots in science, technology and culture. Credits: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATVs) are a necessary contribution by Europe to organization the International Space Station. Naming the fifth after Belgian scientist Georges Lemaitre continues the custom of drawing on great European visionaries to reflect Europe's deep roots in science, technology and culture.
The first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), which made a flawless flight in 2008, was sname after French science fiction author Jules Verne. It was follow in 2011 by ATV-2, named in honor of German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler.
It will be the twist of the third ATV, name following the Italian physicist and space pioneer Edoardo Amaldi, to head towards the Space Station on 9 March.ATV-4, aim for launch in early 2013, carries the name of Albert Einstein.Naming the last vehicle of the family, ATV-5, after Belgian physicist Georges Lemaitre, father of the Big Bang theory, continue this approach.
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Monday, February 20, 2012
NuSTAR will search the newest, densest and most energetic objects in space, counting black holes and the remnants of exploded stars. It will be the primary space telescope to imprison sharp images in high-energy X-rays, giving astronomers a innovative tool for sympathetic the great side of our universe.
NuSTAR is a little Explorer mission led by the California Institute of Technology and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, both in Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The spacecraft was build by Orbital Sciences Corporation, Dulles, Va. Its instrument was built by a consortium including Caltech; JPL; Columbia University, New York; NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.; the Danish Technical University in Denmark; the University of California, Berkeley; and ATK Aerospace Systems, Goleta, Calif.
NuSTAR will be operated by UC Berkeley, with the Italian Space Agency as long as its equatorial ground station located at Malindi, Kenya. The mission's outreach program is based at Sonoma State University, Calif. NASA's Explorer Program is managed by Goddard. JPL is managed by Caltech for NASA.
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Monday, February 13, 2012
Seeing ESA astronaut Andre Kuipers on the International Space Station is a regular incidence these days. You turn on your TV or check Twitter and there he is. Since present are no cable sprawling from the Station to Earth, just how does this come about?
The reply, of course, is via satellite. While the reply may be simple, the method is more complex. Behind Andre's smiling face is a compound system of jargon-filled amplifiers, multiplexers, antennas, nodes and signal modulation.
Thanks to satcoms, the team can directly take delivery of emails on the Space Station, they can create private calls via IP phones, and we can see them during televise video conference.
The Station is airborne in a low orbit - around 400 km up - which income that shortest communications can happen only when it passes over a ground station. In its place, signals from the Station are primary sent to 'geostationary' satellites balanced 36 000 km above the equator.
Geostationary satellites take precisely a day to circle Earth, creation them appear stationary in our skies. This allows continuous contact with ground stations; enable them to communicate the Station's signals to a middle ground station on Earth additional often.The procedure is upturned when sites such as the Columbus control centre in Munich, Germany, send signal up to the Station.
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