VEGA Launch!

After being delayed again due to high altitude winds VEGA lifted off yesterday evening in Guiana. There is a great video you can watch which shows the build up to the liftoff, the liftoff, and the successful completion of the mission.

The link below has the video. The launch is 20 minutes in, and the rocket enters space about 28 minutes in. Then the satelites are deployed. Throughout the video is a nice commentary by several ESA experts about the physics behind the mission, the objectives and the outcomes.

http://www.diregiovani.it/rubriche/scientificamente/22287-vega-secondo-lancio-riuscito-asi-esa.dg

Watch the rocket go up (or at least a re-play)

After weeks of delays Vega is finally ready to go. (May 3rd) Friday evening the 30 m tall, 137 ton rocket will take off.

Thanks to the cameras ESA have set up it's possible to catch the launch live on this website:

http://www.arianespace.tv

or

http://spaceinvideos.esa.int/esalive

Fingers crossed for the success of the launch!

Great work Casper

Thanks for your fascinating and first hand experiences in this blog. Amazing reading and a real inspiration for anyone entering into this field of work. Keep telling us more!

Becoming an astronaut

We are entering the ‘post-shuttle era’, but that doesn’t mean it’s the end of astronauts. Space agencies, ESA included, are continuing training people to go up into space. In fact, we may see many more astronauts in the years to come as private companies start exploring space as well.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-radio-and-tv-21773586

Becoming an astronaut is tough, no doubt about it. Typically astronauts are specialized in science (physics and/or chemistry), maths, or engineering. Some astronauts are pilots turned space-men (women), so one way to becoming an astronaut is to first become an air-force pilot. Oh, and it’s pretty dangerous.

Here is a link to the ESA and NASA recruitment pages:

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/Astronauts

http://astronauts.nasa.gov

But astronauts are just one of the thousands of careers available if you love high-tech stuff and want to work in space exploration.

One of the most interesting things I noticed when visiting Guiana was the mass of people running around speaking German, Italian, French, English, Spanish, and many other European (and many non-European) languages. It's actually incredibly strange to have all of these highly-trained rocket scientists, project managers, astronauts, etc. running around the jungle. 

ESA, one of the smaller space agencies, employs more than 2000 people. Managing everything from satellites, the rockets, earth observation, pioneering new technologies, human spaceflight, telecommunications etc. So there’s no one set of skills ESA needs, although sciences are almost always recommended.

If you look up at the sky and wonder what it’s all about, and really want to work in anything to do with space, cutting edge technology, travel (sounds like the best job ever already...), then ESA might be the place.

Here is a link to the youth (6 to 28 years old) program launched by ESA:

http://www.esa.int/Education/ESA_at_the_forefront_of_space_education

It includes a ‘Space University’, summer university courses, summer schools, space camp, links to the NASA academy and more. These are open to anyone from an ESA member state:

http://www.esa.int/Education/Courses

Why should we have a Space Program?

As we are going through austerity, with banks in Europe being bailed out, and there are so many unemployed people, can we afford an ESA space programme? Alternatively, why can't we afford to not have a space programme? 

There were two main arguments in favor of the ESA space programs:

1. Innovation

The ESA space program by nature is an investment in innovation. (It is true that visiting the space center, seeing the vulcain engines and satellites, is breathtaking).

The amount of technology which is generated through space programs is incredible. From everyday technologies such as GPS systems, global mapping systems, meteorology, remote sensing, earth science, lenses, communications, satellite television, telemetry (recording measurements through radio), baby foods and insulating clothing (the list goes on). To the 'out-of-this-world' ones like thrust at MACH 8, energy efficiency, heat shields, defense systems, asteroid mining, exploration deeper into the universe (the statistical chance of there not being extra terrestrial life is near 0), and who knows what will come up in the next 50 years of space exploration?

“Cutting space technology budgets is limiting your future.”

The ‘Cold War Space race’ might be over, but a quick look at the global spending on space ventures is interesting. From the US, which spends more than $17 bn a year on NASA (not counting the Department of Defense, which also has it’s own space programs). ESA spends about $5.4 bn a year. Russia spends about $4 bn annually. And finally China, which has increased it’s space budgets from 0 to $1.5 in 15 years.

2. Global perspectives

Space exploration is the only sector which naturally has a global, perhaps supra-global, vision of the earth. Not just literally, in that it is only through space that we can look down on our world, as the new Franco-Vietnamese satellite launched on the VEGA rocket will do with remarkable accuracy. But also figuratively, in that the challenges and technologies of space exploration are global. 

For example, faced with a challenge like asteroid induced Armageddon, we might hope that we can overcome our differences and do what’s necessary.

But also the only (reasonable) way we can overcome global warming (arguably the biggest challenge of the 21st century) is through technology. And there are strong chances that that technology will come from space exploration. Whether it’s with more fuel efficiency, alternative fuels, reversing desertification, better urban and agro-planning (really exciting and already extensively used on mass farms, also possibly the solution to world hunger), measuring the effects of our carbon emissions and the melting of the ice caps, carbon trapping, or fleeing our planet to set up colonies on mars.

How does a rocket work?

Visiting the space station, and seeing the rockets and speaking with some scientists from ESA does raise a few important questions about our relationship with space. Here are the responses to some questions which I discussed with the head and 2nd in command of the VEGA launch campaign.

How does a rocket work?

Rockets are vehicles powered by a propellant and thrust. The type of rocket really depends on the use - military, space, scientific, or just for display e.g. fireworks. The principal remains the same though; an aerodynamic shaped vehicle is launched into the air by a principal thrust, like the rockets in the movies.

ESA has two principal rockets:

1. VEGA - a small rocket without any kind of strap on booster. VEGA has three stages of solid rocket propellant, which will help it to lift off and enter a low orbit where it will deliver it’s small payload - satellites.|
2. ARIANE 5 - A large rocket with two boosters on either side (one of which is basically the size of VEGA). The boosters work similarly to a simplified version of VEGA - large fuel containers with engines at the bottom. The ARIANE rocket itself has what is called a cryogenic main stage: a large tank full of liquid hydrogen and oxygen with a Vulcain engine - absolutely enormous engine - which powers the rocket into a low orbit where it can deliver it’s payload.

Vulcain engine:

(note that about 80% of a rocket is just solid fuel).

Hearing all this stuff about fuel and engines I couldn't help but think - why aren't we thinking outside the box? So I decided to ask about nuclear engines? Or renewable energy engines?

Silly me.... The response was a laugh and "please don't go there". The nuclear option is basically impossible because of the instability and explosiveness of nuclear devices. Already if a current rocket blows up it's a huge bang, if a nuclear rocket did it would be the equivalent of a small nuclear bomb... Although it was mentioned that nuclear engines had been a popular proposal in the '80s. 

As for renewables, we're just not far enough down that road to get an energy intense, sustained and transportable enough for use in rockets aimed at getting into space.

How has rocket design changed in the last 50 years?

The basic idea of a rocket hasn't changed that much.. The designs now are more aerodynamic, but the shape hasn't evolved nearly as much as the content. The main evolutions in rocket design have been:

Engines: the early rockets (pre-space flight) were single engine/compartment. Meaning that they burnt out much faster. Also rockets today typically have boosters, which carry additional fuel, and help the rocket get up into the high atmosphere before breaking off, and leaving the rocket to enter orbit and deliver the payload. And finally the fuel content is completely different. ESA fine tunes each compartment's fuel content (it can take up to two weeks to fuel a single rocket as they are so big). Todays fuel is sometimes liquid and sometimes solid, depending on the rocket and compartment, but rocket fuel is very different from the stuff we put in our cars (which is basically what early rocket scientists were using).

What creates the clouds of smoke at the launch?

The cloud of smoke right at the beginning of a launch (the first few seconds) are actually steam, not smoke. This is clearer from the white colour, as opposed to the darker colours of the smoke emitted post-takeoff. Thousands of gallons of water is pumped onto the engines before takeoff, reducing the thermo-shock which happens when the engines ignite. (Imagine the temperature increase going from room temperature to above 3000 degrees C). This smoke is channeled through special vents on either side of the launch pad and creates the white smoke effect.
The smoke after launch, the darker smoke, is the burning of exhaust. Depending on the type of fuel burning and the consistency and engine the smoke will differ, but that's basically the gist. 

ESA Space Station

The ESA space station in Guiana is spread over more land mass than the whole of London. It was decided that Guiana would have the station after the Franco-Algerian war in the 1960s. But the base didn't become operational until 1970.

There are different sections to the base dedicated to different things:

VEGA - a small rocket (by rocket standards), which will be carrying three satelites into space.

Ariance 5 - a large rocket, with the famous Vulcan engines (which reach a little over MACH 8 - 343 meters per second).

Satelites - kept in a very controlled environment, the satelites are prepared for lift off in a collection of buildings. Access is very restricted and you have to wear protective clothing, which makes you look like a mad scientist. Some of the satelites that I saw include: the first estonian satelite, launched in order to perform scientific experiments, notably seeing if we can use currents in order to propel small objects through space without using fuel. And secondly a French - Vietnamese satelite, made for communications and experiments (this one has lenses which enable it to take accurate pictures of earth with 10 by 10 meter pixels of earth - in 48 hours the whole of the earth's land mass is photographed).

CNES - Centre national d'études spatiales - a government agency focusing on scientific research in space, useful 'real-world' applications for ESA programs, as well as security and defence.