VIDEO: 3D virtual spacewalk outside the International Space Station

Russie/Europe : vers une exploration commune de la Lune

L'Agence spatiale européenne (ESA) rejoindra les missions russes lunaires. Lors du Salon International de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace du Bourget, le directeur général de Roskosmos Vladimir Popovkine et le président de l'ESA Jean-Jacques Dordain ont signé un Mémorandum de compréhension mutuelle dans le domaine de l'exploration de la Lune.

Selon le chef de Roskosmos, le Mémorandum prévoit la coopération entre la Russie et l'ESA dans le domaine de l'exploration de la Lune qui sera analogue à celle en matière de mise en œuvre du projet ExoMars.

« Pendant la première mission lunaire, nous utiliserons les résultats de l'étude de l'ESA », a annoncé Vladimir Popovkine. Il ne sera possible de préciser la part de la Russie dans les programmes lunaires qu'après que la direction de l'Agence spatiale européenne aura examiné cette question.

« Aux termes des procédures, il n'est possible de régler chaque question qu'à une réunion du Conseil des ministres des pays de l'ESA, surtout en ce qui concerne le déblocage des fonds financiers, a souligné Vladimir Popovkine. C'est seulement alors on pourra préciser les volumes réels et la participation ».

Le prochain projet russe est Louna-Glob. Il s’agit d’une sonde spatiale d'exploration de la Lune qui doit être lancée entre 2015 et 2016. La sonde, d'une masse de 2125 kg, comporte un orbiteur équipé d'instruments scientifiques et 3 pénétrateurs équipés de sismomètres développés par le Japon et hérités du projet de sonde spatiale japonais LUNAR-A abandonné en 2007. La mission doit durer 3 ans. L'un des objectifs scientifiques de Louna-Glob est de mieux connaitre la structure interne de la Lune.

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Lire la suite: http://french.ruvr.ru/2013_06_21/Russie-Europe-vers-une-exploration-commune-de-la-Lune-9667/

Dutch reality show seeks volunteers for a getaway to the first human colony on Mars

Image by Bryan Versteeg / Mars One

Dutch company ‘Mars One’ has launched an official selection program for volunteers from all nations for a reality show to fly, live and die on Mars.

"Gone are the days when bravery and the number of hours flying a supersonic jet were the top criteria,"said Norbert Kraft, Mars One's Chief Medical Director and former NASA senior researcher.

The company invites anyone from anywhere in the world to fill out an online application for the departure, scheduled for 2022, and land in April 2023. As the technology for a return flight does not exist, it will be a one-way ticket, according to Mars One website.

“When that day comes there will be a memorial service and cremation ceremony, just like customs on Earth dictate.”

Image by Bryan Versteeg / Mars One

The return to Earth is also not possible due to funding, as a one-way mission greatly reduces costs. Mars One is a non-profit organization, planning to raise money to fund the project, estimated at about $6 billion, according the web site.

"It sounds like a lot of money. And actually it is a lot of money. But imagine what will happen when the first people land on Mars. Literally everybody on the globe will want to see it," Lansdorp said as quoted on Mars One website.

Image by Bryan Versteeg / Mars One

In addition to application fees, which will vary from $5 to $75 depending on the per capita GDP of the applicant’s country, the company plans to raise money by selling broadcast rights.

"Not unlike the televised events of the Olympic Games, Mars One intends to maintain an on-going, global media event, from astronaut selection to training, from lift-off to landing," the site said.

Last year Mars One received 10,000 messages from applicants from over 100 countries, though the official launch of the selection program started on Monday.

Requirements for ‘Martian citizenship’

“We are very excited about launching the selection program. Round One is where we open the doors to Mars for everyone on Earth. This is an international mission and it is very important for the project that anyone anywhere can ask themselves: Do I want this? Am I ready for this? If the answer is yes then we want to hear from you,” said Lansdorp.

The company established certain requirements for potential Martians. It is looking for applicants older than 18 years, who are ‘both mature and interesting’, according to Mars One. They have to possess certain character traits – ‘resilience, adaptability, curiosity, ability to trust others, creativity, and resourcefulness’.

“For this mission of permanent settlement we are more concerned with how well each astronaut lives and works with others and their ability to deal with a lifetime of challenges”, said Kraft.

Image by Bryan Versteeg / Mars One

According to the company the candidates don’t need particular professional skills, as they will obtain those during a seven-year training program in the US – everything you need to learn to survive on an inhospitable planet.

The first settlers will be picked by an audience vote during the last stage of several rounds of the selection process of the trained and qualified candidates. They will travel to the red planet in groups of four every two years.

The deadline for the first round of online applications is August 31.

The company will use only existing technology available in the space industry. According to the website, a SpaceX spacecraft will send rovers and supplies ahead of the astronauts, and then the SpaceX Falcon Heavy will take the crew to Mars, where they will assemble their habitat.

Image by Bryan Versteeg / Mars One

However, many questions rise about how the astronauts would survive on a planet with freezing temperatures and a carbon dioxide atmosphere. The company's representatives claim that their project is ‘ethically sound’, calling it an ‘idealistic mission’.

This is not the only ongoing Mars project. Previously the Russian space agency Roscosmos signed a deal with the European Space Agency (ESA) to participate in the ExoMars project, a new attempt to discover life on the Red Planet.

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Inicia reclutamiento online para enviar humanos a Marte

Russians to simulate Mars colonization in US desert

The Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in the San Rafael Swell, southern Utah (Image: mars-russia.ru)

The Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in the canyons of Utah resembles the Martian landscape. It's here that the team will experiment with the skills needed to maintain domestic life on Mars. Team Russia is arriving in the US on Tuesday to join an international simulated Mars colonization project. Starting on April 20, a Russian crew of six will spend two weeks in conditions similar to those they can expect to experience on the Red Planet.

MDRS was opened in 2002 and has hosted 128 teams from around the globe. In a few days it will for the first time become the temporary home for Russian researchers. Like other crews before them, they’ll make believe they are Mars colonizers, carrying out medical, geological and astronomical research.

“The biggest challenge for the crew, as we see it now, is carrying out effective work in complete isolation. Six people will be living in small accommodations and will have to wear spacesuits to go out into the Mars-like desert. Two weeks is not too long, but psychological compatibility is always a challenge,” Nikolay Dzis-Voinarovsky, the leader of Team Russia told RT.

The MDRS crew 127 working inside the station (Image from Flickr user MDRS.Photos)

The most serious obstacle to Team Russia’s mission in Utah so far has been bureaucratic.  Two days before the flight to the US, two of the crew members still didn’t have their visas. Dzis-Voinarovsky said they might have to join in later.

He also compared MDRS to the international Mars-500 experiment, which was carried out in Moscow in 2010-2011. A crew of five stayed locked in an imitation spacecraft for 17 months, simulating a flight to the red planet and back.

MDRS is about what happens once flights are a reality, simulating the daily routine of Mars pioneers. The missions are very short, but at the same time more flexible with teams from around the world being able to learn from each other’s experience.

Team Russia was formed in the summer of 2012. Almost all of the crew members are space industry professionals.......................................

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Mars mishap: Technical glitch halts NASA rover

A computer systems hiccup has left the Mars rover Curiosity out of action after the probe detected the first chemical evidence of possible alien life. The rover was sidelined earlier this month following a first bout of technical troubles.

Scientists had previously said that operations would be resumed on Monday after a problem with the Rover’s computer memory caused the mission to be put on hold two weeks ago.

However, the latest technical upset that arose on Sunday forced engineers to extend the unexpected break in the mission.

"This is not something that is rare or even uncommon," John Grotzinger, lead scientist at the California Institute of Technology assured press at a news conference during the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston. He added that the setback is likely to delay the latest science results from the rover for the next couple of days.

The latest hiccup occurred during an information transmission to Earth on Sunday night.

The problems have arisen at a crucial time in the rover’s mission, just after the mission uncovered the first ever telltale signs that there was once life on the red planet.

Chemical analysis of a sample obtained by NASA’s curiosity last month revealed traces of a benevolent environment capable of supporting life. The analysis also unearthed a life-sustaining chemical footprint comprised of sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and simple carbon.

The rover’s camera and Russian-manufactured probe are currently located in Mars’ Yellowknife Bay region, where more evidence of water has been discovered than anywhere else on the planet.

"I see the difference between Yellowknife and the area which is just before Yellowknife ... showing the different distribution of water. This is a significant variation," Maksim Litvak of the Space Research Institute in Moscow told reporters.

The rover mission, which was extended indefinitely in December of last year, seeks to ascertain whether Mars’ Gale Crater was able to support microbial life at some point in its history. The groundbreaking discoveries made by NASA’s mission are expected to pave the way for possible habitability studies during future exploration missions.

“We have found a habitable environment that is so benign and supportive of life that probably if this water was around and you had been on the planet, you would have been able to drink it,” said Grotzinger.

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Curiosity Mars Discovery of a fossil 2013 HD

Extraction minière sur les astéroïdes : rêves et réalité

« Si l'on parle sérieusement d'une extraction industrielle et d'un avantage qu'on peut tirer de ces projets, personne ne sait à quoi cela peut se tourner. Nous ingorons la composition des astéroïdes, une prospection doit être menée au-dessus de leur surface. Nous ne savons pas combien va coûter un tel projet. Car pour placer en orbite basse un kilo de n'importe quelle matière il faut 12 000 -15 000 dollars. La livraison d'un kilo de matière astéroïdale vers la Terre coûtera 5 ou 10 fois plus ».

« Dans l'espace il y a beaucoup d'énergie, au premier chef d'énergie solaire, utilisée depuis longtemps pour les appareils spatiaux. Si l'on organise une production sur l'astéroïde et sur la surface lunaire, cela peut avoir un sens économique. Pour ce qui est de la livraison sur Terre, cela peut concerner les matières riches en quelque chose. Par exemple, l'isotope de l'hélium-3 qui doit être présent sur la surface de la Lune. Il pourrait être utilisé dans des centrales thermonucléaires. Mais il n'est pas encore retrouvé sur les astéroïdes ».

« Le sens de la cosmonautique est de fixer des objectifs exceptionnels et de les atteindre. En 1950 personne ne pouvait imaginer que 11 ans plus tard l'homme partirait dans l'espace. Mais l'objectif a été atteint ».

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Lune: des astronautes-géologues nécessaires (chercheur russe)

Les sondes sont incapables de réaliser toutes les missions d'exploration de la Lune, il est temps de préparer des spécialistes de géologie lunaire, a déclaré mardi à Moscou Alexandre Bazilevski, chef du laboratoire de planétologie comparée à l'Institut de géochimie et de chimie analytique de Russie.

"On ne peut pas tout faire en utilisant uniquement les robots. Ils doivent y aller les premiers, ils peuvent permettre de choisir les endroits sur la surface lunaire où nous construirons, par exemple, une base ou lancerons une mission d'exploration plus poussée. Il faudra sans doute y envoyer des humains… Un humain est capable d'avoir des idées hors des chemins battus (…). On peut déjà commencer à préparer des garçons et des filles, ils doivent devenir de bons pilotes et géologues professionnels", a indiqué M.Bazilevski à RIA Novosti.

La Lune peut devenir une source de minerais et d'eau et sa face cachée, qui se trouve à l'abri des émissions radio issues de la Terre, peut abriter une base d'observation radioastronomique, selon le chercheur.

Le directeur de l'Agence fédérale spatiale russe (Roskosmos) Vladimir Popovkine a récemment déclaré que la Russie pourrait organiser un vol habité vers la Lune, "si la présence de chercheurs de l'Académie des sciences y était nécessaire".

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Private company plans to mine asteroids and manufacture products in space

The days of dreaming about space rock retail goods might not be too far away: a new start-up company from California plans to mine asteroids in order to make products for consumers that are literally out of this world.

During a press conference held Tuesday in Santa Monica, CA, Deep Space Industries announced plans to put a fleet of small asteroid-mining spacecraft into orbit. The group says they wish to get the project off the ground by 2015, and by the end of the decade they hope to have an arsenal of vehicles floating through space, scooping up asteroids to be used for manufacturing.

With the help of high-tech 3D printers and state-of-the-art technology that has suddenly become more affordable than ever, DSI hopes to be among the first of new companies that aims to make asteroid rocks all the rage.

screenshot from youtube video by DeepSpaceIndustries

“My smartphone has more computing power than they had on the Apollo moon missions,” DSI Chairman Rick Tumlinson said during this week’s announcement. “We can make amazing machines smaller, cheaper and faster than ever before.”

“Using low cost technologies, and combining the legacy of our space program with the innovation of today’s young high tech geniuses, we will do things that would have been impossible just a few years ago,” he said, calling his project, “the first commercial campaign to explore the small asteroids that pass by Earth.”

Just last year, Planetary Resources, Inc. announced similar plans to put spacecraft into the sky and scope out precious metals to be used in manufacturing.

“The resources of Earth pale in comparison to the wealth of the solar system,” the company’s co-founder said at the time.

screenshot from youtube video by DeepSpaceIndustries

But while Planetary Resource’s idea has failed to come to fruition just yet, DSI’s staffers seem optimistic that a second company in the market for mining atmospheric rocks might finally jumpstart an all new race to space.

"One company may be a fluke," Tumlinson said at Tuesday’s conference. "Two companies showing up, that's the beginning of an industry.”

DSI hasn’t announced exactly how much money it has to fund its project, or where it’s coming from, but has revealed other information about the 55lb “FireFly” spacecraft and what each one will be capable of doing while out in orbit. Equipped with MicroGravity Foundry 3D printers, DSI says their fleet of FireFly craft will be able mine precious rock and use the resources to make retail goods.

screenshot from youtube video by DeepSpaceIndustries

“The MicroGravity Foundry is the first 3D printer that creates high-density high-strength metal components even in zero gravity,” DSI co-founder Stephen Covey says in a statement. “Other metal 3D printers sinter powdered metal, which requires a gravity field and leaves a porous structure, or they use low-melting point metals with less strength.”

“Using resources harvested in space is the only way to afford permanent space development,” added DSI CEO David Dump. “More than 900 new asteroids that pass near Earth are discovered every year. They can be like the Iron Range of Minnesota was for the Detroit car industry last century – a key resource located near where it was needed. In this case, metals and fuel from asteroids can expand the in-space industries of this century. That is our strategy.”

According to NBC News, FireFlies will ideally go into orbit in 2014, with three-to-four-year missions carried out by the slightly larger DragonFly craft coming the following year. Each one of those missions, claims DSI, will allow for up to 100 pounds of asteroids to be brought back to Earth.

“This is the Deep Space mission – to find, harvest and process the resources of space to help save our civilization and support the expansion of humanity beyond the Earth – and doing so in a step by step manner that leverages off our space legacy to create an amazing and hopeful future for humanity,” said Tumlinson.

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ExoMars: accord définitif de coopération signé le 15 mars à Paris (Roskosmos)

L'Agence fédérale spatiale russe (Roskosmos) et l'Agence spatiale européenne (ESA) signeront l'accord définitif de coopération sur le projet conjoint ExoMars le 15 mars à Paris, a annoncé mardi à RIA Novosti la porte-parole de Roskosmos, Anna Vedichtcheva.

Selon elle, le directeur de Roskosmos Vladimir Popovkine s'est entretenu mardi avec le directeur général de l'ESA Jean-Jacques Dordain afin d'échanger des informations sur les travaux visant à réaliser le projet ExoMars et d'approuver définitivement les textes en russe et en anglais du projet d'accord de coopération.

"M.Dordain a confirmé que le processus d'approbation par le Conseil de l'ESA de la version définitive de l'accord débuterait immédiatement et serait achevé du 13 au 14 mars. Une fois ce processus terminé, l'accord sera signé le 15 mars 2013 à Paris par le directeur de Roskosmos et le directeur général de l'ESA Jean-Jacques Dordain", a précisé la porte-parole. 

L'accord prévoit la construction et le lancement en 2016 et 2018 d'atterrisseurs qui devront se poser sur la planète Mars, ainsi que le tir en 2016 d'un engin spatial.

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Space militarization: Coming to a galaxy near you

The United States is moving toward the militarization of space and this will change the face of war in the near future, an academician with the Russian Academy of Engineering Sciences has warned.

Judging by recent developments, the idea of formidable space weapons prowling the last frontier is no longer limited to the realm of science fiction.

The US has published tactical guidelines over the past three years on the use of force in outer space, while systems that may be used as orbiting weapons are undergoing rigorous test flights, said Yuri Zaitsev, Academic Advisor with the Russian Academy of Engineering Sciences.

In a security document released in October, the US Department of Defense (DoD) said that its space-related activities are designed to “maintain and enhance the national security advantages afforded by the use of outer space.”

Among its numerous stated objectives, the DoD report said it is US policy to “proactively seek opportunities to cooperate with allies and selected international partners in developing space architectures and in designing, acquiring, and operating military space systems.”

Zaitsev said that America’s push to militarize space may include the use of both nuclear and conventional weapons, which could have dangerous and dramatic implications for future warfare.............

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