欧洲航天局2022年部长级会议大幅增加预算解读

<正>2022年11月22—23日,欧洲航天局(ESA)行政机构理事会在巴黎召开三年一度的部长级会议,来自ESA成员国、准成员国和合作国的政府部长共同讨论了ESA未来3年的项目及预算。最终,会议决定ESA未来3年预算为169亿欧元,涵盖科学计划、航天运输等11个方面,较2019年部长级会议批准的145亿欧元增长17%。     

德国要求延缓欧洲空间计划

德国要求延缓包括哥伦布空间站和赫尔墨斯载人航天飞机在内的欧洲长期空间计划,因为德国觉得,欧洲的航天计划将超出其预算,或者无法实现原定计划。德国空间局(DARA)局长威尔德说,德国在1987年的一次部长级会议上曾要求欧空局(ESA)削减长期空间计划经费的15～20％,现在看来已达不到了。因为,目前已经明显的表明,ESA到2000年的长期空间计     

欧洲航天局2016年部长级会议:在"航天4.0"阶段实现欧洲航天一体化

12016年部长级会议的背景、目标与主要内容 背景 ESA部长级会议是ESA内部进行决策的一种形式,是ESA进行基础性决策和发展方向决策的会议,会议通常2年或3年召开一次.ESA部长级会议是其内部最重要的决策形式,会议期间所形成的决议确定了ESA的未来走向,对其发展具有决定意义.     

欧洲区域一体化和集成化空间发展全新的战略决策

2008年11月,欧洲航天局（ESA）部长级会议和欧洲联盟（EU）委员会通过决议,正式全面实施新的欧洲空间政策,并将空间政策具体化为真正可操作的空间项目。欧洲已分解目标并确定实施时间表,利用全欧洲空间系统一体化和集成化全新的战略思维和发展模式,高效率地解决空间各领域发展的挑战问题,使发展迈上新的台阶,确保欧洲处于世界空间发展稳定的前沿地位。     

法国建议扩大欧洲与苏联的空间合作

鉴于欧洲在90年代将缩减用于空间科技研究的经费,法国建议扩大欧洲与苏联的空间合作。 1991年11月18日～20日,在德国慕尼黑召开了决定欧洲长远空间计划的欧洲空间局(ESA)政府部长级会议。在这次会议上,对法国的这一建议进行了讨论。法国的政府官员说,他们不打算从苏联购买硬件设备,那样会危及欧洲自身空间事业的健康发展。法国航天部的空间部主任米歇尔·贝蒂在谈到欧洲未来发射工具、实验性空间飞机     

欧空局1987～2000年空间计划

1987年2月欧空局向其成员国提出了一项1987～2000年的新的13年空间计划,取代1985年1月底在罗马召开的,欧空局成员国部长级会议上批准的1985～1995年空间计划。新计划估计要2000亿法朗才能顺利执行。新的13年计划包括已经批准的原有项目:科学卫星、微重力实验、资源卫星、通信卫星、阿里安-4火箭、哥伦布舱、阿里安-5火箭和赫尔墨斯航天飞机。对最后三项还需在五月份召开的部长级会议上重新审     

美国科学家发现几十年来全球海平面处于加速上升状态

正ESA网站2018年4月26日报道,ESA和NASA签署意向声明,将合作研究火星采样返回任务概念。计划于2019年召开的ESA部长级理事会将基于任务研究结果确定是否继续任务开发。双方计划通过至少三项从地球发射的任务以及首次开展火星发射实现火星采样返回。第一项任务是NASA拟于2020年发射的Mars 2020漫游器。Mars 2020将采集火星表面样本,分别放入31个钢笔     

2000年欧空局预算

20 0 0年 1月 ,欧空局 (ESA) 1 4国政府批准了其 2 0 0 0年的预算。正如 1 999年 5月份 ESA 部长级会议确定的一样 ,ESA2 0 0 0年总开支基本与 1 999年持平。ESA今年预算 2 7.1亿欧元 ,比 1 999年增加了 2 .3 %。其中阿里安 -5火箭及载人航天飞行经费增加 ,而对地观测和通信卫星计划经费相应减少 ,以此来补偿阿里安 -5和载人航天飞行经费的上升。预算中首次包括了欧洲独立自主的卫星导航系统 ,经费总计达 7990万欧元 (约合 82 3 0万美元 ) ,大部分用于“伽利略”卫星导航星座的研究。ESA和欧盟的官员们希望这笔经费能起动一项新的相当…     

欧空局敲定下一步空间探测计划

欧空局(ESA)已确定将探测土星的卫星土卫六(Titan)的卡西尼(Cassini)计划作为ESA的下一步空间科学计划。美国航宇局(NASA)负责研制土星轨道器Cassini并提供发射服务,ESA研制探测器。据估计,NASA将为这项计划投资约8亿美元,ESA投资2.884亿美元。 Cassini计划在2000年10月到达土星。探测器从Cassini释放后,在土卫六上空180公里时,将速度降到每秒266米,然后用降落伞进一步减速。约2～3小时,探测器穿过土卫六大气(氮气)层到达其表面。据认为,土卫六表面覆盖着液态乙烷和甲烷。探测器下降过程中发出的信号将由轨道器中继到地球。这次参与竞争ESA新的空间科学探测     

欧洲航天局部长级会议在荷兰海牙召开

2008年11月25—26日，欧洲18个成员国及加拿大的航天局部长级会议在荷兰海牙召开，会上一致批准通过了若干领域的新任务，并批准一些现行计划进入下一阶段。会上通过以下4项决议：     

The status of space science and technology in developed countries — The european experience

Space research in Western Europe began in the form of independent national space programmes confined in the first instance to the use of sounding rockets. These early steps were soon supplemented by bilateral collaborative projects with the USA and USSR whose agencies provided the satellite launch vehicles that Europe lacked at that time.In 1962 as a result of an agreement between ten member states the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) was established for the purpose of carrying out a programme of space science. ESRO was succeeded in 1974 by the European Space Agency (ESA) with a much broader range of activities covering both scientific research and the application of space technology together with the development of launch vehicles.At the present time the totality of space activities of the ESA member states is made up of national programmes and collaborative projects with other nations and agencies together with participation in the agreed ESA programme. Because of its essentially non-military character, its relatively modest level of funding and its multinational nature the European experience with ESA may provide some useful guidance in the development of space science and technology elsewhere in the world.     

DISCOS - ESA''s database and information system characterising objects in space

This paper presents an overview of the main features of ESA's future space debris database DISCOS (Database and Information System Characterising Objects in Space). The DISCOS system has been developed around an ORACLE relational database management software by the University of Kent (UK) under an ESA contract. The DISCOS catalogue will be installed at ESOC, the European Space Operations Centre, and serve as a common ESA information system for the space debris environment.     

Radiation effects in nematodes: results from IML-1 experiments.

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans was exposed to natural space radiation using the ESA Biorack facility aboard Spacelab on International Microgravity Laboratory 1, STS-42. For the major experimental objective dormant animals were suspended in buffer or on agar or immobilized next to CR-39 plastic nuclear track detectors to correlate fluence of HZE particles with genetic events. This configuration was used to isolate mutations in a set of 350 essential genes as well as in the unc-22 structural gene. From flight samples 13 mutants in the unc-22 gene were isolated along with 53 lethal mutations from autosomal regions balanced by a translocation eT1(III;V). Preliminary analysis suggests that mutants from worms correlated with specific cosmic ray tracks may have a higher proportion of rearrangements than those isolated from tube cultures on a randomly sampled basis. Right sample mutation rate was approximately 8-fold higher than ground controls which exhibited laboratory spontaneous frequencies.     

Update on the ESA-CAS Joint Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) Mission

The SMILE (Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) mission aims at deepening our understanding of the interaction of the solar wind with the Earth magnetosphere. It is the first time that ESA and CAS jointly select, design, implement, launch, and operate a space mission. The mission was adopted by CAS in November 2016 and by ESA in March 2019 with a target launch date by the end of 2023.      

Performance estimation for GEO space surveillance

For space surveillance Europe is currently strongly depending on external sources. Although some European radar and optical facilities for space object tracking exist, there is no operational European space surveillance system. An ESA-funded feasibility study for a future independent European space surveillance capability was performed recently. Some of the main conclusions are presented here. We discuss the surveillance of the geostationary ring (GEO) by evaluating existing and newly designed optical ground-based sensors in terms of their performance. The main performance-related issues – the coverage of the GEO ring and the minimum detectable objects size – are discussed. In order to perform detailed simulations, an observation strategy was defined and algorithms for the correlation of objects with a catalogue and for the maintenance of that catalogue were developed. We used the ESA PROOF software to estimate the sensor performance and AIUB tools to simulate the catalogue correlation. The performance was validated using data from campaigns performed with the ESA Space Debris Telescope at Tenerife, Spain.     

Biological life support for manned missions by ESA.

The anticipated evolution of life support technologies for ESA, considering both the complementary life support system requirements and the missions' characteristics, is presented. Based on these results, promising biological life support technologies for manned space missions have been selected by ESA either for their intrinsic ability and performance in effecting specific tasks for atmosphere-, water-, waste-management versus physico-chemical alternatives and/or for longer-term application to a more ecological concept (CES) focusing ultimately on food production. Actual status and plan for terrestrial and space testing of biological life support presented focusing on the "task specific" decontamination technology of the Biological Air Filter (BAF), and on food reprocessing technologies from biodegradable wastes with the MELISSA microbial ecosystem.     

International cooperation in space within ESA

The various areas and missions involving international cooperation and coordination with ESA and its various space partners are reviewed. Special mention is made of cooperation with NASA which has been a privileged partner of ESA for many years. The past and future activities conducted within the Inter Agency Consultative Group (IACG) are also mentioned. It is shown that the apparent loss of independence which may result from extensive international cooperation can be corrected through the existence of a Long Term Plan.     

Determination of an instantaneous Laplace plane for Mercury’s rotation

Mercury is the target of two space missions: MESSENGER, which carried out its first and second flybys of Mercury on January 14, 2008 and October 6, 2008, and the ESA/JAXA space mission BepiColombo, scheduled to arrive at Mercury in 2020. The preparation of these missions requires a good knowledge of the rotation of Mercury.     

Submillimetric heterodyne techniques for space

A development programme, sponsored by ESA and carried out in several European laboratories, on submillimetre heterodyne components and instrumentation for applications in space is nearing completion and will be discussed. A study to identify critical areas of a space heterodyne receiver, operating between 300 and 500 GHz, has been completed. A demonstration model for this frequency range is now under construction.