The European space exploration programme: current status of ESA's plans for Moon and Mars exploration

After a large consultation with the scientific and industrial communities in Europe, the Aurora Space Exploration Programme was unanimously approved at the European Space Agency (ESA) Council at ministerial level in Edinburgh in 2001. This marked the start of the programme's preparation phase that was due to finish by the end of 2004. Aurora features technology development robotic and crewed rehearsal missions aimed at preparing a human mission to Mars by 2033. Due to the evolving context, both international and European, ESA has undertaken a review of the goals and approach of its exploration programme. While maintaining the main robotic missions that had been conceived during Aurora, the European Space Exploration Programme that is currently being proposed to the Aurora participating states and other ESA Member States has a reviewed approach and will feature a greater synergy with other ESA programmes. The paper will present the process that led to the revision of ESA's plans in the field of exploration and will give the current status of the programme.     

Mars Express spacecraft: design and development solutions for affordable planetary missions

The spacecraft designed to support the ESA Mars Express mission and its science payloads is customized around an existing avionics well suited to environmental and operational constraints of deep-space interplanetary missions. The reuse of the avionics initially developed for the Rosetta cometary program thanks to an adequate ESA cornerstone program budget paves the way for affordable planetary missions.The costs and schedule benefits inherited from reuse of up-to-date avionics solutions validated in the frame of other programs allows to focus design and development efforts of a new mission over the specific areas which requires customization, such as spacecraft configuration and payload resources. This design approach, combined with the implementation of innovative development and management solutions have enabled to provide the Mars Express mission with an highly capable spacecraft for a remarkably low cost. The different spacecraft subsystems are all based on adequate design solutions. The development plan ensures an exhaustive spacecraft verification in order to perform the mission at minimum risk. New management schemes contribute to maintain the mission within its limited funding.Experience and heritage gained on this program will allow industry to propose to Scientists and Agencies high performance, low-cost solutions for the ambitious Mars Exploration Program of the forthcoming decade.     

The European Astronaut Centre prepares for International Space Station operations

The European Space Agency (ESA) contribution to the International Space Station (ISS) goes much beyond the delivery of hardware like the Columbus Laboratory, its payloads and the Automated Transfer Vehicles. ESA Astronauts will be members of the ISS crew. ESA, according to its commitments as ISS international partner, will be responsible to provide training on its elements and payloads to all ISS crewmembers and medical support for ESA astronauts. The European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne has developed over more than a decade into the centre of expertise for manned space activities within ESA by contributing to a number of important co-operative spaceflight missions. This role will be significantly extended for ISS manned operations. Apart from its support to ESA astronauts and their onboard operations, EAC will have a key role in training all ISS astronauts on ESA elements and payloads. The medical support of ISS crew, in particular of ESA astronauts has already started. This paper provides an overview on status and further plans in building up this homebase function for ESA astronauts and on the preparation towards Training Readiness for ISS crew training at EAC, Cologne. Copyright 2001 by the European Space Agency. Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., with permission. Released to IAF/IAA/AIAA to publish in all forms.     

Automated payload and instruments for astrobiology research developed and studied by German medium-sized space industry in cooperation with European academia

For more than a decade Kayser-Threde, a medium-sized enterprise of the German space industry, has been involved in astrobiology research in partnership with a variety of scientific institutes from all over Europe. Previous projects include exobiology research platforms in low Earth orbit on retrievable carriers and onboard the Space Station. More recently, exobiology payloads for in situ experimentation on Mars have been studied by Kayser-Threde under ESA contracts, specifically the ExoMars Pasteur Payload. These studies included work on a sample preparation and distribution systems for Martian rock/regolith samples, instrument concepts such as Raman spectroscopy and a Life Marker Chip, advanced microscope systems as well as robotic tools for astrobiology missions. The status of the funded technical studies and major results are presented. The reported industrial work was funded by ESA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR).     

Developments in space activities in Poland

Poland has a long-standing tradition in space activities. Polish institutions have participated as co-investigators in almost all European Space Agency (ESA) science projects, as well as on many other missions. However, the first Polish satellite (PW-SAT) was only launched in 2012. Poland was one of the first Eastern European countries to conclude a Cooperation Agreement with ESA in the peaceful use of outer space; it was signed in 1994 and followed by a second in January 2002. Negotiations on Polish membership in the ESA were started in autumn of 2011, and ended in April 2012. Following ratification of the agreement, Poland officially became the 20th Member State of ESA on 19 November 2012. This article examines how Poland is setting its way as a space nation. It describes recent developments in the Polish space programme, including the road to Poland's full membership in the European Space Agency.     

Policy for robust space-based earth science,technology and applications

Satellite remote sensing technology has contributed to the transformation of multiple earth science domains, putting space observations at the forefront of innovation in earth science. With new satellite missions being launched every year, new types of earth science data are being incorporated into science models and decision-making systems in a broad array of organizations. Policy guidance can influence the degree to which user needs influence mission design and when, and ensure that satellite missions serve both the scientific and user communities without becoming unfocused and overly expensive. By considering the needs of the user community early on in the mission-design process, agencies can ensure that satellites meet the needs of multiple constituencies. This paper describes the mission development process in NASA and ESA and compares and contrasts the successes and challenges faced by these agencies as they try to balance science and applications within their missions.     

Life science experiments during the German-Russian MIR '97 mission

Manned spaceflight has been an important element of the German space program over the last decades. This is demonstrated by the nationally managed space missions Spacelab D-l (1985), D-2 (1993), and MIR '92 as well as by the participation in the 1st Spacelab mission FSLP (1983), the NASA missions IML-1 (1992) and IML-2 (1994), as well as in the ESA missions EUROMIR '94 and '95. On February 12th, this year, the German cosmonaut Reinhold Ewald was launched together with his Russian colleagues Wasilij Zibliew and Alexander Lasudkin onboard of a Soyuz spacecraft for another stay of a German cosmonaut onboard of the Russian Space Station MIR. This mission--the so-called German/Russian MIR '97--was, of course, another cornerstone with regard to the cooperation between Russian and German space organizations. The cooperation in the area of manned missions began 1978 with the flight of the German cosmonaut Sigmund Jahn onboard of Salyut 6, at that time a cooperation between the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic in the frame of the Interkosmos Program. In March 1992, it was followed by the flight of Klaus Dietrich Flade with his stay onboard of MIR. After two further successful ESA missions, EUROMIR '94 and '95 with the two German cosmonauts Ulf Merbold and Thomas Reiter and with a marked contribution of German scientists, the decision was taken to perform another German/Russian MIR mission, the so-called MIR '97. In Germany, MIR'97 was managed and performed in a joint effort between several partners. DARA, the German Space Agency, was responsible for the overall program and project management, while DLR, the German Aerospace Research Establishment, was responsible for the cosmonaut training, for medical operations, for the mission control at GSOC in Oberpfaffenhofen as well as for user support.     

AIT阶段微生物灭菌技术在行星保护任务中的应用与发展

行星保护是每一个开展深空探测活动的国家都应遵守的国际化行为。基于我国深空探测任务中行星保护相关的微生物控制需求,文章首先分析了深空探测器在AIT（总装、集成和测试）阶段负载的微生物主要种类和来源,之后综述NASA和ESA采用的干热灭菌（DHMR）、气相过氧化氢（VHP）等微生物灭菌技术在行星保护任务中的应用与研究现状,最后对加快微生物灭菌技术研究以支持我国未来的行星探测任务提出建议。     

Europe's major challenge for the 21st century: Access to space

Like the other great space powers of the 21st century, Europe has its own means of accessing space: Ariane, which has guaranteed its independence in the launching of civil and military satellites for almost 30 years and has won a significant part of the highly competitive commercial market. This market provides the Ariane system with the production volume indispensable for its reliability, which also benefits institutional launches. Europe's commercial market share will be even larger if the launch system is flexible and adaptable to the diversity of demand. Probable future technological changes make flexibility more necessary still. Two technical characteristics will be key: a large enough payload capacity and the injection of satellites into energetic orbits, including final geostationary orbit. But carrying out such missions will only be possible if a new generation upper stage is used. The November 2008 ESA ministerial meeting opted to wait until 2011 to decide whether this is necessary, making it doubtful whether Arianespace will be able to maintain leadership in the commercial market. The authors urge a rethink of this position.     

Life support system development in West Germany

The delivery of fully qualified Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLS) flight hardware for the Spacelab Flight Unit was completed in 1979, and the first Spacelab flight is scheduled for mid 1983.

With Spacelab approaching its operational stage, ESA has initiated the Follow-on Development Programme. The future evolution of Spacelab elements in a continued U.S./European cooperation is obviously linked to the U.S. STS evolution and leads from the sortie-mode improvements (Initial Step) towards pallet systems and module applications in unmanned and manned space platforms (Medium and Far Term Alternatives).

Extensive studies and design work have been accomplished on life support systems for Life Sciences Laboratories (Biorack) in Spacelab (incubators and holding units for low vertebrates).

Future long term missions require the implementation of closed loop life support systems and in order to meet the long range development cycle feasibility studies have been performed. Terrestrial applications of the life support technologies developed for space have been successfully implemented.     

Mission design and analysis of European astrophysics missions orbiting libration points

The main characteristics of the trajectory design of space observatory missions in the Earth–Sun libration point region is highlighted, based on experiences gained in work performed by the authors on ESA missions. Free transfers always lead to large-amplitude orbits around L₂, their properties (amplitudes, phases, non-linear behaviour) are related to the conditions at perigee. Launch scenarios with different degrees of freedom in the perigee geometry and different strategies of sharing the apogee raising between launcher and spacecraft propulsion for Soyuz (with circular parking orbit or direct injection) and Ariane 5 launches from French Guiana will be discussed. Besides the orbit selection and transfer analysis, an important aspect of libration missions is the maintenance of the operational orbit. For some missions it is required to maximise the time between maintenance manoeuvres, and for some the thrust authority is limited. In both cases the exponential nature of the state transition matrix has to be considered. If the equivalent velocity error in the unstable direction becomes too large, the orbit can become unrecoverable, leading to a departure from the environment of the Lagrange point within a few months.     

Application of SDRE technique to orbital and attitude control of spacecraft formation flying

This paper proposes the application of a nonlinear control technique for coupled orbital and attitude relative motion of formation flying. Recently, mission concepts based on the formations of spacecraft that require an increased performance level for in-space maneuvers and operations, have been proposed. In order to guarantee the required performance level, those missions will be characterized by very low inter-satellite distance and demanding relative pointing requirements. Therefore, an autonomous control with high accuracy will be required, both for the control of relative distance and relative attitude. The control system proposed in this work is based on the solution of the State-Dependent Riccati Equation (SDRE), which is one of the more promising nonlinear techniques for regulating nonlinear systems in all the major branches of engineering. The coupling of the relative orbital and attitude motion is obtained considering the same set of thrusters for the control of both orbital and attitude relative dynamics. In addition, the SDRE algorithm is implemented with a timing update strategy both for the controller and the proposed nonlinear filter. The proposed control system approach has been applied to the design of a nonlinear controller for an up-to-date formation mission, which is ESA Proba-3. Numerical simulations considering a tracking signal for both orbital and attitude relative maneuver during an operative orbit of the mission are presented.     

The german microgravity program: Objectives and present status

Within the space program of the Federal Republic of Germany the microgravity program in connection with the utilization of SPACELAB constitutes a central task which determines the long-term program concepts and also their relation to German participation in future ESA programs.The scientific preparatory programs under way for some years now have made further progress. Extensive flight experience and valuable scientific results were obtained on the basis of successful rocket pre-programs. The present paper describes the process in which scientific and organisational priorities are being defined for the planning and execution of the experimental programs.In order to obtain a sufficient number of flight opportunities, payloads for SPACE SHUTTLE missions, in particular under the NASA GAS Program, as well as experimental equipment such as the materials laboratory (MSDR) for FSLP are being developed. The German program focuses on preparing a German SPACELAB mission D1 planned for 1985, which is intended to verify the applicability and efficiency of manned research laboratories for industry and the scientific community. A second emphasis is on preparing the use of SHUTTLE-supported re-usable space platforms.     

Implementation of an ESA delta-DOR capability

This paper describes the implementation of delta-DOR (delta-differential one-way ranging) receivers within the ESA Deep Space ground station network. Delta-DOR provides very accurate plane-of-sky measurements of spacecraft position which complement existing line-of-sight ranging and Doppler measurements. We discuss how this technique has been adapted and implemented at the two ESA deep-space ground stations using existing equipment and infrastructure. These new capabilities were added by writing new software modules for the standard ESA digital receiver (the intermediate frequency modem system—IFMS). With these upgrades the receiver has the ability to record accurately timetagged signals from up to eight IF sub-channels. These sub-channels can have bandwidths of 50 kHz–2 MHz with a sample quantization of 1–16 bits per component. The IF samples are stored locally for subsequent retrieval over a WAN by the correlator facility at ESOC.     

A failure of international space cooperation: the International Earth Observing System

This paper examines the failure of the Earth Observation International Coordination Working Group to implement an International Earth Observation System. Tracing the history of both the Group and the mission concept, it explains the political and organizational failures that took place. It shows that these failures were linked to different approaches to international cooperation in Earth observation data policy. The main points of contention existed between Working Group members, NASA and ESA. NASA favored formal and binding legal arrangements, while ESA preferred to avoid institutionalized legal commitments. Success in coordinating and harmonizing data policy on a multilateral basis for Earth observation missions is more likely to be achieved by pursuing agreement on general principles and terms of reference than by seeking specific legal agreements.     

The earth explorer candidates: Nine focused missions, all satellite classes

The size of a satellite should follow naturally from the mission requirements taking into account implementation constraints, notably the choice of launcher and programmatics. The key concepts are “focused mission” and “maximum return for the investment”. The nine candidates proposed for the ESA Earth Explorer programme of research missions form a good representative set to illustrate a discussion of satellite classes. These focused missions lead to satellites from less than 100 kg and 100 W, to more than 2000 kg and 2 kW of power generation and include flights of opportunity and precursor experiments.     

Space for defence: A European vision

A common European defence policy is still at a very preliminary stage, and although some limited progress has recently been made, it is a politically sensitive issue. In contrast to scientific research or large industrial ventures such as aircraft development, where Europe has moved forward rather well, obstacles to further integration in defence and security matters are numerous. Space systems could be used to facilitate such integration as their duplication is costly and so much remains to be done in Europe in this field. A common European ‘vision’ for the role of space systems in security and defence thus needs to be developed. This article reviews the role of space in security and defence missions, the technology and industrial base Europe needs, and its capability and autonomy in achieving access to space. Space system vulnerability and the means of minimizing it are addressed, including measures to prevent the weaponization of space. The possible role of ESA in support of the European Defence Agency for defence space systems development is identified, along with the need for ad hoc organizations for operational exploitation. Ten recommendations are made that would permit progress at the European level, following the path already successfully achieved in the civilian domain.     

Lunar base development missions

On 20 July 1969, humankind first set foot on our Moon. Since then we have developed the Space Shuttle, explored most of the planets, cooperated in the development of the International Space Station, and expanded our knowledge of the universe through use of systems such as the Hubble Space Telescope and the Mars Pathfinder. After just five human follow-on missions to our Moon, we have returned robotically only twice to orbit, to map the surface and explore for resources.

The indication of the presence of hydrogen concentration at the poles of our Moon found by Lunar Prospector has added a new perspective for groups studying and implementing future lunar missions. Plans for nearterm missions such as the European Space Agency (ESA) “Euromoon 2000”, the Japanese Lunar A and Selene, and the Mitsubishi ”Earthrise 2001” Project, along with follow-on phases to the Lunar Prospector, are the beginning of humankind's return to the Moon. Organizations such as the International Academy of Astronautics have long championed the “Case for an International Lunar Base,” and a vision of a commercially-based lunar program has been outlined by several groups. A Lunar Economic Development Authority (LEDA) promoted by the United Society in Space was promulgated by the filing of articles of incorporation in the state of Colorado on 4 August 1997. This non-profit corporation has as its goal the orderly development of the Moon, through issuance of bonds to international private citizens and business entities who care to invest in its long-term development.

This paper draws from the works of the aforementioned, and specifically from the International Academy of Astronautics Lunar Base Committee, to structure a series of architectures leading toward eventual international commercial colonization of the lunar surface. While the prospect of fully reusable transportation systems utilizing fully developed lunar resources to perpetuate the permanent lunar infrastructure is enticing, this is a goal. We must utilize our current and near-term capabilities to re-initiate human lunar presence, and then build on emerging technologies to strengthen our capabilities. Humankind's return to the Moon is a part of our destiny. We can return in the near future, and then proceed to a commercial, permanent settlement in the 21st century.     

Erdbeobachtende missionen—Anforderungen und konzepte

(Earth Observation Missions—Requirements and Concepts)—Ten years ago, on 23 July 1972. NASA launched the first satellite specifically designed for Earth observation. With Landsat 1 the importance and attractiveness of remote sensing from space increased worldwide.The paper presents in an overview former remote sensing missions with their applications and the system elements required for gathering Earth observation information. Main elements are the sensors (optical, microwave, and other instruments), the platforms (satellites, space stations, aircraft and Earth based stations) and their orbits.It is shown how these elements are interrelated and which constraints must be considered for planning an Earth observation mission. The feasibility, the amount of hard- and software, the costs, and the performance of a system are decisive for the realization of a satellite concept.Examples for different concepts investigated to date at Dornier System are given; included is the first ESA Remote Sensing Satellite ERS-1, which is now under definition at Dornier System, the main contractor of ESA.