Category Archives: Space Exploration

From collaborating with engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for designing a next-generation space exploration device to cut the distance barrier between cities, the global 3D design company Dassault Systemes is busy working on ideas to herald a new era for millennials.

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According to Gian Paolo Bassi, CEO, SOLIDWORKS, Dassault Systemes, new space exploration devices will further expand our knowledge about the universe.

"We are working closely with JPL engineers to build a space exploration device that will be faster than any other machine of its kind of previous generation and will be able to carry heavier payloads," Bassi addressed the jam-packed Los Angeles Convention Centre as he kicked-off the four-day SOLIDWORKS World 2017 conference here on Monday.

"In order to safeguard our Earth from an asteroid impact in the future, we are also working with NASA to develop a planetary space defense system that can alert us in such threat in advance," Bassi told the gathering in the city of entertainment which was inundated with rain since morning.

Dassault Systemes is also working with the California-based aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company SpaceX on an ambitious hyperloop transportation project.

Proposed by SpaceX founder Elon Musk in 2013, the Hyperloop system envisages mass transportation at a speed of up to 760 miles (nearly 1300 km) per hour via low-pressure tubes.

"It means that once in use, the hyperloop pod ride will take you to San Francisco from Los Angeles in flat 35 minutes. We are working with engineers to design the low-flying vehicle," Bassi noted.

Last week, the Hyperloop competition pitted 27 research teams against each other for the chance to test-drive their model pods in a test tube built by SpaceX in California.

Following the competition, SpaceX released a video which takes viewers on a trip through the 1.25km tube, showing what a ride in a Hyperloop pod might be like.

Students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Munich Technical University and Delft University of Technology finally received the chance to send their pods for a test drive to see whose model was most impressive.

"Innovation is about experiences that we are creating for our customers and space research is one of those," Bassi said.

Not just space research, the 3D design solutions are also helping baby toy manufacturers build innovative toys, guitar makers develop new-age electric guitars and magicians create mind-blowing illusions to leave their audience speechless.

Being attended by over 5,000 engineers and designers from around the globe, the four-day event is organized by Dassault SystAmes, the 3DEXPERIENCE Company and a world leader in 3D design software.

Over 120 exhibitors are displaying new technologies and products amid 200 interactive training sessions at the annual SOLIDWORKS World 2017.

Originally posted here:

Dassault Systemes Plans Space Exploration - I4U News

Astronaut Stephanie Wilson, shown here training for a Space Shuttle flight, visited the International Space Station several times.

A few weeks ago, Hidden Figures, the story about African-American women who helped get Apollo astronauts to the Moon, was overtaking and holding the box office lead. This real-life story of Black history in the Space Age supplanted the science fiction space adventure Rogue One and is holding its own, which should be no surprise. But the story and its success is a surprise. Hidden Figures revealed a part of NASA history that had been left out of the story we usually tell about the Space Age. Space exploration has been about people as well as about machines, and Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn, and Mary Jackson didnt make it into the history books until recently. History books got that wrong, until now.

At the same time this film was telling this eye-opening story of Black history, theHuffington Post,Yahoo!,Economic Times,and others ran stories about the first African-American International Space Station crew member, who is scheduled to launch for an extended stint aboard the station in 2018. These and other media outlets claimed that Jeanette Epps will be the first African-American sent to the space station or to board ISS.

The media got that wrong.

This is probably due to a misunderstanding about how ISS crew rotation works. Reporters, likely unfamiliar with space exploration, probably didn't bother to look carefully at the announcement on NASA's website, or didn't understand the difference between an Expedition crew aboard the space station and a Soyuz or Shuttle crew going to the space station. The shuttle flew to the International Space Station (ISS) for years, carrying astronauts back and forth on short missions of a week or two to deliver supplies or to help with repairs. Some members of those shuttle crews joined a space station crew to stay aboard for longer stints. These longer-term Expedition crews were formed in a carefully orchestrated scheduled of overlaps and swap-outs thats been going on since November 2, 2000.

Just as many of us are surprised to know that African-American women mathematicians were calculating spacecraft trajectories fifty years ago, we might mistakenly assume that African-Americans have not been actively contributing to space exploration as astronauts these last thirty years. Epps will fly up as part of a Soyuz crew and remain as part of an Expedition crew, and that is a terrific first. But she wont be the first African-American to float through the hatch into ISS.

African-American astronaut Stephanie Wilson flew to and boarded ISS three separate times over four years. In 2007, Wilson was part of the STS-120 shuttle crew that also included Daniel Tani. She returned to Earth Mark Hamills light saber from Star Wars, which had been carried aboard for the films thirtieth anniversary. Tani, on the other hand, became part of the space stations sixteenth Expedition. He stayed on orbit almost four months and had no way to return home to be with his family when his mother died. Thats among the risks Epps will face in 2018: the inability to return home any time soon.

To be sure, all the humans who went to the moon were white men. Even in the early days of Americas space programs, however, Ed Dwight was picked as an astronaut candidate. He faced harsh racism and, after the assassination of President Kennedy, decided not to join the astronaut corps. Though he never flew to space either, Robert Henry Lawrence Jr. became the first Black astronaut in 1967, when he joined the Manned Orbital Laboratory program, a sort of spy-in-the-sky idea. By the time that program was cancelled and some of its astronauts switched to NASA, Lawrence had died when his ejection seat malfunctioned during an aborted test flight of a supersonic aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base.

In the wake of these small first steps, the astronaut group chosen in 1978 became the giant forward for NASA that shaped the space shuttle crews and future astronaut selection for decades to come. As NASA moved toward the first shuttle launch, this class included six women, an Asian-American man, and three African-American men: Guion Bluford Jr., Ronald McNair, and Frederick Gregory. In 1983, on the eighth shuttle mission, Bluford became the first of these three to travel beyond Earths atmosphere. He went on to fly four more missions.

But the first Black person to travel to space wasnt Bluford. A Cuban of African descent had done that aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft three years earlier. Arnaldo Tamayo Mndez was part of the Intercosmos program. He flew to Salyut 6 in 1980, where he and his fellow cosmonaut conducted experiments on the causes of space sickness and also on sucrose crystallization in low gravity in hopes of improving Cubas sugar industry.

From that more inclusive NASA astronaut class of the late 1970s, McNair flew aboard the shuttle twice. He died on his second flight, on January 28, 1986, when the space shuttleChallengerbroke apart as the nation watched on television. Gregory watched the tragedy unfold from Mission Control, for he was the astronaut on the ground keeping track of the weather that morning. McNair left an amazing legacy in a scholarship program that helps prepare first-generation and traditionally underrepresented undergraduate students for doctoral study.

In 1989, Gregory, a pilot, became the first African-American to command a spaceflight. That was his second of three missions. The increasing inclusivity of NASAs astronaut corps, in fact, has made it an eclectic, incredibly agile group that adapted to the changing role of the space shuttle and continues to adapt to Soyuz missions and planned exploration to Mars.

The first African-American woman to travel to space was not Epps or even Wilson but, rather, Mae Jemison. Jemison, a physician, served in the Peace Corps before she joined the astronaut corps in 1987. She applied to be an astronaut after she saw Sally Ride become the first American woman in space. Jemison names Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura on Star Trek, as her role model, for Uhura was the African-American woman spacefarer with whom many of us grew up. During that flight, she honored Uhura by starting each of her work shifts by saying, Hailing frequencies open. The 25th anniversary of Jemisons flight aboard Endeavour occurs this year.

Several African-American astronauts have visited the space station. Robert Curbeam was the first, in 2001, and Alvin Drew was the last to fly there aboard shuttle, on Discoverys last mission in 2011. During that flight, he performed a spacewalk. Though he was the two-hundredth person to do that, he wasnt the first African-American. That first belongs to Bernard Harris Jr., who walked in space back in 1995. Curbeam, in fact, made seven spacewalks over his NASA career, the most of any African-American.

All of NASA, in fact, is headed up by an African-American astronaut. Charlie Bolden traveled to space four times before becoming NASA Administrator in 2009 and serving through the end of President Obamas administration.

The International Space Station has been continuously inhabited for more than sixteen years. Currently, six astronauts are circling overhead, onboard ISS as members of the Expedition 50 crew. Their earthly homes are Russia (three), the United States (two), and France (one), making this very much an international space station. Those of us on the planets surface can check to see what the crew has planned for every day they are on station. We can also see ISS traverse the night sky with your own eyes, with instructions from NASAs Spot The Station website.

To mistakenly think that Jeanette Epps would be the first African-American to visit the station shows a lack of understanding of the long-standing contributions of African-Americans to our nations achievements. To understand that Epps will be the first African-American to be part of an Expedition crew is to celebrate her achievement as part of the rich, ongoing history of this country in the largest sense and of spacefaring and ISS in particular. Her planned mission signals that firsts still remain to be achieved and that theres no reason to think that a crew to Mars shouldnt be inclusive and stronger for it. So, mark your calendar for May 2018, when Epps will be onboard ISS, zooming across the heavens inside that spark of light.

The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

Anna Leahy and Douglas R. Dechow

Anna Leahy and Douglas R. Dechow are the authors of "Generation Space: A Love Story," scheduled for publication by Stillhouse Press in April 2017. Their collaborative writings on aviation, space, and technology have appeared in TheAtlantic.com, Air & Space Magazine, Fifth Wednesday Journal, and Curator. They teach at Chapman University in Orange, California.

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What Everyone Gets Wrong about Black History in the Space Age - Scientific American (blog)

Late last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that Rep. Jim Bridenstine, R-Okla. (A, 97%) was seen as the top choice for NASA chief. The announcement has not yet happened, but if Bridenstine is appointed and confirmed, that would mean another member of the House Freedom Caucus joins the Trump administration along with OMB nominee Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C. (A, 94%).

Nominating another solid conservative to be in the Trump administration would also show a commitment to an efficient and effective space program moving forward. NASA has had problems over the past few years with mission creep from space exploration to studying global warming. Hopefully, the Trump administration can get NASA back on track to focus on space exploration.

Maybe this is a new era for NASA. President Donald Trump mentioned space in his inaugural address, and conservatives hope that the future of space exploration is one that stresses fiscal sanity and stays away from mission creep that takes funding away from NASAs core function.

A conservative approach to NASA and space exploration should contain three elements in the Trump administration.

Space News reported on January 3, 2017:

Bridenstine, an Oklahoma Republican active on space issues in the House, has reportedly talked with Vice President-elect Mike Pence about the position, although no final decision has been made by the transition team. Bridenstines name has been under discussion for the position since immediately after the election, along with several other individuals.

Bridenstine is qualified for the position. His biography references his Naval aviation career flying the E-2C Hawkeye off the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier. Bridenstine flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan and gathered most of his 1,900 flight hours and 333 carrier-arrested landings. While on active duty, he transitioned to the F-18 Hornet and flew at the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center, the parent command to TOPGUN. This is a member who has practical experience flying.

After he left active duty, Bridenstine returned to Tulsa to be the Executive Director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum & Planetarium. Bridenstine recently transitioned to the 137th Air Refueling Wing of the Oklahoma Air National Guard, where he will fly with an MC-12 squadron stationed at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City. His bio also mentions that he is on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.

Pretty amazing for a member of Congress to both have practical and political experience for the job of NASA administrator.

In addition to his qualifications, Bridenstine is a solid conservative member who has a high score on the Conservative Review Liberty Score. Bridenstine ran a Tea Party-style candidacy in the first district of Oklahoma against an incumbent establishment Republican in 2012 and won. Bridenstines first vote in Congress was against John Boehner for Speaker of the House, and he has been a constant thorn in the side of the establishment wing of the Republican Party. More points to Bridenstine for being a conservative leader in the House.

Putting a solid conservative who wants to drain the Washington swamp is a great first step to getting NASA back on track.

NASA was created to conduct space missions, not to study the impact of global warming on the planet. I cant think of a mission more removed from space exploration than the study of Earths climate change, yet President Obama increased funding for NASAs Earth Science budget from $1.38 to $1.77 billion.

NASA should focus less on the study of Earths temperatures and use those resources to conduct missions to other planets. NASA funding for climate change research should, at a minimum, be dramatically reduced.

Prominent conservatives who support NASA agree. The Atlantic reported on May 7, 2015, that two members expressed support for shifting resources at NASA from global warming studies to space exploration:

House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, last week moved a two-year NASA bill through his committee that would shift money away from the Earth Science program to spend on planetary exploration. "There are 13 other agencies involved in climate-change research, but only one that is responsible for space exploration," Smith said at a recent hearing.

Sen. Ted Cruz, another Texan, who oversees the Commerce subcommittee in charge of NASA, has likewise said it's time for NASA to refocus on space exploration. At ahearing earlier this year, Cruz said that the "core function of NASA is to explore space" and "NASA in the current environment has lost its full focus on that core mission."

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas (F, 58%) and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas (A, 97%) are correct, and Bridenstine would seem to be the perfect nominee to right the NASA ship.

Other nations are competing with the American space industry, and it is important that the U.S. keep a close eye on China when formulating space policy. NASA is not focused on using space exploration as a national security tool, yet NASA resources should be used for those purposes by the defense and intelligence apparatuses of the U.S. government.

NASA should be careful when allowing foreign interests to launch in the U.S. and should especially be wary of China. Dean Cheng of The Heritage Foundation worries that the communist Chinese are battling the U.S. for military domination of space. Although not a mission of NASA, it is impossible to have a space program that does not coordinate with the defense and intelligence arms of the federal government to ensure that the Trump administration keeps America safe from threats coming from space.

China is intent on dominating space. Chengs testified before the House Subcommittee on Space and published in a Heritage Foundation paper titled U.S. China Competition in Space on September 27, 2016:

All of these developments reflect the reality that the U.S. and China are engaged in a competition regarding the ability to access and exploit space in support of national security objectives. For the Chinese, it seems clear that they hope to limit our ability to employ space systems, while ideally preserving their own capacity. This is an asymmetric situation, however, because the United States is far more reliant on space to conduct military operations than the PRC. Most American conflicts, after all, occur at a significant distance from our own shores and the Western Hemisphere. Communications, intelligence gathering, even weather prediction all rely more on space assets.

Any NASA missions to Mars or other space exploration will be answered by missions from China and other superpowers. Expect that NASA will again become a symbol of American exceptionalism, like it was during the Kennedy administration that pitted the U.S. against the U.S.S.R. in the race to put a man on the moon.

Putting a solid conservative in as administrator of NASA, retooling the mission, and making America first a core policy of the agency will all go a long way to restoring the vision of NASA that has kept that program in the hearts and minds of Americans who fondly remember the space race and the space shuttle missions from the Reagan years.

Brian Darling is a former staffer for Sen. Rand Paul. Follow him on Twitter @BrianHDarling.

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Obama gutted NASA. Here are 3 ways Trump can make space exploration great again - Conservative Review

The thrill of space exploration takes an unexpected turn towards terrifying in this brand-new trailer from "Life," a science fiction thriller that will launch into movie theaters on March 24.

In this Space.com exclusive look, we get a 2-minute, 32-second look at what just might happen if we actually do discover alien life on Mars. It's a short trailer, but there's a lot to unpack (including some tense still images), so let's take a look:

The year is 2017 (hey, that's now!) and a crew of astronauts on the International Space Station are about to make history by retrieving the first sample-preturn probe from Mars. At first, everything seems great. We see an international crew of astronauts - quick look reveals Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom and Russia represented - celebrating the birth of a baby back on Earth (congratulations!).

Jake Gyllenhaal portrays astronaut David Jordan in "Life," a science fiction thriller that hits theaters March 24, 2017.

"Life" stars a crew of photogenic astronauts, among them Dr. David Jordan (Jake Gyllenhaal), who lays out the mission to capture the "research pod" from Mars. "This is the first capsule ever to come back from the planet," Gyllenhaal's Jordan says as scenes of the Martian surface - including actual views from NASA rovers - flash on the screen. Actors Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ariyon Bakare and Olga Dichovichnaya also star in the film. [These Scary Space Movies Will Freak You Out]

We see glimpses of what life in space is like for the astronauts (fixing a shower, running on treadmills) before the capsule's capture. Reynolds even gets a line "Star Trek" fans (a group that includes me) will love: "I'm an astronaut, not a gym teacher."

Ryan Reynolds is astronaut Rory Adams in the science fiction thriller "Life."

But as you'd expect, things quickly go from worse to catastrophic as the astronauts discover life in the Mars capsule that appears to grow fast and terrifying at cosmic speed. We learn that what ever it is from Mars may have destroyed all life on the Red Planet, and it's up to the space station crew to prevent the critter from reaching Earth.

Not since 2013's "Gravity" have we seen the International Space Station as shattered as we do in the new "Life" trailer, which closes with flashes of space action timed to lines from "Goodnight, Moon," a bedtime story book by Margaret Wise Brown that I read to my own daughter and will never think of the same way again.

"Life" isn't the first space movie of 2017 or even the first Mars-life themed one (the teen romance "The Space Between Us" which opened this weekend claims that title). But the upcoming film promises to be one heck of a sci-fi ride based on the new trailer, as well asthe first view we got back in November. It doesn't hurt that both trailers showcase some truly awesome and realistic-looking spacecraft and spacesuits, which we at Space.com always appreciate.

"Life" is not yet rated and will hit theaters on March 24, 2017.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him@tariqjmalikandGoogle+.Follow us@Spacedotcom,FacebookandGoogle+. Original article onSpace.com.

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New 'Life' Trailer Brings Terrifying Thrills from Mars (Exclusive) - Space.com

In a Super Bowl ad announcing OIL EXPLORES SPACE in bold lettering over a zooming rocket, the American Petroleum Institute attempted to win over the minds of science-loving millennials. Unfortunately for Big Oil, the attempt to convince viewers that oil powers past impossible falls flat: While space travel currently relies on fossil fuels, reports from NASA suggest it wont be that way for long. The space agency predicts that lighter, more potent fuels will power exploration in the future.

Oil is old news: NASA has long focused on hydrogen, the lightest substance known to humankind, as its best bet for fueling deep space exploration. The space agency called liquid hydrogen the Fuel of Choice for Space Exploration in an article published in 2015, touting its many advantages over oil-based fuels: Combined with liquid oxygen, it produces a higher-efficiency blast than any oil-based fuel can, and its lightweight to boot. To top this, NASA scientists arent going to be looking to oil for solutions; theyre going to push hydrogens limits even further, instead.

The recent synthesis of metallic hydrogen the holy grail of physics might be what finally crushes Big Oils dreams of becoming essential to the future of space travel. In a previous interview with Inverse, Harvards Isaac Silvera, Ph.D., who first reported its discovery, said that metallic hydrogen has the potential to raise the specific impulse of fuel thats how rocket scientists measure fuel efficiency to 1,700 seconds. Given their current liquid hydrogen-based technology, he said, NASA scientists are aiming for a modest increase from 450 to 500 seconds (and liquid hydrogens specific impulse is already 30-40 percent higher than that of oil-based fuel). Figuring out how to use metallic hydrogen in space travel will be what powers us past impossible; not oil.

Until that happens, however, certain spacecraft will still rely on RP-1, a dense, kerosene-like propellant made from crude oil. The upside to oil-based, liquid fuels is that theyre relatively easy to store. Liquid hydrogen and its favorite oxidizer, liquid oxygen, need to be kept at an extremely low temperature minus 423 F in order to maintain their liquid state, and this sort of refrigeration is tricky and costly. Liquefied gases are also incredibly susceptible to changes in temperature, so once the craft gets to space, its important to shield them from sudden increases in heat, or theyll explode. RP-1 doesnt require as much delicacy. The downside, of course, is that its specific impulse is lower and its high density can weigh down spacecraft trying to penetrate deep space.

Opening with the line This aint your daddys oil, Big Oil makes its interest in the future clear but fails to consider that millennials might not want oil, period, regardless of whether its daddys or not. Still, you cant blame the American Petroleum Institute for wanting to latch onto the idea of deep space exploration, which is one of the few things Americans seem to agree upon. The oil industry wont be left behind entirely, of course petroleum-based products are undoubtedly used in rocket components and in lubrication but itll likely be a lot less important to future space exploration than it hopes.

Photos via American Petroleum Institute, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

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Big Oil's Shortsighted Super Bowl Ad Gets Rocket Fuel Wrong - Inverse

By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | February 18, 2013 07:00am ET

Credit: NASA

Kennedy's speech, which came just six weeks after cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to reach outer space, had a huge impact on NASA and space exploration. It jump-started the agency's Apollo program, a full-bore race to the moon that succeeded on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong's boot crunched down into the gray lunar dirt.

Kennedy, of course, isn't the only leader who had a vision for the nation's space program. Since NASA's founding in 1958, every president from Eisenhower to Obama has left his mark. Take a look at how each U.S. commander-in-chief helped shape and steer American activities in space.

Credit: NASA

However, Eisenhower didn't get too swept up the short-term goals of the space race. He valued the measured development of unmanned, scientific missions that could have big commercial or military payoffs down the road.

For example, even before Sputnik, Eisenhower had authorized a ballistic missile and scientific satellite program to be developed as part of the International Geophysical Year project of 1957-58. The United States' first successful satellite, Explorer I, blasted off Jan. 31, 1958. By 1960, the nation had launched and retrieved film from a spy satellite called Discoverer 14.

Credit: NASA

The Soviets had launched Sputnik I in 1957, and cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had become the first person in space on April 12, 1961, just six weeks before the speech. On top of those space race defeats, the U.S. plan to topple the Soviet-backed regime of Cuban leader Fidel Castro the so-called Bay of Pigs invasion had failed miserably in April 1961.

Kennedy and his advisers figured they needed a way to beat the Soviets, to re-establish American prestige and demonstrate the country's international leadership. So they came up with an ambitious plan to land an astronaut on the moon by the end of the 1960s, which Kennedy laid out in his speech.

The Apollo program roared to life as a result, and NASA embarked on a crash mission to put a man on the moon. The agency succeeded, of course, in 1969. By the end of Apollo in 1972, the United States had spent about $25 billion on the program well over $100 billion in today's dollars.

Credit: NASA

As Senate majority leader in the late 1950s, he had helped raise the alarm regarding Sputnik, stressing that the satellite launch had intiated a race for "control of space." Later, Kennedy put Johnson, his vice president, in personal charge of the nation's space program. When Johnson became commander-in-chief after Kennedy's assassination, he continued to support the goals of the Apollo program.

However, the high costs of Johnson's Great Society programs and the Vietnam War forced the president to cut NASA's budget. To avoid ceding control of space to the Soviets (as some historians have argued), his administration proposed a treaty that would outlaw nuclear weapons in space and bar national sovereignty over celestial objects.

The result was 1967's Outer Space Treaty (OST), which forms the basis of international space law to this day. The OST has been ratified by all of the major space-faring nations, including Russia and its forerunner, the Soviet Union.

Credit: NASA.

By the late 1960s, NASA managers had begun drawing up ambitious plans to set up a manned moon base by 1980 and to send astronauts to Mars by 1983. Nixon nixed these ideas, however. In 1972, he approved the development of the space shuttle, which would be NASA's workhorse space vehicle for three decades, starting in 1981.

Also in 1972, Nixon signed off on a five-year cooperative program between NASA and the Soviet space agency. This deal resulted in 1975's Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, a joint space mission between the two superpowers.

Credit: NASA

Ford also signed off on the creation of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in 1976. The OSTP advises the president about how science and technology may affect domestic and international affairs.

Credit: NASA

While Carter wanted to restrict the use of space weapons, he signed a 1978 directive that stressed the importance of space systems to national survival, as well as the administration's willingness to keep developing an antisatellite capability.

The 1978 document helped establish a key plank of American space policy: the right of self-defense in space. And it helped the United States military view space as an arena in which wars could be fought, not just a place to put hardware that could coordinate and enhance actions on the ground.

Credit: NASA

Consistent with his belief in the power of the free market, Reagan wanted to increase and streamline private-sector involvement in space. He issued a policy statement to that effect in 1982. And two years later, his administration set up the Office of Commercial Space Transportation, which to this day regulates commercial launch and re-entry operations.

Reagan also believed strongly in ramping up the nation's space-defense capabilities. In 1983, he proposed the ambitious Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), which would have used a network of missiles and lasers in space and on the ground to protect the United States against nuclear ballistic missile attacks.

Many observers at the time viewed SDI as unrealistic, famously branding the program "Star Wars" to emphasize its supposed sci-fi nature. SDI was never fully developed or deployed, though pieces of it have helped pave the way for some current missile-defense technology and strategies.

Credit: NASA

Bush had big dreams for the American space program. On July 20, 1989 the 20th anniversary of the first manned moon landing he announced a bold plan called the Space Exploration Initiative. SEI called for the construction of a space station called Freedom, an eventual permanent presence on the moon and, by 2019, a manned mission to Mars.

These ambitious goals were estimated to cost at least $500 billion over the ensuing 20 to 30 years. Many in Congress balked at the high price tag, and the initiative was never implemented.

Credit: NASA

According to the policy, the United States' chief space goals going forward were to "enhance knowledge of the Earth, the solar system and the universe through human and robotic exploration" and to "strengthen and maintain the national security of the United States."

This latter sentiment was consistent with other space policy statements from previous administrations. However, some scholars argue that the 1996 document opened the door to the development of space weapons by the United States, though the policy states that any potential "control" actions would be "consistent with treaty obligations."

Credit: NASA

Bush also dramatically shaped NASA's direction and future, laying out a new Vision for Space Exploration in 2004. The Vision was a bold plan, calling for a manned return to the moon by 2020 to help prepare for future human trips to Mars and beyond. It also instructed NASA to complete the International Space Station and retire the space shuttle fleet by 2010.

To help achieve these goals, NASA embarked upon the Constellation program, which sought to develop a new crewed spacecraft called Orion, a lunar lander named Altair and two new rockets: the Ares I for manned missions and the Ares V for cargo. But it was not to be; Bush's successor, President Barack Obama, axed Constellation in 2010.

Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

A year later, Obama announced his administration's space policy, which represented a radical departure from the path NASA had been on. The new policy canceled George W. Bush's Constellation program, which the Augustine Commission had found to be significantly behind schedule and over budget. (Obama did support continued development of the Orion spacecraft for use as a possible escape vehicle at the space station, however.)

In place of Constellation, Obama's policy directed NASA to focus on getting humans to an asteroid by 2025 and then on to Mars by the mid-2030s. This entails, in part, developing a new heavy-lift rocket, with design completion desired by 2015.

The new policy also seeks to jump-start commercial spaceflight capabilitites. Obama's plan relies on Russian Soyuz vehicles to ferry NASA astronauts to the space station in the short term after the space shuttles retire in 2011.

But over the long haul, Obama wants this burden shouldered by private American spaceships that have yet to be built. So Obama promised NASA an extra $6 billion over five years, which the agency would use to help companies develop these new craft.

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Michael was a science writer for the Idaho National Laboratory and has been an intern at Wired.com, The Salinas Californian newspaper, and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. He has also worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Mike on Google+.

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50 Years of Presidential Visions for Space Exploration

Space exploration is the ongoing discovery and exploration of celestial structures in outer space by means of continuously evolving and growing space technology. While the study of space is carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, the physical exploration of space is conducted both by unmanned robotic probes and human spaceflight.

While the observation of objects in space, known as astronomy, predates reliable recorded history, it was the development of large and relatively efficient rockets during the early 20th century that allowed physical space exploration to become a reality. Common rationales for exploring space include advancing scientific research, national prestige, uniting different nations, ensuring the future survival of humanity, and developing military and strategic advantages against other countries.[1]

Space exploration has often been used as a proxy competition for geopolitical rivalries such as the Cold War. The early era of space exploration was driven by a "Space Race" between the Soviet Union and the United States. The launch of the first human-made object to orbit Earth, the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1, on 4 October 1957, and the first Moon landing by the American Apollo 11 mission on 20 July 1969 are often taken as landmarks for this initial period. The Soviet space program achieved many of the first milestones, including the first living being in orbit in 1957, the first human spaceflight (Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostok 1) in 1961, the first spacewalk (by Aleksei Leonov) on 18 March 1965, the first automatic landing on another celestial body in 1966, and the launch of the first space station (Salyut 1) in 1971.

After the first 20 years of exploration, focus shifted from one-off flights to renewable hardware, such as the Space Shuttle program, and from competition to cooperation as with the International Space Station (ISS).

With the substantial completion of the ISS[2] following STS-133 in March 2011, plans for space exploration by the USA remain in flux. Constellation, a Bush Administration program for a return to the Moon by 2020[3] was judged inadequately funded and unrealistic by an expert review panel reporting in 2009.[4] The Obama Administration proposed a revision of Constellation in 2010 to focus on the development of the capability for crewed missions beyond low Earth orbit (LEO), envisioning extending the operation of the ISS beyond 2020, transferring the development of launch vehicles for human crews from NASA to the private sector, and developing technology to enable missions to beyond LEO, such as EarthMoon L1, the Moon, EarthSun L2, near-Earth asteroids, and Phobos or Mars orbit.[5]

In the 2000s, the People's Republic of China initiated a successful manned spaceflight program, while the European Union, Japan, and India have also planned future manned space missions. China, Russia, Japan, and India have advocated manned missions to the Moon during the 21st century, while the European Union has advocated manned missions to both the Moon and Mars during the 20/21st century.

From the 1990s onwards, private interests began promoting space tourism and then private space exploration of the Moon (see Google Lunar X Prize).

The highest known projectiles prior to the rockets of the 1940s were the shells of the Paris Gun, a type of German long-range siege gun, which reached at least 40 kilometers altitude during World War One.[6] Steps towards putting a human-made object into space were taken by German scientists during World War II while testing the V-2 rocket, which became the first human-made object in space on 3 October 1942 with the launching of the A-4. After the war, the U.S. used German scientists and their captured rockets in programs for both military and civilian research. The first scientific exploration from space was the cosmic radiation experiment launched by the U.S. on a V-2 rocket on 10 May 1946.[7] The first images of Earth taken from space followed the same year[8][9] while the first animal experiment saw fruit flies lifted into space in 1947, both also on modified V-2s launched by Americans. Starting in 1947, the Soviets, also with the help of German teams, launched sub-orbital V-2 rockets and their own variant, the R-1, including radiation and animal experiments on some flights. These suborbital experiments only allowed a very short time in space which limited their usefulness.

The first successful orbital launch was of the Soviet unmanned Sputnik 1 ("Satellite 1") mission on 4 October 1957. The satellite weighed about 83kg (183lb), and is believed to have orbited Earth at a height of about 250km (160mi). It had two radio transmitters (20 and 40MHz), which emitted "beeps" that could be heard by radios around the globe. Analysis of the radio signals was used to gather information about the electron density of the ionosphere, while temperature and pressure data was encoded in the duration of radio beeps. The results indicated that the satellite was not punctured by a meteoroid. Sputnik 1 was launched by an R-7 rocket. It burned up upon re-entry on 3 January 1958.

The second one was Sputnik 2. Launched by the USSR in November 1957, it carried dog Laika inside.

This success led to an escalation of the American space program, which unsuccessfully attempted to launch a Vanguard satellite into orbit two months later. On 31 January 1958, the U.S. successfully orbited Explorer 1 on a Juno rocket. In the meantime, the Soviet dog Laika became the first animal in orbit on 3 November 1957.

The first successful human spaceflight was Vostok 1 ("East 1"), carrying 27-year-old Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on 12 April 1961. The spacecraft completed one orbit around the globe, lasting about 1 hour and 48 minutes. Gagarin's flight resonated around the world; it was a demonstration of the advanced Soviet space program and it opened an entirely new era in space exploration: human spaceflight.

The U.S. first launched a person into space within a month of Vostok 1 with Alan Shepard's suborbital flight in Mercury-Redstone 3. Orbital flight was achieved by the United States when John Glenn's Mercury-Atlas 6 orbited Earth on 5 May 1961.

Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, orbited Earth 48 times aboard Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963.

China first launched a person into space 42 years after the launch of Vostok 1, on 15 October 2003, with the flight of Yang Liwei aboard the Shenzhou 5 (Spaceboat 5) spacecraft.

The first artificial object to reach another celestial body was Luna 2 in 1959.[10] The first automatic landing on another celestial body was performed by Luna 9[11] in 1966. Luna 10 became the first artificial satellite of the Moon.[12]

The first manned landing on another celestial body was performed by Apollo 11 on 20 July 1969.

The first successful interplanetary flyby was the 1962 Mariner 2 flyby of Venus (closest approach 34,773 kilometers). The other planets were first flown by in 1965 for Mars by Mariner 4, 1973 for Jupiter by Pioneer 10, 1974 for Mercury by Mariner 10, 1979 for Saturn by Pioneer 11, 1986 for Uranus by Voyager 2, 1989 for Neptune by Voyager 2. In 2015, the dwarf planets Ceres and Pluto were orbited by Dawn and passed by New Horizons, respectively.

The first interplanetary surface mission to return at least limited surface data from another planet was the 1970 landing of Venera 7 on Venus which returned data to Earth for 23 minutes. In 1975 the Venera 9 was the first to return images from the surface of another planet. In 1971 the Mars 3 mission achieved the first soft landing on Mars returning data for almost 20 seconds. Later much longer duration surface missions were achieved, including over 6 years of Mars surface operation by Viking 1 from 1975 to 1982 and over 2 hours of transmission from the surface of Venus by Venera 13 in 1982, the longest ever Soviet planetary surface mission.

The dream of stepping into the outer reaches of Earth's atmosphere was driven by the fiction of Peter Francis Geraci[13][14][15] and H.G.Wells,[16] and rocket technology was developed to try to realize this vision. The German V-2 was the first rocket to travel into space, overcoming the problems of thrust and material failure. During the final days of World War II this technology was obtained by both the Americans and Soviets as were its designers. The initial driving force for further development of the technology was a weapons race for intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) to be used as long-range carriers for fast nuclear weapon delivery, but in 1961 when the Soviet Union launched the first man into space, the United States declared itself to be in a "Space Race" with the Soviets.

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Robert Goddard, Hermann Oberth, and Reinhold Tiling laid the groundwork of rocketry in the early years of the 20th century.

Wernher von Braun was the lead rocket engineer for Nazi Germany's World War II V-2 rocket project. In the last days of the war he led a caravan of workers in the German rocket program to the American lines, where they surrendered and were brought to the USA to work on U.S. rocket development ("Operation Paperclip"). He acquired American citizenship and led the team that developed and launched Explorer 1, the first American satellite. Von Braun later led the team at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center which developed the Saturn V moon rocket.

Initially the race for space was often led by Sergei Korolyov, whose legacy includes both the R7 and Soyuzwhich remain in service to this day. Korolev was the mastermind behind the first satellite, first man (and first woman) in orbit and first spacewalk. Until his death his identity was a closely guarded state secret; not even his mother knew that he was responsible for creating the Soviet space program.

Kerim Kerimov was one of the founders of the Soviet space program and was one of the lead architects behind the first human spaceflight (Vostok 1) alongside Sergey Korolyov. After Korolyov's death in 1966, Kerimov became the lead scientist of the Soviet space program and was responsible for the launch of the first space stations from 1971 to 1991, including the Salyut and Mir series, and their precursors in 1967, the Cosmos 186 and Cosmos 188.[17][18]

Although the Sun will probably not be physically explored at all, the study of the Sun has nevertheless been a major focus of space exploration. Being above the atmosphere in particular and Earth's magnetic field gives access to the solar wind and infrared and ultraviolet radiations that cannot reach Earth's surface. The Sun generates most space weather, which can affect power generation and transmission systems on Earth and interfere with, and even damage, satellites and space probes. Numerous spacecraft dedicated to observing the Sun have been launched and still others have had solar observation as a secondary objective. Solar Probe Plus, planned for a 2018 launch, will approach the Sun to within 1/8th the orbit of Mercury.

Mercury remains the least explored of the inner planets. As of May 2013, the Mariner 10 and MESSENGER missions have been the only missions that have made close observations of Mercury. MESSENGER entered orbit around Mercury in March 2011, to further investigate the observations made by Mariner 10 in 1975 (Munsell, 2006b).

A third mission to Mercury, scheduled to arrive in 2020, BepiColombo is to include two probes. BepiColombo is a joint mission between Japan and the European Space Agency. MESSENGER and BepiColombo are intended to gather complementary data to help scientists understand many of the mysteries discovered by Mariner 10's flybys.

Flights to other planets within the Solar System are accomplished at a cost in energy, which is described by the net change in velocity of the spacecraft, or delta-v. Due to the relatively high delta-v to reach Mercury and its proximity to the Sun, it is difficult to explore and orbits around it are rather unstable.

Venus was the first target of interplanetary flyby and lander missions and, despite one of the most hostile surface environments in the Solar System, has had more landers sent to it (nearly all from the Soviet Union) than any other planet in the Solar System. The first successful Venus flyby was the American Mariner 2 spacecraft, which flew past Venus in 1962. Mariner 2 has been followed by several other flybys by multiple space agencies often as part of missions using a Venus flyby to provide a gravitational assist en route to other celestial bodies. In 1967 Venera 4 became the first probe to enter and directly examine the atmosphere of Venus. In 1970, Venera 7 became the first successful lander to reach the surface of Venus and by 1985 it had been followed by eight additional successful Soviet Venus landers which provided images and other direct surface data. Starting in 1975 with the Soviet orbiter Venera 9 some ten successful orbiter missions have been sent to Venus, including later missions which were able to map the surface of Venus using radar to pierce the obscuring atmosphere.

Space exploration has been used as a tool to understand Earth as a celestial object in its own right. Orbital missions can provide data for Earth that can be difficult or impossible to obtain from a purely ground-based point of reference.

For example, the existence of the Van Allen radiation belts was unknown until their discovery by the United States' first artificial satellite, Explorer 1. These belts contain radiation trapped by Earth's magnetic fields, which currently renders construction of habitable space stations above 1000km impractical.

Following this early unexpected discovery, a large number of Earth observation satellites have been deployed specifically to explore Earth from a space based perspective. These satellites have significantly contributed to the understanding of a variety of Earth-based phenomena. For instance, the hole in the ozone layer was found by an artificial satellite that was exploring Earth's atmosphere, and satellites have allowed for the discovery of archeological sites or geological formations that were difficult or impossible to otherwise identify.

The Moon was the first celestial body to be the object of space exploration. It holds the distinctions of being the first remote celestial object to be flown by, orbited, and landed upon by spacecraft, and the only remote celestial object ever to be visited by humans.

In 1959 the Soviets obtained the first images of the far side of the Moon, never previously visible to humans. The U.S. exploration of the Moon began with the Ranger 4 impactor in 1962. Starting in 1966 the Soviets successfully deployed a number of landers to the Moon which were able to obtain data directly from the Moon's surface; just four months later, Surveyor 1 marked the debut of a successful series of U.S. landers. The Soviet unmanned missions culminated in the Lunokhod program in the early 1970s, which included the first unmanned rovers and also successfully brought lunar soil samples to Earth for study. This marked the first (and to date the only) automated return of extraterrestrial soil samples to Earth. Unmanned exploration of the Moon continues with various nations periodically deploying lunar orbiters, and in 2008 the Indian Moon Impact Probe.

Manned exploration of the Moon began in 1968 with the Apollo 8 mission that successfully orbited the Moon, the first time any extraterrestrial object was orbited by humans. In 1969, the Apollo 11 mission marked the first time humans set foot upon another world. Manned exploration of the Moon did not continue for long, however. The Apollo 17 mission in 1972 marked the most recent human visit there, and the next, Exploration Mission 2, is due to orbit the Moon in 2021. Robotic missions are still pursued vigorously.

The exploration of Mars has been an important part of the space exploration programs of the Soviet Union (later Russia), the United States, Europe, Japan and India. Dozens of robotic spacecraft, including orbiters, landers, and rovers, have been launched toward Mars since the 1960s. These missions were aimed at gathering data about current conditions and answering questions about the history of Mars. The questions raised by the scientific community are expected to not only give a better appreciation of the red planet but also yield further insight into the past, and possible future, of Earth.

The exploration of Mars has come at a considerable financial cost with roughly two-thirds of all spacecraft destined for Mars failing before completing their missions, with some failing before they even began. Such a high failure rate can be attributed to the complexity and large number of variables involved in an interplanetary journey, and has led researchers to jokingly speak of The Great Galactic Ghoul[19] which subsists on a diet of Mars probes. This phenomenon is also informally known as the Mars Curse.[20] In contrast to overall high failure rates in the exploration of Mars, India has become the first country to achieve success of its maiden attempt. India's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)[21][22][23] is one of the least expensive interplanetary missions ever undertaken with an approximate total cost of 450 Crore (US$73 million).[24][25] The first ever mission to Mars by any Arab country has been taken up by the United Arab Emirates. Called the Emirates Mars Mission, it is scheduled for launch in 2020. The unmanned exploratory probe has been named "Hope Probe" and will be sent to Mars to study its atmosphere in detail.[26]

The Russian space mission Fobos-Grunt, which launched on 9 November 2011 experienced a failure leaving it stranded in low Earth orbit.[27] It was to begin exploration of the Phobos and Martian circumterrestrial orbit, and study whether the moons of Mars, or at least Phobos, could be a "trans-shipment point" for spaceships traveling to Mars.[28]

The exploration of Jupiter has consisted solely of a number of automated NASA spacecraft visiting the planet since 1973. A large majority of the missions have been "flybys", in which detailed observations are taken without the probe landing or entering orbit; such as in Pioneer and Voyager programs. The Galileo spacecraft is the only one to have orbited the planet. As Jupiter is believed to have only a relatively small rocky core and no real solid surface, a landing mission is nearly impossible.

Reaching Jupiter from Earth requires a delta-v of 9.2km/s,[29] which is comparable to the 9.7km/s delta-v needed to reach low Earth orbit.[30] Fortunately, gravity assists through planetary flybys can be used to reduce the energy required at launch to reach Jupiter, albeit at the cost of a significantly longer flight duration.[29]

Jupiter has 67 known moons, many of which have relatively little known information about them.

Saturn has been explored only through unmanned spacecraft launched by NASA, including one mission (CassiniHuygens) planned and executed in cooperation with other space agencies. These missions consist of flybys in 1979 by Pioneer 11, in 1980 by Voyager 1, in 1982 by Voyager 2 and an orbital mission by the Cassini spacecraft, which entered orbit in 2004 and is expected to continue its mission well into 2017.

Saturn has at least 62 known moons, although the exact number is debatable since Saturn's rings are made up of vast numbers of independently orbiting objects of varying sizes. The largest of the moons is Titan. Titan holds the distinction of being the only moon in the Solar System with an atmosphere denser and thicker than that of Earth. As a result of the deployment from the Cassini spacecraft of the Huygens probe and its successful landing on Titan, Titan also holds the distinction of being the only object in the outer Solar System that has been explored with a lander.

The exploration of Uranus has been entirely through the Voyager 2 spacecraft, with no other visits currently planned. Given its axial tilt of 97.77, with its polar regions exposed to sunlight or darkness for long periods, scientists were not sure what to expect at Uranus. The closest approach to Uranus occurred on 24 January 1986. Voyager 2 studied the planet's unique atmosphere and magnetosphere. Voyager 2 also examined its ring system and the moons of Uranus including all five of the previously known moons, while discovering an additional ten previously unknown moons.

Images of Uranus proved to have a very uniform appearance, with no evidence of the dramatic storms or atmospheric banding evident on Jupiter and Saturn. Great effort was required to even identify a few clouds in the images of the planet. The magnetosphere of Uranus, however, proved to be completely unique and proved to be profoundly affected by the planet's unusual axial tilt. In contrast to the bland appearance of Uranus itself, striking images were obtained of the Moons of Uranus, including evidence that Miranda had been unusually geologically active.

The exploration of Neptune began with the 25 August 1989 Voyager 2 flyby, the sole visit to the system as of 2014. The possibility of a Neptune Orbiter has been discussed, but no other missions have been given serious thought.

Although the extremely uniform appearance of Uranus during Voyager 2's visit in 1986 had led to expectations that Neptune would also have few visible atmospheric phenomena, the spacecraft found that Neptune had obvious banding, visible clouds, auroras, and even a conspicuous anticyclone storm system rivaled in size only by Jupiter's small Spot. Neptune also proved to have the fastest winds of any planet in the Solar System, measured as high as 2,100km/h.[31] Voyager 2 also examined Neptune's ring and moon system. It discovered 900 complete rings and additional partial ring "arcs" around Neptune. In addition to examining Neptune's three previously known moons, Voyager 2 also discovered five previously unknown moons, one of which, Proteus, proved to be the last largest moon in the system. Data from Voyager 2 supported the view that Neptune's largest moon, Triton, is a captured Kuiper belt object.[32]

The dwarf planet Pluto presents significant challenges for spacecraft because of its great distance from Earth (requiring high velocity for reasonable trip times) and small mass (making capture into orbit very difficult at present). Voyager 1 could have visited Pluto, but controllers opted instead for a close flyby of Saturn's moon Titan, resulting in a trajectory incompatible with a Pluto flyby. Voyager 2 never had a plausible trajectory for reaching Pluto.[33]

Pluto continues to be of great interest, despite its reclassification as the lead and nearest member of a new and growing class of distant icy bodies of intermediate size (and also the first member of the important subclass, defined by orbit and known as "plutinos"). After an intense political battle, a mission to Pluto dubbed New Horizons was granted funding from the United States government in 2003.[34] New Horizons was launched successfully on 19 January 2006. In early 2007 the craft made use of a gravity assist from Jupiter. Its closest approach to Pluto was on 14 July 2015; scientific observations of Pluto began five months prior to closest approach and will continue for at least a month after the encounter.

Until the advent of space travel, objects in the asteroid belt were merely pinpricks of light in even the largest telescopes, their shapes and terrain remaining a mystery. Several asteroids have now been visited by probes, the first of which was Galileo, which flew past two: 951 Gaspra in 1991, followed by 243 Ida in 1993. Both of these lay near enough to Galileo's planned trajectory to Jupiter that they could be visited at acceptable cost. The first landing on an asteroid was performed by the NEAR Shoemaker probe in 2000, following an orbital survey of the object. The dwarf planet Ceres and the asteroid 4 Vesta, two of the three largest asteroids, were visited by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, launched in 2007.

Although many comets have been studied from Earth sometimes with centuries-worth of observations, only a few comets have been closely visited. In 1985, the International Cometary Explorer conducted the first comet fly-by (21P/Giacobini-Zinner) before joining the Halley Armada studying the famous comet. The Deep Impact probe smashed into 9P/Tempel to learn more about its structure and composition and the Stardust mission returned samples of another comet's tail. The Philae lander successfully landed on Comet ChuryumovGerasimenko in 2014 as part of the broader Rosetta mission.

Hayabusa was an unmanned spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to return a sample of material from the small near-Earth asteroid 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further analysis. Hayabusa was launched on 9 May 2003 and rendezvoused with Itokawa in mid-September 2005. After arriving at Itokawa, Hayabusa studied the asteroid's shape, spin, topography, color, composition, density, and history. In November 2005, it landed on the asteroid to collect samples. The spacecraft returned to Earth on 13 June 2010.

Deep space exploration is the term used for the exploration of deep space, and which is usually described as being at far distances from Earth and either within or away from the Solar System. It is the branch of astronomy, astronautics and space technology that is involved with the exploration of distant regions of outer space.[35] Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights (deep-space astronautics) and by robotic spacecraft.

Some of the best candidates for future deep space engine technologies include anti-matter, nuclear power and beamed propulsion.[36] The latter, beamed propulsion, appears to be the best candidate for deep space exploration presently available, since it uses known physics and known technology that is being developed for other purposes.[37]

In the 2000s, several plans for space exploration were announced; both government entities and the private sector have space exploration objectives. China has announced plans to have a 60-ton multi-module space station in orbit by 2020.

The NASA Authorization Act of 2010 provided a re-prioritized list of objectives for the American space program, as well as funding for the first priorities. NASA proposes to move forward with the development of the Space Launch System (SLS), which will be designed to carry the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, as well as important cargo, equipment, and science experiments to Earth's orbit and destinations beyond. Additionally, the SLS will serve as a back up for commercial and international partner transportation services to the International Space Station. The SLS rocket will incorporate technological investments from the Space Shuttle program and the Constellation program in order to take advantage of proven hardware and reduce development and operations costs. The first developmental flight is targeted for the end of 2017.[38]

The idea of using high level automated systems for space missions has become a desirable goal to space agencies all around the world. Such systems are believed to yield benefits such as lower cost, less human oversight, and ability to explore deeper in space which is usually restricted by long communications with human controllers.[39]

Autonomy is defined by 3 requirements:[39]

Autonomed technologies would be able to perform beyond predetermined actions. It would analyze all possible states and events happening around them and come up with a safe response. In addition, such technologies can reduce launch cost and ground involvement. Performance would increase as well. Autonomy would be able to quickly respond upon encountering an unforeseen event, especially in deep space exploration where communication back to Earth would take too long.[39]

NASA began its autonomous science experiment (ASE) on Earth Observing 1 (EO-1) which is NASA's first satellite in the new millennium program Earth-observing series launched on 21 November 2000. The autonomy of ASE is capable of on-board science analysis, replanning, robust execution, and later the addition of model-based diagnostic. Images obtained by the EO-1 are analyzed on-board and downlinked when a change or an interesting event occur. The ASE software has successfully provided over 10,000 science images.[39]

The research that is conducted by national space exploration agencies, such as NASA and Roscosmos, is one of the reasons supporters cite to justify government expenses. Economic analyses of the NASA programs often showed ongoing economic benefits (such as NASA spin-offs), generating many times the revenue of the cost of the program.[40] It is also argued that space exploration would lead to the extraction of resources on other planets and especially asteroids, which contain billions of dollars worth of minerals and metals. Such expeditions could generate a lot of revenue.[41] As well, it has been argued that space exploration programs help inspire youth to study in science and engineering.[42]

Another claim is that space exploration is a necessity to mankind and that staying on Earth will lead to extinction. Some of the reasons are lack of natural resources, comets, nuclear war, and worldwide epidemic. Stephen Hawking, renowned British theoretical physicist, said that "I don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I'm an optimist. We will reach out to the stars."[43]

NASA has produced a series of public service announcement videos supporting the concept of space exploration.[44]

Overall, the public remains largely supportive of both manned and unmanned space exploration. According to an Associated Press Poll conducted in July 2003, 71% of U.S. citizens agreed with the statement that the space program is "a good investment", compared to 21% who did not.[45]

Arthur C. Clarke (1950) presented a summary of motivations for the human exploration of space in his non-fiction semi-technical monograph Interplanetary Flight.[46] He argued that humanity's choice is essentially between expansion off Earth into space, versus cultural (and eventually biological) stagnation and death.

Spaceflight is the use of space technology to achieve the flight of spacecraft into and through outer space.

Spaceflight is used in space exploration, and also in commercial activities like space tourism and satellite telecommunications. Additional non-commercial uses of spaceflight include space observatories, reconnaissance satellites and other Earth observation satellites.

A spaceflight typically begins with a rocket launch, which provides the initial thrust to overcome the force of gravity and propels the spacecraft from the surface of Earth. Once in space, the motion of a spacecraftboth when unpropelled and when under propulsionis covered by the area of study called astrodynamics. Some spacecraft remain in space indefinitely, some disintegrate during atmospheric reentry, and others reach a planetary or lunar surface for landing or impact.

Satellites are used for a large number of purposes. Common types include military (spy) and civilian Earth observation satellites, communication satellites, navigation satellites, weather satellites, and research satellites. Space stations and human spacecraft in orbit are also satellites.

Current examples of the commercial use of space include satellite navigation systems, satellite television and satellite radio. Space tourism is the recent phenomenon of space travel by individuals for the purpose of personal pleasure.

Astrobiology is the interdisciplinary study of life in the universe, combining aspects of astronomy, biology and geology.[47] It is focused primarily on the study of the origin, distribution and evolution of life. It is also known as exobiology (from Greek: , exo, "outside").[48][49][50] The term "Xenobiology" has been used as well, but this is technically incorrect because its terminology means "biology of the foreigners".[51] Astrobiologists must also consider the possibility of life that is chemically entirely distinct from any life found on Earth.[52] In the Solar System some of the prime locations for current or past astrobiology are on Enceladus, Europa, Mars, and Titan.

Space colonization, also called space settlement and space humanization, would be the permanent autonomous (self-sufficient) human habitation of locations outside Earth, especially of natural satellites or planets such as the Moon or Mars, using significant amounts of in-situ resource utilization.

To date, the longest human occupation of space is the International Space Station which has been in continuous use for 700850716800000000016years, 26days. Valeri Polyakov's record single spaceflight of almost 438 days aboard the Mir space station has not been surpassed. Long-term stays in space reveal issues with bone and muscle loss in low gravity, immune system suppression, and radiation exposure.

Many past and current concepts for the continued exploration and colonization of space focus on a return to the Moon as a "stepping stone" to the other planets, especially Mars. At the end of 2006 NASA announced they were planning to build a permanent Moon base with continual presence by 2024.[54]

Beyond the technical factors that could make living in space more widespread, it has been suggested that the lack of private property, the inability or difficulty in establishing property rights in space, has been an impediment to the development of space for human habitation. Since the advent of space technology in the latter half of the twentieth century, the ownership of property in space has been murky, with strong arguments both for and against. In particular, the making of national territorial claims in outer space and on celestial bodies has been specifically proscribed by the Outer Space Treaty, which had been, as of 2012[update], ratified by all spacefaring nations.[55]

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Space exploration - Wikipedia

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Space Exploration - U.S. Scouting Service Project

European Space Agency

The European Space Agency (ESA; French: Agence spatiale europenne, ASE) is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, with 22 member states. Established in 1975 and headquartered in Paris, France, ESA has a worldwide staff of about 2,000[3] and an annual budget of about 5.25 billion / US$5.77 billion (2016).[4]

ESA's space flight programme includes human spaceflight (mainly through participation in the International Space Station programme); the launch and operation of unmanned exploration missions to other planets and the Moon; Earth observation, science and telecommunication; designing launch vehicles; and maintaining a major spaceport, the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou, French Guiana. The main European launch vehicle Ariane 5 is operated through Arianespace with ESA sharing in the costs of launching and further developing this launch vehicle.

Its facilities are distributed among the following 5 research centres:

After World War II, many European scientists left Western Europe in order to work with the United States. Although the 1950s boom made it possible for Western European countries to invest in research and specifically in space-related activities, Western European scientists realized solely national projects would not be able to compete with the two main superpowers. In 1958, only months after the Sputnik shock, Edoardo Amaldi and Pierre Auger, two prominent members of the Western European scientific community at that time, met to discuss the foundation of a common Western European space agency. The meeting was attended by scientific representatives from eight countries, including Harrie Massey (UK).

The Western European nations decided to have two different agencies, one concerned with developing a launch system, ELDO (European Launch Development Organization), and the precursor of the European Space Agency, ESRO (European Space Research Organisation). The latter was established on 20 March 1964 by an agreement signed on 14 June 1962. From 1968 to 1972, ESRO launched seven research satellites.

ESA in its current form was founded with the ESA Convention in 1975, when ESRO was merged with ELDO. ESA has 10 founding member states: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.[5] These signed the ESA Convention in 1975 and deposited the instruments of ratification by 1980, when the convention came into force. During this interval the agency functioned in a de facto fashion.[2] ESA launched its first major scientific mission in 1975, Cos-B, a space probe monitoring gamma-ray emissions in the universe first worked on by ESRO.

ESA joined NASA in the IUE, the world's first high-orbit telescope, which was launched in 1978 and operated very successfully for 18 years. A number of successful Earth-orbit projects followed, and in 1986 ESA began Giotto, its first deep-space mission, to study the comets Halley and GriggSkjellerup. Hipparcos, a star-mapping mission, was launched in 1989 and in the 1990s SOHO, Ulysses and the Hubble Space Telescope were all jointly carried out with NASA. Recent scientific missions in cooperation with NASA include the CassiniHuygens space probe, to which ESA contributed by building the Titan landing module Huygens.

As the successor of ELDO, ESA has also constructed rockets for scientific and commercial payloads. Ariane 1, launched in 1979, brought mostly commercial payloads into orbit from 1984 onward. The next two developments of the Ariane rocket were intermediate stages in the development of a more advanced launch system, the Ariane 4, which operated between 1988 and 2003 and established ESA as the world leader[citation needed] in commercial space launches in the 1990s. Although the succeeding Ariane 5 experienced a failure on its first flight, it has since firmly established itself within the heavily competitive commercial space launch market with 56 successful launches as of September 2011. The successor launch vehicle of Ariane 5, the Ariane 6 is already in the definition stage and is envisioned to enter service in the 2020s.

The beginning of the new millennium saw ESA become, along with agencies like NASA, JAXA, ISRO, CSA and Roscosmos, one of the major participants in scientific space research. Although ESA had relied on cooperation with NASA in previous decades, especially the 1990s, changed circumstances (such as tough legal restrictions on information sharing by the United States military) led to decisions to rely more on itself and on cooperation with Russia. A 2011 press issue thus stated:[6]

Russia is ESA's first partner in its efforts to ensure long-term access to space. There is a framework agreement between ESA and the government of the Russian Federation on cooperation and partnership in the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes, and cooperation is already under way in two different areas of launcher activity that will bring benefits to both partners.

Most notable for its new self-confidence are ESA's own recent successful missions SMART-1, a probe testing cutting-edge new space propulsion technology, the Mars Express and Venus Express missions as well as the development of the Ariane 5 rocket and its role in the ISS partnership. ESA maintains its scientific and research projects mainly for astronomy-space missions such as Corot, launched on 27 December 2006, a milestone in the search for extra-solar planets.

The treaty establishing the European Space Agency reads:[7]

ESA's purpose shall be to provide for, and to promote, for exclusively peaceful purposes, cooperation among European States in space research and technology and their space applications, with a view to their being used for scientific purposes and for operational space applications systems

ESA is responsible for setting a unified space and related industrial policy, recommending space objectives to the member states, and integrating national programs like satellite development, into the European program as much as possible.[7]

Jean-Jacques Dordain ESA's Director General (2003-2015) outlined the European Space Agency's mission in a 2003 interview:[8]

Today space activities are pursued for the benefit of citizens, and citizens are asking for a better quality of life on earth. They want greater security and economic wealth, but they also want to pursue their dreams, to increase their knowledge, and they want younger people to be attracted to the pursuit of science and technology.

I think that space can do all of this: it can produce a higher quality of life, better security, more economic wealth, and also fulfill our citizens' dreams and thirst for knowledge, and attract the young generation. This is the reason space exploration is an integral part of overall space activities. It has always been so, and it will be even more important in the future.

ESA describes its work in two overlapping ways:

According to the ESA website the activities are:

Every member country must contribute to these programmes listed according to [1]:

Depending on their individual choices the countries can contribute to the following programmes listed according to [2]:

ESA member states

ESA associate members

ECS states

Signatories of the Cooperation Agreement

ESA is an intergovernmental organisation of 22 member states.[9] Member states participate to varying degrees in the mandatory (25% of total expenditures in 2008) and optional space programmes (75% of total expenditures in 2008).[10] The 2008 budget amounted to 3.0 billion the 2009 budget to 3.6 billion.[11] The total budget amounted to about 3.7 billion in 2010, 3.99 billion in 2011, 4.02 billion in 2012, 4.28 billion in 2013, 4.10 billion in 2014 and 4.33 billion in 2015.[12][13][14][15][16] Languages generally used are English and French. Additionally, official documents are also provided in German and documents regarding the Spacelab are also provided in Italian. If found appropriate, the agency may conduct its correspondence in any language of a member state.[2]

The following table lists all the member states and adjunct members, their ESA convention ratification dates, and their contributions in 2016:[1]

Currently the only associated member of ESA is Canada.[26] Previously associated members were Austria, Norway and Finland, all of which later joined ESA as full members.

Since 1 January 1979, Canada has had the special status of a Cooperating State within ESA. By virtue of this accord, the Canadian Space Agency takes part in ESA's deliberative bodies and decision-making and also in ESA's programmes and activities. Canadian firms can bid for and receive contracts to work on programmes. The accord has a provision ensuring a fair industrial return to Canada.[28] The most recent Cooperation Agreement was signed on 2010-12-15 with a term extending to 2020.[29][30] For 2014, Canada's annual assessed contribution to the ESA general budget was 6,059,449.00 Euros (CAD$8,559,050).[31]

ESA is funded from annual contributions by national governments as well as from an annual contribution by the European Union (EU).[32]

The budget of ESA was 5.250 billion in 2016.[4] Every 34 years, ESA member states agree on a budget plan for several years at an ESA member states conference. This plan can be amended in future years, however provides the major guideline for ESA for several years.[citation needed] The 2016 budget allocations for major areas of ESA activity are shown in the chart on the right.[4]

Countries typically have their own space programmes that differ in how they operate organisationally and financially with ESA. For example, the French space agency CNES has a total budget of 2015 million, of which 755 million is paid as direct financial contribution to ESA.[33] Several space-related projects are joint projects between national space agencies and ESA (e.g. COROT). Also, ESA is not the only European governmental space organisation (for example European Union Satellite Centre).

After the decision of the ESA Council of 21/22 March 2001, the procedure for accession of the European states was detailed as described the document titled "The Plan for European Co-operating States (PECS)".[34] Nations that want to become a full member of ESA do so in 3 stages. First a Cooperation Agreement is signed between the country and ESA. In this stage, the country has very limited financial responsibilities. If a country wants to cooperate more fully with ESA, it signs a European Cooperating State (ECS) Agreement. The ECS Agreement makes companies based in the country eligible for participation in ESA procurements. The country can also participate in all ESA programmes, except for the Basic Technology Research Programme. While the financial contribution of the country concerned increases, it is still much lower than that of a full member state. The agreement is normally followed by a Plan For European Cooperating State (or PECS Charter). This is a 5-year programme of basic research and development activities aimed at improving the nation's space industry capacity. At the end of the 5-year period, the country can either begin negotiations to become a full member state or an associated state or sign a new PECS Charter.[35] Many countries, most of which joined the EU in both 2004 and 2007, have started to cooperate with ESA on various levels:

During the Ministerial Meeting in December 2014, ESA ministers approved a resolution calling for discussions to begin with Israel, Australia and South Africa on future association agreements. The ministers noted that concrete cooperation is at an advanced stage with these nations and that prospects for mutual benefits are existing.[56]

A separate space exploration strategy resolution calls for further cooperation with the United States, Russia and China on "LEO exploration, including a continuation of ISS cooperation and the development of a robust plan for the coordinated use of space transportation vehicles and systems for exploration purposes, participation in robotic missions for the exploration of the Moon, the robotic exploration of Mars, leading to a broad Mars Sample Return mission in which Europe should be involved as a full partner, and human missions beyond LEO in the longer term."[56]

The political perspective of the European Union (EU) was to make ESA an agency of the EU by 2014,[57] although this date was not met. The EU is already the largest single donor to ESA's budget and non-ESA EU states are observers at ESA.

The only current EU member state that has not signed an ESA Cooperation Agreement is Croatia. In December 2014, the ESA Ministerial Council authorized officials to begin discussions to establish formal cooperation with Croatia.[58]

ESA has a fleet of different launch vehicles in service with which it competes in all sectors of the launch market. ESA's fleet consists of three major rocket designs: Ariane 5, Soyuz-2 and Vega. Rocket launches are carried out by Arianespace, which has 23 shareholders representing the industry that manufactures the Ariane 5 as well as CNES, at ESA's Guiana Space Centre. Because many communication satellites have equatorial orbits, launches from French Guiana are able to take larger payloads into space than from spaceports at higher latitudes. In addition, equatorial launches give spacecraft an extra 'push' of nearly 500m/s due to the higher rotational velocity of the Earth at the equator compared to near the Earth's poles where rotational velocity approaches zero.

The Ariane 5 rocket is ESA's primary launcher. It has been in service since 1997 and replaced Ariane 4. Two different variants are currently in use. The heaviest and most used version, the Ariane 5 ECA, delivers two communications satellites of up to 10 tonnes into GTO. It failed during its first test flight in 2002, but has since made 71 consecutive successful flights (as of March 2016). The other version, Ariane 5 ES, was used to launch the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) to the International Space Station (ISS) and will be used to launch four Galileo navigational satellites at a time.[59][60]

In November 2012, ESA agreed to build an upgraded variant called Ariane 5 ME (Mid-life Evolution) which will increase payload capacity to 11.5 tonnes to GTO and feature a restartable second stage to allow more complex missions. Ariane 5 ME is scheduled to fly in 2018.[61] Some of its new features will also be adopted by the next-generation launcher, Ariane 6, planned to replace Ariane 5 in the 2020s.

ESA's Ariane 1, 2, 3 and 4 launchers (the last of which was ESA's long-time workhorse) have been retired.

Soyuz-2 (also called the Soyuz-ST or Soyuz-STK) is a Russian medium payload launcher (ca. 3 metric tons to GTO) which was brought into ESA service in October 2011.[62][63] ESA entered into a 340 million joint venture with the Russian Federal Space Agency over the use of the Soyuz launcher.[6] Under the agreement, the Russian agency manufactures Soyuz rocket parts for ESA, which are then shipped to French Guiana for assembly.

ESA benefits because it gains a medium payload launcher, complementing its fleet while saving on development costs. In addition, the Soyuz rocketwhich has been the Russian's space launch workhorse for some 40 yearsis proven technology with a very good safety record. Russia benefits in that it gets access to the Kourou launch site. Due to its proximity to the equator, launching from Kourou rather than Baikonur nearly doubles Soyuz's payload to GTO (3.0 tonnes vs. 1.7 tonnes).

Soyuz first launched from Kourou on 21 October 2011, and successfully placed two Galileo satellites into orbit 23,222 kilometres above Earth.[62]

Vega is ESA's carrier for small satellites. Developed by seven ESA members led by Italy, it is capable of carrying a payload with a mass of between 300 and 1500kg to an altitude of 700km, for low polar orbit. Its maiden launch from Kourou was on 13 February 2012.[64]

The rocket has three solid propulsion stages and a liquid propulsion upper stage (the AVUM) for accurate orbital insertion and the ability to place multiple payloads into different orbits.[65][66]

Historically, the Ariane family rockets have been funded primarily "with money contributed by ESA governments seeking to participate in the program rather than through competitive industry bids. This [has meant that] governments commit multiyear funding to the development with the expectation of a roughly 90% return on investment in the form of industrial workshare." ESA is proposing changes to this scheme by moving to competitive bids for the development of the Ariane 6.[67]

At the time ESA was formed, its main goals did not encompass human space flight; rather it considered itself to be primarily a scientific research organisation for unmanned space exploration in contrast to its American and Soviet counterparts. It is therefore not surprising that the first non-Soviet European in space was not an ESA astronaut on a European space craft; it was Czechoslovak Vladimr Remek who in 1978 became the first non-Soviet or American in space (the first man in space being Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union) on a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft, followed by the Pole Mirosaw Hermaszewski and East German Sigmund Jhn in the same year. This Soviet co-operation programme, known as Intercosmos, primarily involved the participation of Eastern bloc countries. In 1982, however, Jean-Loup Chrtien became the first non-Communist Bloc astronaut on a flight to the Soviet Salyut 7 space station.

Because Chrtien did not officially fly into space as an ESA astronaut, but rather as a member of the French CNES astronaut corps, the German Ulf Merbold is considered the first ESA astronaut to fly into space. He participated in the STS-9 Space Shuttle mission that included the first use of the European-built Spacelab in 1983. STS-9 marked the beginning of an extensive ESA/NASA joint partnership that included dozens of space flights of ESA astronauts in the following years. Some of these missions with Spacelab were fully funded and organizationally and scientifically controlled by ESA (such as two missions by Germany and one by Japan) with European astronauts as full crew members rather than guests on board. Beside paying for Spacelab flights and seats on the shuttles, ESA continued its human space flight co-operation with the Soviet Union and later Russia, including numerous visits to Mir.

During the latter half of the 1980s, European human space flights changed from being the exception to routine and therefore, in 1990, the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany was established. It selects and trains prospective astronauts and is responsible for the co-ordination with international partners, especially with regard to the International Space Station. As of 2006, the ESA astronaut corps officially included twelve members, including nationals from most large European countries except the United Kingdom.

In the summer of 2008, ESA started to recruit new astronauts so that final selection would be due in spring 2009. Almost 10,000 people registered as astronaut candidates before registration ended in June 2008. 8,413 fulfilled the initial application criteria. Of the applicants, 918 were chosen to take part in the first stage of psychological testing, which narrowed down the field to 192. After two-stage psychological tests and medical evaluation in early 2009, as well as formal interviews, six new members of the European Astronaut Corps were selected - five men and one woman.[68]

The astronauts of the European Space Agency are:

In the 1980s, France pressed for an independent European crew launch vehicle. Around 1978 it was decided to pursue a reusable spacecraft model and starting in November 1987 a project to create a mini-shuttle by the name of Hermes was introduced. The craft was comparable to early proposals for the Space Shuttle and consisted of a small reusable spaceship that would carry 3 to 5 astronauts and 3 to 4 metric tons of payload for scientific experiments. With a total maximum weight of 21 metric tons it would have been launched on the Ariane 5 rocket, which was being developed at that time. It was planned solely for use in Low-Earth orbit space flights. The planning and pre-development phase concluded in 1991; the production phase was never fully implemented because at that time the political landscape had changed significantly. With the fall of the Soviet Union ESA looked forward to cooperation with Russia to build a next-generation space vehicle. Thus the Hermes programme was cancelled in 1995 after about 3 billion dollars had been spent. The Columbus space station programme had a similar fate.

In the 21st century, ESA started new programmes in order to create its own crew vehicles, most notable among its various projects and proposals is Hopper, whose prototype by EADS, called Phoenix, has already been tested. While projects such as Hopper are neither concrete nor to be realised within the next decade, other possibilities for human spaceflight in cooperation with the Russian Space Agency have emerged. Following talks with the Russian Space Agency in 2004 and June 2005,[73] a cooperation between ESA and the Russian Space Agency was announced to jointly work on the Russian-designed Kliper, a reusable spacecraft that would be available for space travel beyond LEO (e.g. the moon or even Mars). It was speculated that Europe would finance part of it. A 50 million participation study for Kliper, which was expected to be approved in December 2005, was finally not approved by the ESA member states. The Russian state tender for the project was subsequently cancelled in 2006.

In June 2006, ESA member states granted 15 million to the Crew Space Transportation System (CSTS) study, a two-year study to design a spacecraft capable of going beyond Low-Earth orbit based on the current Soyuz design. This project was pursued with Roskosmos instead of the cancelled Kliper proposal. A decision on the actual implementation and construction of the CSTS spacecraft was contemplated for 2008. In mid-2009 EADS Astrium was awarded a 21 million study into designing a crew vehicle based on the European ATV which is believed to now be the basis of the Advanced Crew Transportation System design.[74]

In November 2012, ESA decided to join NASA's Orion programme. The ATV would form the basis of a propulsion unit for NASA's new manned spacecraft. ESA may also seek to work with NASA on Orion's launch system as well in order to secure a seat on the spacecraft for its own astronauts.[75]

In September 2014, ESA signed an agreement with Sierra Nevada Corporation for cooperation in Dream Chaser project. Further studies on the Dream Chaser for European Utilization or DC4EU project were funded, including the feasibility of launching a Europeanized Dream Chaser onboard Ariane 5.[76][77]

ESA has signed cooperation agreements with the following states that currently neither plan to integrate as tightly with ESA institutions as Canada, nor envision future membership of ESA: Argentina,[78] Brazil,[79] China,[80] India[81] (for the Chandrayan mission), Russia[82] and Turkey.[83]

Additionally, ESA has joint projects with the European Union, NASA of the United States and is participating in the International Space Station together with the United States (NASA), Russia and Japan (JAXA).

ESA and EU member states

ESA-only members

EU-only members

ESA is not an agency or body of the European Union (EU), and has non-EU countries Switzerland and Norway as members. There are however ties between the two, with various agreements in place and being worked on, to define the legal status of ESA with regard to the EU.[84]

There are common goals between ESA and the EU. ESA has an EU liaison office in Brussels. On certain projects, the EU and ESA cooperate, such as the upcoming Galileo satellite navigation system. Space policy has since December 2009 been an area for voting in the European Council. Under the European Space Policy of 2007, the EU, ESA and its Member States committed themselves to increasing coordination of their activities and programmes and to organising their respective roles relating to space.[85]

The Lisbon Treaty of 2009 reinforces the case for space in Europe and strengthens the role of ESA as an R&D space agency. Article 189 of the Treaty gives the EU a mandate to elaborate a European space policy and take related measures, and provides that the EU should establish appropriate relations with ESA.

Former Italian astronaut Umberto Guidoni, during his tenure as a Member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2009, stressed the importance of the European Union as a driving force for space exploration, "since other players are coming up such as India and China it is becoming ever more important that Europeans can have an independent access to space. We have to invest more into space research and technology in order to have an industry capable of competing with other international players."[86]

The first EU-ESA International Conference on Human Space Exploration took place in Prague on 22 and 23 October 2009.[87] A road map which would lead to a common vision and strategic planning in the area of space exploration was discussed. Ministers from all 29 EU and ESA members as well as members of parliament were in attendance.[88]

ESA has a long history of collaboration with NASA. Since ESA's astronaut corps was formed, the Space Shuttle has been the primary launch vehicle used by ESA's astronauts to get into space through partnership programmes with NASA. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Spacelab programme was an ESA-NASA joint research programme that had ESA develop and manufacture orbital labs for the Space Shuttle for several flights on which ESA participate with astronauts in experiments.

In robotic science mission and exploration missions, NASA has been ESA's main partner. CassiniHuygens was a joint NASA-ESA mission, along with the Infrared Space Observatory, INTEGRAL, SOHO, and others. Also, the Hubble space telescope is a joint project of NASA and ESA. Future ESA-NASA joint projects include the James Webb Space Telescope and the proposed Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. NASA has committed to provide support to ESA's proposed MarcoPolo-R mission to return an asteroid sample to Earth for further analysis. NASA and ESA will also likely join together for a Mars Sample Return Mission.

Since China has started to invest more money into space activities, the Chinese Space Agency has sought international partnerships. ESA is, beside the Russian Space Agency, one of its most important partners. Recently the two space agencies cooperated in the development of the Double Star Mission.[89]

ESA entered into a major joint venture with Russia in the form of the CSTS, the preparation of French Guiana spaceport for launches of Soyuz-2 rockets and other projects. With India, ESA agreed to send instruments into space aboard the ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 in 2008.[90] ESA is also cooperating with Japan, the most notable current project in collaboration with JAXA is the BepiColombo mission to Mercury.

Speaking to reporters at an air show near Moscow in August 2011, ESA head Jean-Jacques Dordain said ESA and Russia's Roskosmos space agency would "carry out the first flight to Mars together."[91]

With regard to the International Space Station (ISS) ESA is not represented by all of its member states:[92] 10 of the 21 ESA member states currently participate in the project: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Austria, Finland and Ireland chose not to participate, because of lack of interest or concerns about the expense of the project. The United Kingdom withdrew from the preliminary agreement because of concerns about the expense of the project. Portugal, Luxembourg, Greece, the Czech Republic, Romania and Poland joined ESA after the agreement had been signed. ESA is taking part in the construction and operation of the ISS with contributions such as Columbus, a science laboratory module that was brought into orbit by NASA's STS-122 Space Shuttle mission and the Cupola observatory module that was completed in July 2005 by Alenia Spazio for ESA. The current estimates for the ISS are approaching 100 billion in total (development, construction and 10 years of maintaining the station) of which ESA has committed to paying 8 billion.[93] About 90% of the costs of ESA's ISS share will be contributed by Germany (41%), France (28%) and Italy (20%). German ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter was the first long-term ISS crew member.

ESA has developed the Automated Transfer Vehicle for ISS resupply. Each ATV has a cargo capacity of 7,667 kilograms (16,903lb).[94] The first ATV, Jules Verne, was launched on 9 March 2008 and on 3 April 2008 successfully docked with the ISS. This manoeuvre, considered a major technical feat, involved using automated systems to allow the ATV to track the ISS, moving at 27,000km/h, and attach itself with an accuracy of 2cm.

As of 2013, the spacecraft establishing supply links to the ISS are the Russian Progress and Soyuz, European ATV, Japanese Kounotori (HTV), and the USA COTS program vehicles Dragon and Cygnus.

European Life and Physical Sciences research on board the International Space Station (ISS) is mainly based on the European Programme for Life and Physical Sciences in Space programme that was initiated in 2001.

According to Annex 1, Resolution No. 8 of the ESA Convention and Council Rules of Procedure,[95] English, French and German may be used in all meetings of the Agency, with interpretation provided into these three languages. All official documents are available in English and French with all documents concerning the ESA Council being available in German as well.

The EU flag is the one to be flown in space during missions (for example it was flown by ESA's Andre Kuipers during Delta mission)

The Commission is increasingly working together towards common objectives. Some 20 per cent of the funds managed by ESA now originate from the supranational budget of the European Union.

However, in recent years the ties between ESA and the European institutions have been reinforced by the increasing role that space plays in supporting Europes social, political and economic policies.

The legal basis for the EU/ESA cooperation is provided by a Framework Agreement which entered into force in May 2004. According to this agreement, the European Commission and ESA coordinate their actions through the Joint Secretariat, a small team of ECs administrators and ESA executive. The Member States of the two organisations meet at ministerial level in the Space Council, which is a concomitant meeting of the EU and ESA Councils, prepared by Member States representatives in the High-level Space Policy Group (HSPG).

ESA maintains a liaison office in Brussels to facilitate relations with the European institutions.

In May 2007, the 29 European countries expressed their support for the European Space Policy in a resolution of the Space Council, unifying the approach of ESA with those of the European Union and their member states.

Prepared jointly by the European Commission and ESAs Director General, the European Space Policy sets out a basic vision and strategy for the space sector and addresses issues such as security and defence, access to space and exploration.

Through this resolution, the EU, ESA and their Member States all commit to increasing coordination of their activities and programmes and their respective roles relating to space.[98]

Coordinates: 485054N 21815E / 48.8482N 2.3042E / 48.8482; 2.3042

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European Space Agency - Wikipedia

Posted: 16 May, 2015 Cyprus' project "Arachnobeea" is the winner of the International Space Apps Challenge! 16 May, Nicosia

A universal success for the Cypriot team and recognition by NASA!

NASA announced the winners of the International Space Apps Challenge today, and "Arachnobeea", the runner-up team of the Space Apps Challenge Limassol 2015, was the global winner in the "Best Mission Concept" category!

Arachnobeea was selected by a NASA judging committee, among over 950 other projects from 135 locations worldwide, as one of the 6 global winners!

The team definitely did an incredible job designing the most innovative quad-copter drone destined for usage in space vehicles, and they managed to excite everyone with their presentation at the local competition in Limassol in early April. Apparently, the NASA experts identified the uniqueness of the team's design and awarded the Cypriot team as the international winner for the "Best Mission Concept" of the 2015 International Space Apps Challenge.

Team "Arachnobeea" truly make us proud with their success! The announcement of the winners by NASA

During the official opening gala of the CSEO Space Week 2015, at the Russian Cultural Centre, Cosmonauts on-board the ISS sent greetings to the guests of the opening ceremony and to the island of Cyprus.

The moment the Space Week was declared open

From left: Mr Rogalev - Director of Russian Cultural Centre, Mr Thrassou - President of Cypro-Russian Friendship Association, Mr Danos - President of CSEO, Cosmonaut Alexandr Volkov, Russian Ambassador Mr Osadchiy, Honorary Russian Consul Mr Prodromou

More on CSEO Space Week 2015:

Our aim is to promote space exploration with various events and activities.

In cooperation with the Municipality of Nicosia and the support of the Russian Cultural Centre, ROSCOSMOS, the Confucius Institute, the Cypro-Russian Friendship Association, the China Society of Astronautics, the University of Cyprus and the Ministry of Communications and Works of the Republic of Cyprus we are organising "CSEO Space Week 2015" in the capital of Cyprus - Nicosia, from the 20th - 26th of April 2015, promoting space exploration, with various events and activities.

Part of the programme for the "CSEO Space Week 2015" includes:

Special opening highlight event - Monday 21st July, 19:15 - 21:00, City Plaza, Nicosia

We are connecting live with the USA, for a special live talk with famous author and science journalist Andrew Chaikin, organised just for Cyprus, all thanks to the kind effort and assistance of the American Embassy.

Andrew Chaikin is the author of the book "A Man on the Moon", a detailed description of the Apollo missions to the Moon, which was turned into the world famous TV production "From the Earth to the Moon", a 12-part HBO miniseries. Event Details

Our team MarsSense was short-listed in the Top 4 finalists for the "Best Student Paper" Award, at SpaceOps 2014, organised by JPL, NASA at Pasadena, California, last May.

They presented at the topmost event on Space Operations, organised by NASA, to leading members of Space Agencies and Community. Their research received very positive feedback from respected leaders of the space community and was finally shortlisted in the top 4 research student papers of the last 2 years at SpaceOps 2014!

Congratulations to MarsSense!!!

During our mission to the USA, the Cyprus Space Exploration Organisation (CSEO) promoted collaboration with many international organisations and national space agencies, paving the way to a number of exciting agreements.

Press Conference, at the Ministry of Communications and Works, Friday 20th June 2014:

CSEO's President explained that the involvement of Cyprus in the Space Industry and a full membership to ESA can bring big economic benefits to the island's economy.

CSEO extended a hand of cooperation to the Cypriot government.

The Minister of Communications and Works, Mr Marios Demetriades, as part of his speech said: (translation) "I would like to publicly congratulate the Cypriot delegation to the USA, and specifically the finalist team, as well as the Cyprus Space Exploration Organisation, for its support and participation in the entire effort of the mission".

"The Ministry of Communications and Works, as well as I personally will support every effort, to ensure that this breakthrough has continuity and perspective. The geographical position of Cyprus and its status as an EU member state creates unprecedented opportunities that we must not allow to be lost". The Press Conference was covered by all the main local TV channels and other media.

CSEO's promotional video as first seen at the SpaceWeek Gala on 10th of April 2014.

Our aim is to promote space exploration with various events and activities, leading up to the NASA Space Apps and the visit by Cosmonaut Aleksandr Volkov that holds the record of longest stay in space.

NASA designated to CSEO's Marios Isaakides to organize NASA Space Apps Nicosia 2014, for the weekend of 12-13 April 2014.

More on the Space Week:

Part of the programme for the "Space Week" includes:

Join in on the Fun!

Posted: January 15, 2014 "Launching Cyprus Into the Space Era - Event 2: Building the Future" 20th January 2014, 19:00 - ARTos Foundation, Nicosia

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Cyprus Space Exploration Organisation (CSEO)