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| 07:34 AM | ||
| Users Online Now: 1,245 (Who's On?) | Visitors Today: 190,177 | |
| Pageviews Today: 361,194 | Threads Today: 198 | Posts Today: 3,515 |
| 07:34 AM | ||
ESA Project: Galaxy-Mapping Spacecraft "GAIA" | |
| pray_Italy Offer Upgrade  User ID: 48778214  Italy10/22/2013 08:40 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Gaia is an ambitious mission to chart a three-dimensional map of our Galaxy, the Milky Way, in the process revealing the composition, formation and evolution of the Galaxy. Gaia will provide unprecedented positional and radial velocity measurements with the accuracies needed to produce a stereoscopic and kinematic census of about one billion stars in our Galaxy and throughout the Local Group. This amounts to about 1 per cent of the Galactic stellar population. Gaia is a global space astrometry mission. Its goal is to make the largest, most precise three-dimensional map of our Galaxy by surveying an unprecedented number of stars - more than a thousand million. Gaia will conduct a census of a thousand million stars in our Galaxy, monitoring each of its target stars about 70 times over a five-year period. It will precisely chart their positions, distances, movements, and changes in brightness. It is expected to discover hundreds of thousands of new celestial objects, such as extra-solar planets and failed stars called brown dwarfs. Within our own Solar System, Gaia should also observe hundreds of thousands of asteroids. Gaia has been prepared in Toulouse and shipped to Kourou this summer for its flight on top of a Soyuz launcher from Europe's Space port in French Guiana. Due to recently-discovered technical issues, ESA has decided to perform additional verifications on its Gaia satellite, and therefore requested that Arianespace postpone the Gaia launch, currently scheduled for November 20, 2013. A new launch date will be announced as soon as the availability of the satellite is confirmed. This video explains Gaia's mission with interviews with Giuseppe Sarri, Gaia Project Manager, ESA and Timo Prusti, Gaia Project Scientist, ESA. Some further explanation about the 3D camers: Official ESA/GAIA website: [link to sci.esa.int] Further links (re. delayed launch): [link to www.popsci.com] [link to www.redorbit.com] [link to truthdive.com] Space-tards  , may this be PIN-worthy  ?? |
| pray_Italy User ID: 48803735 Italy10/23/2013 10:02 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | WOW, I even "anticipated" the "suspicious news" on this...... (can't link his video or mention the company as I just found out that ********** content is banned from this website due to copyright infringement threats." So, still don't think this deserves some karma/pin ???? PLEEEEEEASE, thank you all |
| pray_Italy User ID: 33062085 Italy10/23/2013 01:39 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | WOW, call that a delay..... 2 months.... :( 23 October 2013 Yesterday, the decision was taken to postpone the launch of ESA’s Gaia mission after a technical issue was identified in another satellite already in orbit. Gaia shares some of the components involved in this technical issue and prompt notification of this problem has allowed engineers working on the final preparations for Gaia’s launch to take additional precautionary measures. The issue concerns components used in two transponders on Gaia that generate ‘timing signals’ for downlinking the science telemetry. To avoid potential problems, they will be replaced. The transponders will be removed from Gaia at Kourou and returned to Europe, where the potentially faulty components will be replaced and verified. After the replacements have been made, the transponders will be refitted to Gaia and a final verification test made. As a consequence of these precautionary measures, it will not be possible to launch Gaia within the window that includes the previously targeted launch date of 20 November. The next available launch window is 17 December to 5 January 2014. Source: [link to www.esa.int] |
| pray_Italy (OP) User ID: 48836542 Italy10/23/2013 11:06 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | |
| pray_Italy (OP) User ID: 17026495 Italy10/24/2013 03:07 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Launch of Gaia galaxy survey probe slips to late December Concerns over the health of two timing transponders inside Europe's Gaia spacecraft have delayed launch of the $1.2 billion mission to map the positions of a billion stars from Nov. 20 until at least late December, officials said Wednesday. The European Space Agency said it plans to remove the suspect transponders from Gaia, which was about to be fueled for launch at the European-run Guiana Space Center in South America. Engineers will ship the items back to their manufacturer, Thales Alenia Space of Italy, for repairs. The delay means Gaia will miss its current launch window, which opens Nov. 17 and closes Dec. 5. Gaia has another window beginning Dec. 17 and running through Jan. 5. The spacecraft will scan the galaxy from a position at the L2 Lagrange point about a million miles from the night side of Earth, a thermally-stable position where gravity from the Earth and sun balance a satellite's motion. Gaia can only launch at certain times to reach the L2 Lagrange point. Gaia was on track for liftoff from French Guiana on Nov. 20 aboard a Europeanized version of Russia's Soyuz rocket. Officials decided to push back Gaia's launch after a problem with similar transponders on a satellite already in orbit. Thales will replace components inside two of Gaia's transponders responsible for generating "timing signals" for downlinking the mission's science data, according to an ESA statement Source: [link to www.spaceflightnow.com] |
| pray_Italy (OP) User ID: 13788426 Italy10/31/2013 04:29 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Updated 29 October: As a consequence of precautionary measures, it will not be possible to launch Gaia within the window that includes the previously targeted launch date of 20 November. The next available launch window is 17 December to 5 January 2014. The upcoming launch manifest of Arianespace has now been established. Gaia is scheduled for launch on 20 December. Source: [link to sci.esa.int] |
