ESA (European Space Agency)
The European Space Agency is an intergovernmental organization of 22 member states dedicated to the exploration of space. Established in 1975 and headquartered in Paris, France, ESA has a worldwide staff of about 2,200 in 2018 and an annual budget of about €5.6 billion (~US$7 billion) in 2018.
ESA's space flight program includes human spaceflight (mainly through participation in the International Space Station program); 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. The agency is also working with NASA to manufacture the Orion Spacecraft service module, that will fly on the Space Launch System.
The agency's facilities are distributed among the following centres:
- ESA science missions are based at ESTEC in Noordwijk, Netherlands;
- Earth Observation missions at ESA Centre for Earth Observation in Frascati, Italy;
- ESA Mission Control (ESOC) is in Darmstadt, Germany;
- the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) that trains astronauts for future missions is situated in Cologne, Germany;
- a research institute created in 2009, the European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications (ECSAT), is at Harwell, England;
- and the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) is located in Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain.
BIKE ON ISS
Just as your leg muscles could deteriorate if you lie on the couch all day, the same thing could happen to astronauts on the International Space Station. Despite the fact that the astronauts work practically non-stop, the absence of gravity slowly shows its worth. And while the average adult is advised to exercise about 30 minutes a day for several days of the week, ISS people exercise 90-120 minutes every day, just to keep their bone and muscle mass in a healthy condition.
They currently use the CEVIS system, the cycle ergometer with vibration isolation and stabilization. It is basically a stationary bike, fixed on one side of the ISS to make sure it does not float away. Astronauts wear heart rate monitors while riding the bike, then send the data to Earth so their instructors can analyze it and optimize their training routine.
FLIGHT SUIT ISS, SHARIPOV
Has flown two missions and has logged over 422 hours in space, including 9 hours and 58 minutes of EVA. He served as a mission specialist on the crew of STS-89 (January 22-31, 1998), the eighth Shuttle-Mir docking mission during which the crew transferred more than 8,000 pounds of scientific equipment, logistical hardware and water from Space Shuttle Endeavour to Mir. In the fifth and last exchange of a U.S. astronaut, STS-89 delivered Andy Thomas to Mir and returned with David Wolf. Mission duration was 8 days, 19 hours and 47 seconds, traveling 3.6 million miles in 138 orbits of the Earth.
BOUYANCY BELT – NEVA-KV
It is the orginal bag with the initials WCW was included in portable survival kit of the Russian Cosmonaut Sharipov during his space mission (Expedition 10) onboard spacecraft Soyuz TMA-5 (He was the commander). The Soyuz TMA-5 was a mission directed to the International Space Station between 14 Oct 2004 – 24 Apr 2005. It serves as the life preserver in case of a splashdown of the lander and it emergency escape, keeping positive buoyancy of the cosmonaut with the help of inflatable floats.
THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
The International Space Station serves as a floating science laboratory, deep space observatory and high tech Earth observation station. With 15 partner nations and five space agencies, the ISS is the largest international peacetime project in history. The first module, Zarya (Dawn), was launched by the Russians in November of 1998. The last construction flight was the delivery of the alpha magnetic spectrometer onboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, mission STS-134. The station consists of 15 pressurized modules, the integrated truss structure and the solar arrays. The Russians will launch two more modules, the Nauka (Science) and Uzlovoy (Nodal) in 2014. The ISS expected lifetime ends in 2020.
Length: 356 ft /108.5 m
Width: 240 ft /73 m
Mass: 925.059 lb /419.600 Kg
ISS
- It flies around the world every 90 minutes, travelling at 5 miles per second
- In the space of just 24 hours, the space station makes 16 orbits of Earth, travelling through 16 sunrises and sunsets
- It's 357ft long from end to end - that's about the same as a football pitch
- After the moon, the ISS is the second brightest object in our night sky - you don't even need a telescope to see it zoom over your house
- There are two bathrooms on board! There's also one gym, six sleeping quarters and a 360 degree bay window
- Six spaceships can dock to the station at any one time
- Astronauts have to work out for two hours a day while on board to help keep their muscles in shape while in space
- More than 50 computers control all the systems on the station
- The electrics on the ISS are all connected with eight miles of cabling
- 230 individuals from 18 countries have visited the International Space Station
- 205 spacewalks have been carried out since December 1998
- The ISS weighs about 420,000kg - that's about the same as 320 cars
- It flies through space about 250 miles from the Earth - a craft can get there from Earth in about six hours
- The astronaut Peggy Whitson set the record for spending the most total length of time living and working in space at 665 days on 2 September 2017
SPACE TOILET – ISS
Let’s talk about pee: on the International Space Station you go to the bathroom as down here, only that the toilets suck liquid and solid waste to special containers, before they can disperse. The astronauts on the ISS follow intense and hourly work rhythms, and must rest at least 8 hours a day. A space toilet or zero-gravity toilet is a toilet that can be used in a weightless environment. In the absence of weight, the collection and retention of liquid and solid waste is directed by use of airflow. Since the air used to direct the waste is returned to the cabin, it is filtered beforehand to control odor and cleanse bacteria. More modern systems expose solid waste to vacuum pressures to kill bacteria, which prevents odor problems and kills pathogens. The crew use a specially shaped funnel and hose for urine and the seat for bowel movements. The funnel and seat can be used simultaneously, reflecting feedback from female astronauts. The space toilet seat may look uncomfortably small and pointy, but in microgravity, it is ideal. It provides ideal body contact to make sure that everything goes where it should.
CREW QUARTER – ISS
Node 2 United States On-orbit Segment (USOS) is the home of four Crew Quarters (CQs) designed as the sleeping quarters for crew members during the duration in orbit. Each CQ provides a personal, private location for crew members to sleep, relax, and call home during their stay on the ISS. Tue CQ was designed with an individual ventilation system, acoustical mitigation materials, laptop connections, and internet connection to allow crew members personal communication with family and friends. Since their deployment in 2008, the CQ performance has been closely monitored to validate that the design continues to meet requirements. Throughout the last 4 years, minor issues were discovered due to on-orbit environments, and modifications were made to the existing CQ outfitting to provide additional crew safety and comfort. Sleeping in weightlessness is complicated and to avoid floating in sleep, you sleep enclosed in sleeping bags attached to CQ.
ROSETTA & PHILAE
Philae scale 1: 2
Rosetta - Philae 2014
European mission that studied the composition of comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, 67P, after a journey that lasted over 10 years, chasing it for a long stretch of its orbit and landing the Philae automatic laboratory which provided information on the nature and composition of the solar system to the his birth, which is the same age, but above all on the possibility that comets are the carriers of life in the universe.
One of the main scientists involved in this mission was Amalia Ercoli Finzi of the Politecnico di Milano and a member of our scientific committee.
ITALY AND THE SPACE
ASI – Italian Space Agency ( ASI has contributed significantly to space exploration by building scientific instruments that are aboard NASA and ESA, from Space Shuttle until ISS Modules and Mars Exploration).
The debut
Gaetano Crocco and Aurelio Robotti were the forerunners of astronautics in Italy, the pioneers who launched the first modern rockets (rocket propulsion was two thousand years old!) Thinking about space exploration.
For Italy, the real space age began on 15 December 1964 with the launch of the San Marco 1 satellite, designed by Luigi Broglio at the University of Rome and put into orbit by Italian personnel from the American base of Wallops Island with a rocket Scout provided by NASA. Italy thus became the third country in the world to launch its own satellite in a completely autonomous way, from design to putting into orbit. The scientific aspect is original: with a very sensitive instrument designed by Broglio, the satellite measured the residual density of the atmosphere up to 200 kilometers high. Luigi Broglio born in Mestre but originally from Borgofranco in the province of Turin, then launched another eight satellites from the base that in the meantime he had managed to build in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Kenya (Malindi) with two old platforms, one for extraction oil and one military. Italy also had the privilege of launching, for the first time in history, a NASA satellite called Uhruru (Freedom in Swahili) which inaugurated astronomy in X-rays: Bruno Rossi and Riccardo Giacconi also collaborated. in 2002 he will receive the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Development
The exploration of the Solar System, which began in the 1960s with the race to the Moon, subsequently aimed at the closest and most Earth-like planets, Venus and Mars, to then orient itself to all the other celestial bodies up to the extreme borders of the system. Italy led by ASI has been contributing to the most innovative international missions for at least two decades. Italian scientific instruments are active on European and American probes such as: Mars Express, TGO, MRO, and ExoMars in orbit around Mars or towards its surface or as BepiColombo for the study of Mercury. Italy was also a protagonist in the Cassini-Huygens missions (which studied the Saturn system) and Rosetta, (dedicated to the study of the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko). The country will also be aboard the next European probes Cheops and Plato dedicated to study of exoplanets. the first of these was spotted in 1995 by Mayor and Queloz, awarded with the 2019 Nobel.
TRACE GAS ORBITER (TGO)
ExoMars is a double mission of the Italian-led ESA carried out in collaboration with Roscosmos. Mars exploration subject line ESA / ROSCOSMOS Mission Responsibility Launch Date 14 March 2016- September / October 2022 Italy, through ASI, is the main supporter of the double EXOMARS mission with 40% of the total investment. The mission is divided into two phases. In the first, launched on 14 March 2016, the probe (TGO) reached the orbit of Mars after almost seven months of travel, to begin a long phase of investigations on the presence of methane and other gases in the atmosphere, but also for look for clues of an active life presence. This phase also included the landing on the red planet - at the point called Meridiani Planum - of a descent module (EDM), called Schiaparelli in honor of the Italian astronomer Giovanni V. Schiaparelli who was the first to draw an accurate map. EDM actually disconnected from the probe on October 16, 2016, performing nominally all the operations planned up to the last phase of the descent - October 19 - when due to an anomaly in one of the control systems the module crashed to Mars . ExoMars was conceived and built with the main objective of acquiring and demonstrating the autonomous European ability to perform a controlled landing on the surface of Mars, operate on the planet's soil by moving with an equipped rover and, moreover, access the subsoil to take samples from analyze in situ. Specifically, the mission has the task of investigating the traces of past and present life on Mars and the geochemical characterization of the planet.
ORION
Orion is the NASA spacecraft that will carry astronauts to the Moon on the upcoming Artemis missions. Orion is built with the help of ESA, It will launch on NASA’s new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS). Orion will serve as the vehicle that will take astronauts to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during their missions, and provide safe reentry velocities from deep space as astronauts return to Earth. To protect astronauts on these long-duration missions and return them safely to Earth, Orion engineers have woven innovative technology, advanced systems, and state-of-the-art thermal protection into the fabric of the spacecraft. The team behind Orion has built upon the past 50 years of space exploration experience in human space flight, launch operations, robotic precursor missions, in-space construction, and mission management. During the Artemis I mission, Orion travelled 268,563 miles away from Earth, the farthest a spacecraft built for human has ever traveled from our home planet.
Orion: Learning From the Past With Apollo
Orion uses an improved, larger, blunt-body module, much like the shape of the Apollo capsule. With a diameter of 16.5 ft (5 m), the Orion crew module has 1.5 times the habitable volume of the Apollo capsule. With a habitable volume of approximately 217.9 ft3 (6.17 m3), the Apollo could carry a three-member crew. The Orion crew module has a habitable volume of 316 ft3 (9 m3) and can carry a four-member crew. During Orion’s planning process, NASA studied several different kinds of entry vehicles and rockets. Although Apollo-era researchers were consulted, NASA did not set out to make the Orion spacecraft identical to the Apollo spacecraft. Ultimately, the chosen module design met NASA’s mission requirements while being the safest and most effective.
Artemis Missions
Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo and the goddess of the Moon in Greek mythology; she was also referred to as the “torch bringer.” Artemis now personifies NASA’s path to the Moon. As part of the broader Moon to Mars exploration objective, this program name is the umbrella under which NASA’s lunar plans will be branded. By the end of 2026, the third Artemis mission will land the first woman and the next man on the Moon.
Artemis I: Artemis I is the first integrated flight test of NASA’s Orion spacecraft and the SLS rocket. This uncrewed mission will be the first in a planned series of exploration missions in the vicinity of the Moon and will travel 64,000 km (40,000 miles) beyond the lunar surface. This first exploration mission will allow to use the area of space near the Moon as a proving ground to test technologies farther from Earth and demonstrate that Orion can get to a stable orbit in the lunar vicinity to support sending humans to deep space.
Artemis II: The second flight will take crew on a slightly different trajectory and test Orion’s critical systems with humans on board. The SLS will evolve from an initial configuration capable of sending a minimum of 70 metric tons to the Moon to a new and more powerful configuration that can deliver at least 105 metric tons. Future exploration missions will include visits to the Gateway, a space habitat in orbit around the Moon. NASA and its partners will use the Gateway to create a permanent presence in cislunar space that will drive activity with commercial and international partners, help explore the Moon and its resources, and leverage that experience toward human missions to Mars. Artemis III: The third flight will deliver the first crew to the surface of the Moon since 1972. This flight will take the crew to the Moon’s south pole via a human landing system departing from the Gateway in lunar orbit.
DARTH VADER
Darth Vader is a main character of the Star Wars saga written by George Lucas. This limited edition prop replica as seen in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back stands at a towering 2.02 meters. As science fiction inspired the minds of Oberth, von Braun, Tsiolkovsky and others, modern science fiction has already inspired the technology of today. Although the Star Wars series is science fiction, it expands the human imagination and inspires hopeful visions of the future.
YODA
"Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land and the ship."
―Yoda, to Luke Skywalker
Yoda, a Force-sensitive male being belonging to a mysterious species, was a legendary Jedi Master who witnessed the rise and fall of the Galactic Republic, followed by the rise of the Galactic Empire. Small in stature but revered for his wisdom and power, Yoda trained generations of Jedi, ultimately serving as the Grand Master of the Jedi Order. Having lived through nine centuries of galactic history, he played integral roles in the Clone Wars, the rebirth of the Jedi through Luke Skywalker, and unlocking the path to immortality.
SIMULATORS
- THE FIVE DEGREES OF FREEDOM SIMULATOR
This simulator imitates moving within the frictionless environment of space with the use of five of the six degrees of freedom: forward and backward, side to side, roll, pitch and yaw. As the chair glides above the surface on a layer of air, it demonstrates Newton’s third law of motion: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This means, if you push off an object, you will not stop unless interrupted by another object or force, just as you would in space.
- THE MULTI AXIS TRAINER
The Multi Axis Trainer used at Space Camp simulates a tumble spin one might experience in space. Based on the Multiple Axis Space Test Inertia Facility used during the Mercury program, the MAT provides the feeling of disorientation experienced during an out-of-control spin. The MASTIF had a full set of controls that would allow the astronaut to practice regaining control of the vehicle, whereas the MAT has no controls. In flight, only one American mission experienced a tumble spin on board: Gemini VIII piloted by Neil Armstrong and Dave Scott. A stuck maneuvering thruster caused an out-of-control spin. They were able to regain control of the capsule but had to return early due to low fuel.
- LAND THE SPACE SHUTTLE ORBITER
This simulator gives you the chance to try your hand at being a shuttle commander. Follow the display on the screen in front of you and use the joystick to maneuver your orbiter. Beware! You have only one chance to land since the orbiter does not have any engines to take you around for another try.
- F18 PILOT SIMULATOR
It is a flight simulator in 3D graphics, which offers a realistic piloting experience of the F18. Being a pilot of military aircraft is a requirement much appreciated by space agencies, especially when it comes to test aircraft (test experimental aircraft and generally are able to cope with emergencies and unforeseen). The first American astronaut candidates were selected by NASA in 1959, for the Mercury project, with the aim of orbiting astronauts around the Earth in single-seater capsules. Military services were asked to provide a list of military test pilots with specific qualifications.
- VIRTUAL REALITY - INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION AND SPACEWALK
Explore the International Space Station 400 km above Earth with the HTC in this simulation experience developed in collaboration with astronauts who have long stayed on the ISS, you’ll find out how to move between zero gravity modules, conduct experiments, learn about the ongoing missions on the Station and engage an incoming capsule from Earth with supplies. In Earthlight Spacewalk you are an Astronaut like Ana, who will perform the seventy-sixth spacewalk on the International Space Station. This virtual reality gives you the opportunity to experience an extravehicular activity and immerses you in work at the International Space Station, hundreds of miles above Earth.