In 2024, NASA is planning an important manned test flight to the Moon. ESA wants to become more independent again with its new Ariane 6 rocket. An overview of the space travel highlights in 2024.
The new heavy-lift rocket Ariane 6 is finally scheduled to launch in summer 2024 – four years later than planned. The pressure is high: the European Space Agency (ESA) currently has no longer its own heavy-lift rockets. The last rocket of the Ariane 5 generation took off in July 2023. SpaceX in particular has now overtaken the Europeans with significantly cheaper technologies.
With the new Ariane 6, Europe wants secure direct access to space in the future. The complete upper stage of the new rocket type was built in Bremen. The main engine and the upper stage engine were tested by the German Aerospace Center in Lampoldshausen, Baden -Württemberg. Due to the coronavirus pandemic and technical difficulties, the maiden flight into space had to be postponed again and again. It is currently scheduled for summer 2024.
Mars moon mission to send rocks to Earth
The Japanese space agency JAXA will send a probe to the Martian moon Phobos in September 2024. After three years of flight, the probe will drop a rover onto Phobos from a height of about 100 meters. The low gravity of the small Martian moon makes it a particular challenge. The rover must move very slowly and carefully to avoid suddenly taking off into space.
The rock samples collected by the rover will later be flown back to Earth. If this succeeds, it would be a first and also a test with a view to neighboring Mars. The robots have already analyzed Martian rocks on site there, but samples of them have not yet been sent back to Earth. However, initial plans for such a return mission are already in place: ESA and NASA are planning a Mars Sample Return Mission by 2033. According to current plans, China would like to launch such a return mission Even earlier.
Hera mission to investigate asteroid defense
How can the Earth be protected from an asteroid in an emergency? ESA’s new HERA mission is designed to investigate this question in more detail and will therefore fly to the asteroid Didymos and its moon Dimorphos in 2024. In 2022, NASA crashed a probe into the small satellite Dimorphos. The impact changed Dimorphos’ orbit around Didymos.
The HERA probe will now examine the crater created by the impact in more detail. The results can help prevent an asteroid impact on Earth in the event of an emergency in the future and develop further missions to test defense techniques. The launch of the space probe is planned for October 2024.
Important test for a later moon landing
In a few years, people will land on the Moon again. Preparations for NASA’s Artemis III mission are becoming more and more concrete. In November 2024, an important test flight will take place – the Artemis II mission. Three astronauts, one male and one female, will fly to the Moon in the Orion spacecraft. A landing is not planned; the crew will orbit the Moon.
Depending on how the mission goes, the crew will return to Earth after eight to 21 days. If everything goes well, people could land on the Moon again in the coming years, more than 50 years after the first manned Moon landing. The Apollo crew flew to the Moon’s equator, where landing is comparatively easy. At the south pole, however, the landscape is rugged. So far, NASA has selected 13 possible landing regions around the Moon’s south pole.
The first manned test in November 2024 is considered an important milestone for the return to the Moon. Five manned test flights were completed before the first Apollo landing on the Moon. In the series of Artemis missions, only one manned test flight is currently planned before the first landing attempt, but more could follow.
NASA mission searches for ice on the moon
The VIPER rover will also be sent to the moon at the end of 2024. It is to land near the south pole of the Earth’s satellite and examine the Nobile crater. This lunar crater was probably formed by a collision with another celestial body. In this very icy region with temperatures below minus 200 degrees Celsius, NASA is looking for frozen water, not only on the lunar surface, but also in the underlying soil layers. The data collected will be used to create a map of the available resources on the moon. According to NASA, the findings could help in the future to use the water reserves on the moon for longer manned missions and the construction of a lunar base.
The Chinese mission Chang’e 6 also wants to go to the Moon. The lander is to take two kilograms of soil samples from the Moon and bring them back to Earth after two months. Experts want to further unravel the history of the Moon’s formation by analyzing the rock – and they hope to find new answers to the question of how the entire solar system came into being.
Is there life on Jupiter’s moon Europa?
The Europa Clipper space probe will fly to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa at the end of 2024. The NASA probe is intended to examine Europa’s thick ice crust and, above all, to find oceans hidden beneath it, in which life is theoretically possible. The high radiation dose near Jupiter makes the probe a challenge. Its sensitive instruments are therefore specially shielded. The probe will fly close to Jupiter’s moon Europa 45 times in order to scan almost the entire moon. After that, the fuel will be used up or the radiation dose will have already destroyed the probe.
A launch towards Venus is also planned for 2024. Shukrayaan-1 from the Indian Space Agency is intended to closely analyze the atmosphere of Venus and the volcanic activities on its surface.
In addition to the fixed plans, surprises are still possible when looking into space in 2024. Not least thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, which is constantly providing new data and producing new research results.
“Hubble” observations
Black hole ejected from galaxy
According to researchers from Baltimore, a black hole with a mass of more than a billion suns has shot out of its home galaxy. It is now racing into the vastness of space at millions of kilometers per hour.
A gigantic gravitational wave tsunami has hurled a black hole out of the heart of its home galaxy. That is at least what astronomers have concluded from observations with the Hubble Space Telescope. The black hole, with a mass of more than a billion suns, is shooting out of its home galaxy at a speed of 7.6 million kilometers per hour.
Scientists led by Marco Chiaberge from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore used the space telescope to study a galaxy about eight billion light years away.
A light year is the distance that light travels in one year and corresponds to almost ten trillion kilometers.
Brighter than an entire galaxy
The galaxy belongs to a galaxy cluster – and the astronomers were looking for signs of merging star systems. To their surprise, they observed a so-called quasar in the outskirts of the galaxy they were studying. Quasars are usually the cores of active galaxies. They are powered by a central black hole.
The black holes themselves cannot be observed, but the quasars usually shine brighter than an entire galaxy. “Black holes live in the centers of galaxies, so it is unusual to observe a quasar in the center,” explains Chiaberge. The researchers calculated that this quasar with its supermassive black hole is around 35,000 light years away from the center of its galaxy. That is further than the distance from the sun to the center of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. The speed of the quasar with the catalog number “3C 186” suggests that it will leave its galaxy in about 20 million years and then wander through space.
To give such a massive black hole this speed, the energy of 100 million supernovae exploding simultaneously is needed, as the astronomers explain. The scientists studied the unusual system with numerous telescopes. “When we combined the observations from Hubble, the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, all pointed to the same scenario,” reports Chiaberge.
Merged with a neighboring galaxy?
The researchers assume that the home galaxy of the unusual black hole actually merged with a neighboring galaxy. In the process, its two supermassive black holes in the center also merged. However, this did not happen all at once. Instead, the black holes orbit each other ever more closely and quickly, emitting spiral gravitational waves – similar to how a rotating lawn sprinkler distributes water. If the two black holes do not have the same mass and the same rotation rate, the gravitational waves can be more concentrated in one direction. As soon as the black holes finally merge, they stop producing gravitational waves.
The recoil then hurls the merged black hole in the opposite direction to the previously bundled gravitational waves. According to the astronomers, this is exactly what happened with the gigantic black hole in the heart of “3C 186”. The only other explanation is that the quasar is actually located somewhere far behind the observed galaxy in another galaxy. However, there is no trace of such a background galaxy in the observations in numerous wavelength ranges.
“2023 BU” recently discovered
Asteroids come unusually close to Earth
As big as a truck and as close as almost no asteroid before, “2023 BU” will race past the Earth – at an altitude of just 3,600 kilometers at the southern tip of South America. According to NASA, there is no danger of an impact.
An asteroid will pass unusually close to Earth on Friday night. The celestial body, known as “2023 BU”, will reach the point in its orbit closest to Earth early Friday at 1:27 a.m. German time, according to the US space agency NASA. The asteroid, which is about the size of a delivery truck, will then rush past the southern tip of South America at an altitude of just 3,600 kilometers.
According to NASA, there is no risk of an impact. For comparison: geostationary satellites are around 35,000 kilometers away from Earth, and the ISS space station is around 400 kilometers away. However, it will most likely be one of the closest approaches to Earth ever recorded, according to NASA.
Even if the space rock came a lot closer to Earth, nothing would probably happen. According to researchers, most of the asteroid would burn up in the atmosphere. Some of the larger pieces could fall as meteorites.
Discovered just a few days ago
The celestial body was discovered just a few days ago by amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov at the Margo Observatory in Crimea.
Borisov made a name for himself in 2019 when he used a self-built telescope to discover a comet that crossed our solar system on its journey from the depths of space. The comet 2I/Borisov attracted worldwide interest among astronomers at the time.
Technical problems with US moon landing mission
For the first time in over 50 years, a mission to the moon has been launched in the USA. However, the private lunar module has technical problems. According to operator Astrobotic, the module was unable to take the desired position in relation to the sun.
Shortly after the launch of a US mission with the aim of making the first successful commercial landing on the moon, a malfunction occurred, according to the company. Initially, the launch went as planned and the systems worked as expected, said Pittsburgh-based company Astrobotic.
“Unfortunately, there was a malfunction that prevented the shuttle from taking up a stable position facing the sun.” The team is reacting to the situation and will pass on further information as soon as it is available, they said. The “Peregrine” lander was launched this morning on board a “Vulcan Centaur” rocket made by ULA from the Cape Canaveral spaceport.
The capsule was supposed to land on Earth’s satellite at the end of February in an area called Sinus Viscositatis (Bay of Stickiness), completing the first – unmanned – US moon landing since the Apollo mission over 50 years ago.
The cargo flight to the Moon was the first of several of its kind planned for 2024. The lunar lander required for this was financed by the American space agency NASA, but is a development and property of the private US space company Astrobotic. The lander “Peregrine” has scientific equipment, technical experiments and commercial cargo from several countries on board.
What exactly is “Peregrine”?
The lander “Peregrine” – in English “Peregrine Falcon” – is a type of truck for transporting things to the moon. This spacecraft cannot transport people, but it can transport scientific measuring instruments, technical equipment, robots or even objects that companies want to place on the moon for a variety of reasons and business interests.
The lunar lander is two meters high and 2.5 meters wide. “Peregrine” lands on four legs, slowed down by rocket engines. These legs carry a platform on which a total of 21 different “packages” are mounted.
But unlike the parcel delivery service on Earth, the cargo items are not distributed after landing, but remain on board or are placed on the lunar surface in the immediate vicinity of the lander – small robots and rovers, for example.
Peregrine stays on the moon
Another difference between the shipping trucks: the Peregrine is a disposable transporter. The vehicle remains on the lunar surface after landing and does not return to Earth. A shuttle service between Earth and the Moon is therefore not possible.
Incorrect altitude calculation on “Peregrine Mission 1”
In April 2023, a Japanese company failed in a similar mission. The company Ispace stated that the reason was an incorrect calculation of the lander’s height during the landing attempt. During the “Peregrine Mission 1”, private individuals were able to buy space to transport material to the moon in the lander, which is 1.9 meters high and has a diameter of 2.5 meters.
The US space agency NASA also wants to prepare its own expeditions to Earth’s companion with several devices on the journey. NASA wants to investigate the moon’s exosphere, among other things, during the mission. In addition, thermal properties and the hydrogen content of the material on the moon’s surface (regolith) are to be investigated.
NASA mission “Artemis II”
Three men and a woman fly to the moon
A good 50 years after the last “Apollo” mission, NASA wants to send people to the moon again. The US space agency has now announced who will take part in the “Artemis II” mission at the end of 2024.
The US space agency NASA has named four astronauts for the “Artemis II” mission, which is to fly around the moon next year: NASA astronaut Christina Koch from the USA, her US colleagues Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen. They would be the first people to be near the moon since the astronauts of the last “Apollo” mission set foot on the Earth’s satellite for a while in 1972, as NASA announced when announcing the participants.
Koch, an engineer who already holds the record for the longest uninterrupted space flight by a woman, was named as a mission specialist, along with US Navy officer Glover, who was selected as the “Artemis II” pilot. Glover would be the first black astronaut on a lunar mission.
Hanson is the first Canadian ever selected to fly to the moon. Wiseman, a veteran of the International Space Station, was named commander of the Artemis II mission.
Launch scheduled for late 2024
The “Artemis II” mission is currently planned for November 2024. It will be the first manned “Artemis” launch after the successful test of the “Artemis I” mission in December. The unmanned “Orion” capsule traveled around 1.4 million miles through space, flew around the Moon and landed in the Pacific Ocean after around 26 days in space. It had collected important data.
NASA wants to go back to the moon
The unmanned test mission was considered an important step towards the return of humans to the moon, with the long-term goal of a trip to Mars. Around a year after “Artemis II”, another manned flight, including a moon landing, is to follow with “Artemis III”.
NASA plans to land astronauts on the lunar surface later this decade to establish a permanent outpost that will provide a springboard for future Mars exploration. The European Space Agency (ESA) and space agencies from several other countries are involved in “Artemis.”
Editor’s note: An earlier version of the text referred to a “colored astronaut.” We have replaced the word “colored” with “black.”
NASA mission “Artemis II”
“To the moon, to Mars and beyond”
NASA has introduced four astronauts who will fly to the moon next year. As the crew of the “Artemis II” mission, they will orbit the moon for ten days – and prepare for a manned landing.
It was a huge show that NASA put on at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. It was ceremoniously revealed that four astronauts will fly to the moon in the Orion space capsule at the end of next year.
Three Americans, including a woman and an African American for the first time, and a Canadian will spend ten days orbiting the moon. They will also be the first people in over 50 years to see the moon up close – all in preparation for the next manned landing.
Test mission before landing
“The Artemis II crew represents thousands of people who are working tirelessly to take us to the stars,” said NASA chief Bill Nelson in Houston. “The world’s largest and most powerful rocket will catapult them into space. They will fly to the moon,” Nelson continued.
Like “Artemis I”, when the Orion space capsule was launched into space unmanned as a test, “Artemis II” is also a test mission. The astronauts don’t only want to collect data, but also put the Orion’s functionality through its paces.
“We will hear: ready for launch. And then we will fly into orbit for eight minutes on the Space Launch System rocket. During that time we will test all of Orion’s systems and observe how it maneuvers in space. And then – if everything goes well – we will go to the Moon,” said experienced astronaut Christina Hammock Koch. Like her two US colleagues, the engineer has already spent time on the International Space Station ISS.
Preparations for “Artemis 3”
The actual lunar landing mission “Artemis 3” is scheduled to begin at the end of 2025. According to current plans, the astronauts will then land with the space capsule on the south pole of the Moon. A place where there is ice and therefore water and thus an area that, according to NASA, could be the best place to set up a permanent lunar base.
From there, the space agency wants to undertake further missions into space – for example, to Mars. At least NASA boss Bill Nelson is already dreaming of it: “Together we will usher in a new era of research: the Artemis generation. Together we will set off. To the moon, to Mars and even further.”
The way back to the moon
Findings of the “Artemis I” mission
Three months ago, the “Orion” space capsule of NASA’s “Artemis I” moon mission landed in the Pacific Ocean. The test flight is considered an important step on humanity’s path back to the moon. NASA is now already planning the manned follow-up mission.
After the mission is before the mission: The scientists at NASA, its partner agencies and industrial partners hardly had time to rest after the successful landing of “Artemis I”. Preparations for “Artemis II” are underway. This follow-up mission will be the first time that humans will be able to fly to the moon since the “Apollo” flights in the 1960s and 1970s.
Good cooperation
Thomas Zurbuchen, the former head of science at NASA, summed up in an interview with tagesschau.de: “‘Artemis I’ was an incredible success. It was a mission with a lot of risk. The rocket had never flown in this configuration before, as had the ‘Orion’ capsule with the European Service Module. It all worked out.”
NASA broke new ground in several respects with the Artemis program: For the first time, the United States relied on another space agency, the European Space Agency (ESA), to build a very important and critical part of a manned spacecraft.
In Europe – at Airbus in Bremen – a key element of the “Orion” spacecraft is being assembled: the European Service Module (ESM). It provides the propulsion for “Orion” and supplies the astronauts with electricity, air and water. The ESM module is the heart of the spacecraft, and the pressure on those responsible in Europe was accordingly great.
European balance sheet
The results are also very positive for them. At a press conference in Bremen in February, Airbus announced that the first evaluation of the test data had shown that the “Orion” spacecraft had consumed much less fuel and electrical energy than previously assumed. Marc Steckling, the head of Space Exploration at Airbus: “We used the first mission to put the module through its paces and found that it generated 15 percent more electricity because the solar cells are very good. And we found that the propulsion system is very efficient. We consumed almost two tons of fuel – which is 20 percent – less.”
This will enable future missions with a longer duration or with more cargo, for example in the case of module transports to build the so-called “Lunar Gateway”, an intermediate station in lunar orbit. It is to be built in the 2020s and will be a kind of “bus stop” in space on the way to the lunar surface.
Stress test for “Artemis I”
Steckling continues: “We flew more maneuvers to simulate situations that do not normally occur. For example, we completely changed the angle of the solar cells in relation to the sun. ‘Artemis I’ was of course the obvious choice because there were no astronauts on board and the system could be put through its paces.”
“We flew longer, faster, with greater radiation exposure and many other things. The goal was to punish the system to make sure that ‘Artemis II’ really works because there are people on it,” adds former NASA science chief Zurbuchen.
Airbus delivered the module for the “Artemis II” mission to Florida in October 2021. It is now being tested and integrated at the Kennedy Space Center.
Astronauts to the moon
It is not yet clear which astronauts will be on board the “Artemis II” mission. However, it is assumed that no one from Europe will be among them, as is the case with “Artemis III”. This mission is scheduled to launch in 2025 at the earliest and will not only orbit the moon, but also land on the lunar surface. NASA wants to bring the first woman and the first “person of color” to the moon.
ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst is considered a hot candidate for the first European moon landing. He was in Cape Canaveral when “Artemis I” was launched in November. He was fascinated by the force with which the so-called SLS moon rocket, the most powerful rocket ever built, took off. At the Airbus press conference, he talked about his impressions: “You are several kilometers away and the sound wave takes about 20 seconds to reach you. You see the rocket launch before you hear it. And the seismic wave is even faster than sound. You feel the earth shaking before the sound wave reaches you. It was an impressive thing to see the most powerful rocket that has ever flown take off.”
NASA checks
According to Zurbuchen, on the return flight of “Artemis I”, when the space capsule re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere, the heat shield on the underside of the capsule melted somewhat more than expected: “We have sensors on the inside that showed where the heat distribution and erosion is. Now we need to understand exactly what happened. That’s one of the things we’re working on at the moment.”
Protection for astronauts from radiation
Another is the evaluation of a radiation experiment inside the capsule. It is still ongoing. There have been no astronauts on board “Orion” yet, but there were just two measuring dummies. In the international research project entitled MARE (Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment) under the leadership of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), thousands of detectors were installed in two “phantoms” to measure radiation in space and its effects on the human body.
A DLR team read some of the detectors in the USA in January after the dummies were removed from the space capsule. They are now being analyzed. The results are important for better protecting astronauts on future manned missions. Such findings from “Artemis I” pave the way for follow-on missions back to the Moon.
Russian space probe
“Luna-25” crashed on the moon
Setback for Russian space travel: The space probe “Luna-25” crashed shortly before the planned landing on the moon. This was announced by the space agency Roscosmos. “Luna-25” was launched into space over a week ago.
Russia’s first moon mission since the end of the Soviet Union has failed. The probe “Luna-25” hit the lunar surface after an “unplanned situation” and ceased to exist, the Russian space agency Roscosmos announced in Moscow. The reasons for this are being clarified, it said.
“Luna-25” is part of the Russian lunar program, which envisages the construction of its own space station there by 2040. The probe was launched into space more than a week ago and entered orbit around the Moon last Wednesday. Since then, the 1,800 kilogram spacecraft has been looking for a suitable landing site, according to Russian sources.
On Saturday, Roscosmos reported an “unusual situation” on board “Luna-25” that made planned maneuvers impossible. The lander was scheduled to land on the moon’s south pole on Monday. This is of particular interest to scientists because it is constantly in shadow and therefore there may be frozen water there. On Thursday, Roscosmos presented a photo of the moon’s surface taken by the probe.
Actually, “Luna” should have been on the move a long time ago. The first planned launch date of a lunar probe was in 2012. Last year, a launch was again planned for May, but was then delayed again due to technical problems. Roscosmos originally worked with the European Space Agency (ESA) on the lunar program. However, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, ESA ended its cooperation with Moscow.
Roscosmos said the expedition was designed to demonstrate that Russia is capable of putting a payload on the moon and to ensure that it has guaranteed access to the lunar surface. The sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine are making it difficult for Russia to access Western technology.
Incident involving space probe “Luna-25”
Russia’s space agency has reported an “unplanned situation” with its space probe. Specialists are now working to determine the cause. “Luna-25” is actually supposed to land on the moon in two days.
According to information from Moscow, two days before the planned landing on the moon, there was an unexpected incident on the Russian space probe “Luna-25”. In preparation for the imminent landing on the lunar surface, the probe was scheduled to enter a new orbit of the Earth’s satellite on Saturday at 2:10 pm Moscow time (1:10 pm CEST), the Russian space agency Roscosmos announced.
“During the operation, an unplanned situation arose on board the automatic station, which did not allow the maneuver to be carried out under the specified parameters,” it said. Specialists are now investigating the incident and determining the cause. No further details were given. The probe is scheduled to land on the moon next Monday. It is still unclear whether this will remain the case
Probe launched a week ago
“Luna-25” is part of the Russian lunar program, which plans to build its own space station there by 2040. The probe was launched into space more than a week ago and entered orbit around the Moon last Wednesday. Since then, the 1,800-kilogram spacecraft has been searching for a suitable landing site, according to Russian sources. On Thursday, Roscosmos presented a photo of the lunar surface taken by the probe.
Actually, “Luna” should have been on the move a long time ago. The first planned launch date of a lunar probe was in 2012. Last year, a launch was again planned for May, but was then delayed again due to technical problems. Roscosmos originally worked with the European Space Agency (ESA) on the lunar program. However, after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, ESA ended its cooperation with Moscow.
Last flight of Ariane 5
Success story with a bumpy start
The European carrier rocket Ariane 5 has launched for the last time. On board is the German satellite “Heinrich Hertz”. In its almost 30-year history, the rocket has flown many important missions. A look back.
The 117th launch marked the end of the era of the European Ariane 5 launch vehicle. During the night, Ariane 5 took off from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana for the last time. It is to launch two satellites into space.
A good opportunity to look back at the history of Ariane 5 – a story that did not begin very successfully.
Maiden flight of Ariane 5 rocket failed
On June 4, 1996, the first Ariane 5 took off from Kourou on its maiden flight. But just 40 seconds after takeoff, the rocket exploded over the rainforest. The cause: a programming error that caused the data to falsely show a major change in the rocket’s course. The flight computer then initiated an extreme corrective maneuver in which two boosters broke off from the side of the rocket and the rocket initiated its self-destruct mechanism.
The second launch was also only a partial success. The upper stage of the rocket did not reach full power and the satellites on board the Ariane 5 entered an orbit that was too low.
Carrier for many scientific missions
After that, however, the success rate rose sharply. From 1998 onwards, Ariane 5 launched a number of satellites into space, including important scientific missions. One of these is “Rosetta”. This mission was the first time that a probe landed on a comet. Since 2018, the “BepiColombo” probe has been on its way to the planet closest to the sun, Mercury. It is scheduled to arrive there in 2025 and collect information about the planet’s surface, magnetic field and core.
At the end of 2021, an Ariane 5 sent the James Webb Space Telescope on its journey with such precision and fuel economy that the telescope’s mission life was probably more than doubled. And “Juice”, a probe that will search for signs of life on Jupiter’s icy moons, was also safely launched into space by an Ariane 5 in April 2023.
A German satellite at its last launch
With its last launch, Ariane 5 will put the communications satellites “Syracuse 4B” and “Heinrich Hertz” into Earth orbit. “Heinrich Hertz” is the first communications satellite in twenty years to be developed entirely in Germany. It is about the size of a minibus and is expected to spend 15 years in space.
During this time, “Heinrich Hertz” will test new technologies for satellite-based communication in space. This is because there is a high level of radiation in orbit and temperatures fluctuate between extreme values. There are around 20 experiments on communication, antenna and satellite technology on board the satellite.
In addition, “Heinrich Hertz” will serve as a relay station. It can forward signals from other satellites and thus maintain their contact time with ground stations for longer.
The satellite is named after the German physicist Heinrich Hertz, who was the first to detect electromagnetic waves in Karlsruhe in 1886, thus helping modern communications technology to achieve a breakthrough. His name is best known for the unit “Hertz” named after him, which is used to measure frequencies.
An intelligent satellite
The special thing about the “Heinrich Hertz” satellite is that it can continue to develop in space – it can be reprogrammed, so to speak. Normally, the functions of satellites cannot be changed once they have been put into orbit. However, “Heinrich Hertz” can, for example, change its transmission and reception frequencies, redirect its antennas and thus adjust the region from which data can be received and sent.
“With this great flexibility, it is also possible, for example, to support disaster scenarios,” says Jens Müller from the TU Ilmenau, who helped develop the satellite’s telecommunications component. “Take the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley: there we were the first to complain about the loss of the telecommunications structure.” In such cases, satellites such as “Heinrich Hertz”, which can be used flexibly, could help to quickly rebuild the communication channels.
Ariane 6 ready for use by the end of 2023
The launch of “Heinrich Hertz” marks the end of the Ariane 5 era. Its successor, the Ariane 6, is expected to be ready for launch at the end of 2023. According to the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the new rocket will be more powerful, more flexible and more cost-effective than the previous version.
In order to transport both less heavy and many small satellites into space, two different models of the Ariane 6 were developed: one with two and one with four solid boosters. This will enable the new launch vehicle to transport up to eleven tonnes of payload into geostationary orbit – twice as much as the Ariane 5. With the Ariane 6, the European space community wants to secure its independent access to space and continue to transport its own missions into Earth’s orbit.
ESA astronaut Gerst
“Each of us has a dream”
In 2008, Alexander Gerst was one of 8,413 applicants for admission to the ESA astronaut corps. In an interview with tagesschau.de, he promotes this unusual profession and encourages interested parties to follow his example.
About: ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst
Alexander Gerst has been a member of the ESA astronaut corps since 2009. In 2014 and 2018 he flew to the International Space Station ISS on board a Russian Soyuz rocket. Gerst was born in Künzelsau in 1976 and is a geophysicist, volcanologist and astronaut.
tagesschau.de: Mr. Gerst, the ESA is looking for new astronauts. Who is this job for?
Alexander Gerst: I think you should apply if you have always dreamed of seeing the Earth from the outside, if you are curious and enjoy technology and adventure. In my view, the main thing when applying is not how good your chances of getting the job are. We all have a dream and we owe it to our 80-year-old selves to give that dream a fair chance. I did that twelve years ago and it was worth it. In any case, you will learn a lot about yourself in a selection process like this. It is an exciting adventure to be a part of.
Next destination: the moon?
tagesschau.de: When you applied to ESA in 2008, a flight to the International Space Station (ISS) was the most likely mission. The future generation of astronauts has many other options open to them.
Gerst: The destinations we will soon be flying to will become more diverse. In the future, the Moon will be added, and later Mars. First, however, the new astronauts will go into Earth orbit, perhaps to the ISS, to gain experience there. Missions to the Moon are much more complex, which is why this experience is important. The first missions to the Moon will probably be carried out by the current experienced astronauts in the corps, and the new colleagues will gradually join them. That is a great prospect for European space travel.
tagesschau.de: Does that mean that we will soon see you in space again?
Gerst: One thing you always ask yourself as an astronaut is: where is the next flight going and when will it be? That is an uncertainty you have to live with. When I was selected, I didn’t know when my first mission would be. I was then extremely lucky that it came soon, and even a second one. I am still active in the corps, and the obvious prospect is of course a moon mission. First of all, however, we have to build the Lunar Gateway together with our international partners. This is a space platform that orbits the moon as a base for missions to the lunar surface. As a representative of the ESA astronaut corps, I am involved in the planning and construction. The project is in full swing.
I also lead a team at ESA that is developing future strategies for the exploration of Earth’s orbit. Part of being an astronaut is that, even if you are not specifically nominated for a mission, you keep fitting in all areas. I do sport, of course, and have training sessions in between, for example flight training and underwater training with the spacesuit. So I don’t get bored on Earth either.
“This is a huge privilege”
tagesschau.de: You were on the ISS for six months each in 2014 and 2018. What was different about the missions?
Gerst: When you fly into space for the first time, it’s a special flight because you are crossing a boundary that you have never crossed before. You don’t know how you will function beyond this boundary, whether you are made for space or not.
A second mission is completely different: you approach it more relaxed because you have a lot more experience and you know what you can do. That’s why you often get a more complex mission the second time around because you have more mental capacity free and can therefore get a little further out of your comfort zone. That’s why I was nominated as commander of the ISS. It’s a complex job; you have to look after your crew and training team long before the mission, and you bear a lot of responsibility for the success of the mission. And on my second mission I launched into space with an astronaut and an astronaut, neither of whom had ever been in space before.
This gradual build-up of mission complexity is also the reason why experienced astronauts are selected for flights to the Moon. They have already shown that they can work well up there and who are ready for a more complex mission with greater uncertainties, which of course also entails a somewhat higher risk.
tagesschau.de: What excites you most about the job of an astronaut?
Gerst: I was fascinated by many different aspects: There is the international collaboration with very inspiring individuals, the mission teams, scientists from different countries who come together in a large project. But what is even more amazing for me is the perspective you gain as an astronaut: the view from the window of the spaceship onto our planet, combined with the understanding of where you are at the moment. This “worldview” is then, in the truest sense of the word, an outside perspective on our world. That is a huge privilege, I thought it was great.
ISS anniversary
20 years of human outposts in space
The ISS has been permanently inhabited by astronauts since November 2, 2000. Researchers praise the multinational project. But the ISS will only serve as an outpost for humanity for a few more years.
On cloudless nights, the ISS can be seen flying in the sky with the naked eye: a bright dot that circles the planet Earth about every 90 minutes. With its solar panels, the flying laboratory is about the size of a football field.
Twenty years ago, the first long-term crew docked with the ISS, two Russian cosmonauts and a US astronaut. Since then, many multinational teams have followed; for ESA, the ISS has become “a true outpost of humanity”. It is jointly operated and financed by the space agencies of the USA, Russia, Canada, Japan and the European Space Agency (ESA).
German astronauts on the ISS
Among the ISS astronauts from 21 nations, there have been three Germans so far: Thomas Reiter, Hans Schlegel and Alexander Gerst. Both Reiter and Gerst were part of long-term crew, meaning they spent several months on the ISS. Reiter was also the first European long-term flyer in 2006. He remembers:
Living and working together on the ISS – at the forefront of science, representing the scientific teams on Earth – is fantastic. But then being able to go out and work on the ISS is incomparable. The spacewalks are the highlight.”
What the MIR did not have to offer
For Reiter, his stay on the ISS was already his second visit to a space station. In 1995, the ESA astronaut had already flown to the Russian space station MIR, a space station built by the Soviet Union. It orbited the Earth from 1986 to 2001. He compares:
The biggest difference to MIR is simply the space you have up there. The ISS is much more spacious, has more modern technology and allows you to conduct research more efficiently. At the MIR station, everything was very cramped. We had to assemble the equipment we needed to carry out the experiments and then put it away again after work.
Still in operation for ten years
If it runs smoothly from a technical perspective, the ISS could remain in operation for at least another ten years. During this time, it will be used increasingly commercially, giving private industry the opportunity to conduct experiments in zero gravity in its own modules.
With many industrial partners, the research capacities on the ISS can be optimally utilized and even expanded, explains ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, who is scheduled to be the next German to fly to the ISS in 2021. But, says Maurer: “This is always just a supplement to the current program. I don’t think we’ll see the classic providers, i.e. the space agencies, disappear.”
The successor has already been chosen
The ISS will be taken out of service by 2030 at the latest, and a new space station will be launched by then: the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway. ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst explains: “This is a small space station that humanity is now planning and building. It will orbit the moon.”
The station, which will also be operated by the ISS partners, will not be permanently manned. Among other things, it will serve as a stopover for new manned lunar missions, a kind of bus stop in space.
Gerst said the new project has gotten off the ground and believes that understanding and acceptance of space travel has grown in recent years:
I think a lot of people now really understand what we’re doing out there: exploring our cosmic environment and bringing scientific knowledge back to Earth to make life better down here, for example, researching diseases or new materials.”
China also wants to put a space station into orbit in the next few years. Cooperation with China on the ISS failed in the 1990s due to a veto by the USA.
World politics leaves its mark
While the international astronaut teams worked well together on the ISS, things were sometimes very turbulent down on Earth. During the Ukraine crisis in 2014, for example, the USA partially suspended its space cooperation with Russia. But NASA stressed that there should be no compromises when it comes to the operation of the ISS.
This was certainly also due to the fact that the USA itself was not able to send astronauts into space at that time. After the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011, the Americans were dependent on the Russian Soyuz capsules.
This prompted the then Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Rogozin to comment that the USA would have to bring its astronauts “to the ISS on a trampoline” without Russia.
Half a year ago, there was a late retaliation from the USA to Moscow: After the successful flight of the private US company SpaceX to the ISS, SpaceX boss Elon Musk pointedly said: “The trampoline works.”
Anti-Asteroid Program
Forward defense in space
Hundreds of asteroids are on a collision course with the Earth. It’s high time for a defense program. ESA and NASA are now going on the hunt together. The contracts have now been signed.
The probability of winning the lottery on a Saturday is 1 in 140 million. “I don’t play the lottery,” says Rolf Densing, head of the ESA control center in Darmstadt. “But if these were chances of winning, you would have to play.”
On his monitor he sees a list of asteroids and the probability that the Earth will be hit by each of them. For example, there is the asteroid “2010RF12”. Probability of being hit is 1 in 14 in 2095. Or “2018JD”: Probability of being hit is 1 in 675 in 2067. Or “2008JL3”: Probability of being hit is 1 in 6993 in 2027. The list goes on and on.
ESA scientists are currently observing more than 1,000 asteroids that are on a potential collision course with Earth. Most of the impacts are only likely to occur in the coming decades. But one thing is clear: something is coming for Earth.
Injuries and damage in Chelyabinsk
People in Chelyabinsk, Russia, have already experienced this. On a winter’s day seven years ago, an approaching asteroid broke over the city. The shock wave shattered around 200,000 square meters of glass. More than 1,000 people were injured. This event has been shown once again that it is not a question of “if”. Rather, the question is when the next impact will occur, says ESA specialist Rolf Densing.
Course: Asteroid Dimorphos. Arrival: 2022
Together with NASA and ESA, we are now launching an asteroid defense program. The corresponding contracts for the European part of the mission were signed today. An American probe will fly to the asteroid “Dimorphos” next summer. It is scheduled to hit the asteroid in autumn 2022. The plan is to knock the asteroid, which has a diameter of around 160 meters, off course. A European probe will then evaluate the experiment.
Fine work in the vicinity of a small celestial body – this is what Europeans have been experts at since the “Rosetta” mission. For ten years, the ESA navigated the “Rosetta” to probe seven billion kilometers through space in order to then land on a comet and study it. A pioneering mission that ended four years ago.
Division of labor in space
The former head of ESA mission operations, Paolo Ferri, said: “The Americans are our masters when it comes to landing on large planets. But we are the only ones who have experience of flying to small celestial bodies such as asteroids and carrying out investigations there.” Division of Labor in Space, then. The Americans direct a probe into an asteroid, the Europeans then head towards it to examine the crater and determine whether the impact was enough to throw the asteroid off course.
The probe is being built in Bremen
Rehearsals are being carried out on a celestial body that cannot pose a threat to the Earth. Dimorphos flies about 1 even million kilometers past the Earth. Things have to move quickly now. After the Americans bombard the asteroid, the Europeans want to launch the control mission in 2024. The probe, which bears the name of the Greek goddess Hera, is being built in Bremen. It will be no bigger than a desk and will have small mini-satellites on board that can examine the asteroid up close. An asteroid on a collision course: Americans and Europeans want to rehearse together for an emergency. “We are currently in the middle of the Corona crisis. We don’t need a second crisis of this magnitude,” says Densing.
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