#engineering

christophs@diaspora.glasswings.com

NASA’s Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to Earth – Voyager https://blogs.nasa.gov/voyager/2024/04/22/nasas-voyager-1-resumes-sending-engineering-updates-to-earth/

For the first time since November, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is returning usable data about the health and status of its onboard engineering systems. The next step is to enable the spacecraft to begin returning science data again. The probe and its twin, Voyager 2, are the only spacecraft to ever fly in interstellar space (the space between stars).

This is beyond awesome! This is a marvel of #engineering and #science

esa@social.gibberfish.org

Simulating tumbling reaction wheel reentry

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Video: 00:02:04

A reaction wheel – one of the heaviest parts of a space mission, its changing rotation used to shift a satellite’s orientation – seen in a plasma wind tunnel belonging to the High Enthalpy Flow Diagnostics Group (HEFDiG) at the University of Stuttgart Institute of Space Systems (IRS). Arc-heated gas in the test chamber reaches speeds of several kilometres per second, reproducing reentry conditions, while the reaction wheel itself is being rotated, reproducing the tumbling that takes place as a satellite plunges through the atmosphere.

The reaction wheel itself comes from Collins Aerospace in Germany, which has supported Design for Demise (D4D) activities for many years and introduced several modifications to their TELDIX reaction wheel making it more likely to come apart during satellite reentry in support of demisability.

This test clip was presented during this year’s Space Mechanisms Workshop at ESA’s ESTEC technical centre in the Netherlands, focused on current and future requirements and guidelines to reduce the risk from orbital debris, including ESA’s Zero Debris Charter. The event was attended by more than 130 space mechanisms specialists from European industry and academia.

#engineering #technology #space #science #esa #europeanspaceagency
posted by pod_feeder_v2

esa@social.gibberfish.org

New podcast explores breakthrough ESA technology

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In the first episode, published today Eike Kircher, Head of the ESA Technology Programmes Office, and Gianfranco Visentin, Head of Automation and Robotics, delve into the ambitious Star Tiger program, a project that's set to redefine space exploration and construction. Join us as we explore the insights from a panel of experts who are at the forefront of this technological marvel.

#engineering #technology #space #science #esa #europeanspaceagency
posted by pod_feeder_v2

esa@social.gibberfish.org

Help make an orbital megastructure with genetic computation

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Orbital megastructure

More than two hundred years into the future, our descendants contemplate creating the largest single structure in human history for the next evolutionary leap: a multi-generational starship capable of bringing people to the first truly Earth-like exoplanet. Yet this interstellar ark – to be self-assembled out of builder units in Earth orbit – will be sufficiently complex as well as vast that even designing it involves formidable mathematical challenges. And this odyssey needs to be preceded by a mammoth astronomy effort to prospect the way ahead, involving a formation of orbital telescopes able to operate together as one, yielding combined images of humankind’s new destination equivalent in resolution to one single giant lens.

#engineering #technology #space #science #esa #europeanspaceagency
posted by pod_feeder_v2