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Preparatory testing for Ireland’s first space mission, EIRSAT-1, seen taking place at ESA’s Hertz antenna test chamber.
Educational Irish Research Satellite 1, or EIRSAT-1 for short, is being built by students and staff of University College Dublin, who are participating in ESA Education’s Fly Your Satellite! programme.
At just 22 by 10 by 10 cm, the miniature EIRSAT-1 is smaller than a shoebox but is still equivalent in complexity to a standard space mission.
Normally the EIRSAT-1 student team would have joined the test campaign in person, but current Covid-19 restrictions made this impossible. Instead the team delivered their self-made Antenna Deployment Module (ADM) plus a mock-up of the satellite body, along with detailed test preparation procedures.
“Very often when antenna performance is assessed on a stand-alone basis, the results are not necessarily representative,” explains Peter de Maagt, heading ESA’s Antenna & Sub-mm Waves section. “The body of a satellite can make an enormous impact, so it’s really important to verify the antenna performance in this way.”
ESA’s metal-walled Hybrid European Radio Frequency and Antenna Test Zone (Hertz) at the Agency’s ESTEC technical centre in the Netherlands, shut off from all external influences for radio testing.
Hertz’s hybrid nature makes it unique: the facility can assess radio signals from antennas either on a local ‘near-field’ basis or as if the signal has crossed thousands of kilometres of space, allowing it to serve all kinds of satellites and antenna systems.
EIRSAT-1 carries a trio of Irish payloads, with platform subsystems coming from AAC Clyde Space in Scotland.
“We thought it was important to have some ambitious science payloads, beyond simply achieving a working satellite,” says David Murphy, systems engineer for the project. “So EIRSAT-1 carries an advanced gamma ray detector. Developed through an ESA-funded project, this GMOD ‘Gamma-ray Module’ detects gamma ray bursts from deep space as well as ‘terrestrial gamma flashes’ originating within the atmosphere, linked to lightning strikes.
“Standard gamma ray detectors still rely on vacuum tubes; by comparison the compact, silicon-based GMOD is the equivalent of updating from a CRT to flatscreen TV.”
The mission will also carry protective oxide coatings developed by Irish company Enbio, already embarked on ESA’s Sun-monitoring Solar Orbiter spacecraft.
“These black and white coatings have already been tested for deep space,” Murphy explains, “but EIRSAT-1 will gather the first data on their effectiveness in the low-Earth orbit environment, including exposure to highly-erosive atomic oxygen.”
EIRSAT-1’s third payload is entirely software-based: a novel ‘wave based control’ algorithm to operate the nanosatellite’s magnetotorquers, used to control EIRSAT-1’s attitude (or pointing direction) by reacting with Earth’s magnetic field.
EIRSAT-1 Chief Engineer Joe Thompson remarks: “This algorithm promises enhanced performance compared to traditional alternatives, which could subsequently be applied to manipulating large, flexible orbital structures.”
The EIRSAT-1 team also developed their own highly compact ADM for antenna deployment. This deploys VHF and UHF antennas from a structure just 7 mm high, positioned on one end of the nanosatellite using a simple ’burn wire’ release mechanism.
“The module behaved well under experimental launch scenarios during its vibration and thermal vacuum testing,” notes Rakhi Rajagopal, working on ADM testing.
Lána Salmon, part of the EIRSAT-1 communications team adds: “Having previously studied the performance of the ADM, both outdoors and in small anechoic chambers, this test campaign is a crucial next step which allows the study of the ADM, with an attached representative structure, in a chamber built to conduct precise measurements of satellite antenna performance.”
ESA antenna engineer Alfredo Catalani was the person following the team’s procedures: “The antennas needed tuning to very precise frequencies, by cutting them to their final lengths. Because the antennas are made to operate in weightlessness, they come with supports to safely extend in Earth gravity – made of plastic to avoid any potential radio interference, for the same reason a wooden support holds the mock-up satellite in place. Similarly, we also used an optical transducer to feed RF signals to the antennas, rather than a metal connector.”
EIRSAT-1’s individual payloads have already been qualified for space at ESA Education’s CubeSat Support Facility at the ESEC-Galaxia facility at Transinne in Belgium. As a next step a prototype ‘Qualification Model’ will be tested there later this year, with a flight model set to follow at the end of the year, ahead of a planned delivery to ESA in the first half of 2021.
Credits: ESA-P. de Maagt
Europa 2 rocket intended for launch F-14.
The Europa rocket was an early expendable launch system of the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO), which was the precursor to the European Space Agency (ESA). It was developed with the aim to delivering space access technology, and more specifically to facilitate the deployment of European-wide telecommunication and meteorological satellites into orbit.
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Transinne - Euro Space Center
Euro Space Center - a science museum and educational tourist attraction located in Transinne, Belgium. It is devoted to space science and astronautics. The centre includes simulators of space flight and micro-gravity, various space craft models and space exploration objects. It is also the home of the only full-scale mock-up of a U.S. Space Shuttle existing in Europe, named Amicitia.
Info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_Space_Center.
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Richard Poppelaars
About Pixels Photography: #ESA #ELDO #spacerocket #EuroSpaceCenter #Transinne #BE
The first stage of the Europa II rocket with Rolls-Royce RZ-2 engines intended for launch F-14.
The Europa rocket was an early expendable launch system of the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO), which was the precursor to the European Space Agency (ESA). It was developed with the aim to delivering space access technology, and more specifically to facilitate the deployment of European-wide telecommunication and meteorological satellites into orbit.
Quote: The #EuroSpaceCenter is an absolute must visit for everyone. Not only for those who know the sky isn't the limit!
Photo: Europa 2 space rocket Rolls-Royce RZ-2 engines - by Richard Poppelaars © #About_Pixels #Photography (Nikon D90) / #Europa2 #ELDO #spacerocket - #museum #ESC #spacescience / #SpaceEploration #EuroSpaceCenter in #Transinne , #Wallonie - #Belgium
Euro Space Center (ESC) (Opening April 29, 1991), photo May 10, 2013 after 22 years 11 days since 1991.
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Transinne: Euro Space Center - Space Eploration
Euro Space Center, a science museum and educational tourist attraction located in Transinne, Belgium. It is devoted to space science and astronautics. The centre includes simulators of space flight and micro-gravity, various space craft models and space exploration objects. It is also the home of the only full-scale mock-up of a U.S. Space Shuttle existing in Europe, named Amicitia.
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Europa 2 space rocketsharetwitter
© #About_Pixels / #museum #ESC #spacescience / #SpaceEploration at #Euro Space Center in #Transinne
The first stage of the Europa II rocket with Rolls-Royce RZ-2 engines intended for launch F-14.
The Europa rocket was an early expendable launch system of the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO), which was the precursor to the European Space Agency (ESA). It was developed with the aim to delivering space access technology, and more specifically to facilitate the deployment of European-wide telecommunication and meteorological satellites into orbit.
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Details
Transinne - Euro Space Center
Euro Space Center - a science museum and educational tourist attraction located in Transinne, Belgium. It is devoted to space science and astronautics. The centre includes simulators of space flight and micro-gravity, various space craft models and space exploration objects. It is also the home of the only full-scale mock-up of a U.S. Space Shuttle existing in Europe, named Amicitia.
Info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_Space_Center.
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Richard Poppelaars
About Pixels Photography: #Europa2 #ELDO #spacerocket #EuroSpaceCenter #Transinne #BE
The first stage of the Europa II rocket with Rolls-Royce RZ-2 engines intended for launch F-14.
The Europa rocket was an early expendable launch system of the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO), which was the precursor to the European Space Agency (ESA). It was developed with the aim to delivering space access technology, and more specifically to facilitate the deployment of European-wide telecommunication and meteorological satellites into orbit.
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Details
Transinne - Euro Space Center
Euro Space Center - a science museum and educational tourist attraction located in Transinne, Belgium. It is devoted to space science and astronautics. The centre includes simulators of space flight and micro-gravity, various space craft models and space exploration objects. It is also the home of the only full-scale mock-up of a U.S. Space Shuttle existing in Europe, named Amicitia.
Info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_Space_Center.
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Richard Poppelaars
About Pixels Photography: #Europa2 #ELDO #spacerocket #EuroSpaceCenter #Transinne #BE
Transinne, Belgium - 05 01 2017
Nikon Coolpix A - Nikkor DX 18.5mm f/2.8
f/2.8 1/50sec iso800
Lightroom 5.7
The first stage of the Europa II rocket with Rolls-Royce RZ-2 engines intended for launch F-14.
The Europa rocket was an early expendable launch system of the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO), which was the precursor to the European Space Agency (ESA). It was developed with the aim to delivering space access technology, and more specifically to facilitate the deployment of European-wide telecommunication and meteorological satellites into orbit.
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Details
Transinne - Euro Space Center
Euro Space Center - a science museum and educational tourist attraction located in Transinne, Belgium. It is devoted to space science and astronautics. The centre includes simulators of space flight and micro-gravity, various space craft models and space exploration objects. It is also the home of the only full-scale mock-up of a U.S. Space Shuttle existing in Europe, named Amicitia.
Info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_Space_Center.
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Richard Poppelaars
About Pixels Photography: #Europa2 #ELDO #spacerocket #EuroSpaceCenter #Transinne #BE
The first stage of the Europa II rocket with Rolls-Royce RZ-2 engines intended for launch F-14.
The Europa rocket was an early expendable launch system of the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO), which was the precursor to the European Space Agency (ESA). It was developed with the aim to delivering space access technology, and more specifically to facilitate the deployment of European-wide telecommunication and meteorological satellites into orbit.
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Details
Transinne - Euro Space Center
Euro Space Center - a science museum and educational tourist attraction located in Transinne, Belgium. It is devoted to space science and astronautics. The centre includes simulators of space flight and micro-gravity, various space craft models and space exploration objects. It is also the home of the only full-scale mock-up of a U.S. Space Shuttle existing in Europe, named Amicitia.
Info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_Space_Center.
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Richard Poppelaars
About Pixels Photography: #Europa2 #ELDO #spacerocket #EuroSpaceCenter #Transinne #BE
The first stage of the Europa II rocket with Rolls-Royce RZ-2 engines intended for launch F-14.
The Europa rocket was an early expendable launch system of the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO), which was the precursor to the European Space Agency (ESA). It was developed with the aim to delivering space access technology, and more specifically to facilitate the deployment of European-wide telecommunication and meteorological satellites into orbit.
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Details
Transinne - Euro Space Center
Euro Space Center - a science museum and educational tourist attraction located in Transinne, Belgium. It is devoted to space science and astronautics. The centre includes simulators of space flight and micro-gravity, various space craft models and space exploration objects. It is also the home of the only full-scale mock-up of a U.S. Space Shuttle existing in Europe, named Amicitia.
Info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_Space_Center.
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Richard Poppelaars
About Pixels Photography: #Europa2 #ELDO #spacerocket #EuroSpaceCenter #Transinne #BE
NASA Astronaut Space suite. A space suit previously used in space travel missions.
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Transinne - Euro Space Center
Euro Space Center - a science museum and educational tourist attraction located in Transinne, Belgium. It is devoted to space science and astronautics. The centre includes simulators of space flight and micro-gravity, various space craft models and space exploration objects. It is also the home of the only full-scale mock-up of a U.S. Space Shuttle existing in Europe, named Amicitia.
Info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_Space_Center.
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Richard Poppelaars
About Pixels Photography: #NASA #astronaut #spacesuite #EuroSpaceCenter #Transinne #BE
Students from Heidelberg Middle School attended Space Camp at the Euro Space Center in Transinne, Belgium. (courtesy photo)
Students from Heidelberg Middle School attended Space Camp at the Euro Space Center in Transinne, Belgium. (courtesy photo)
Students from Heidelberg Middle School attended Space Camp at the Euro Space Center in Transinne, Belgium. (courtesy photo)
Students from Heidelberg Middle School attended Space Camp at the Euro Space Center in Transinne, Belgium. (courtesy photo)
Students from Heidelberg Middle School attended Space Camp at the Euro Space Center in Transinne, Belgium. (courtesy photo)
Students from Heidelberg Middle School attended Space Camp at the Euro Space Center in Transinne, Belgium. (courtesy photo)
Students from Heidelberg Middle School attended Space Camp at the Euro Space Center in Transinne, Belgium. (courtesy photo)
Students from Heidelberg Middle School attended Space Camp at the Euro Space Center in Transinne, Belgium. (courtesy photo)
Students from Heidelberg Middle School attended Space Camp at the Euro Space Center in Transinne, Belgium. (courtesy photo)
Students from Heidelberg Middle School attended Space Camp at the Euro Space Center in Transinne, Belgium. (courtesy photo)
A Kaiserslautern Elementary School fifth grader gets a feel for what it's like to walk on the moon May 15 during his school's field trip to the Euro Space Center in Transinne, Belgium. (Photo by Christine June, USAG Kaiserslautern.)
The first stage of the Europa II rocket with Rolls-Royce RZ-2 engines intended for launch F-14.
The Europa rocket was an early expendable launch system of the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO), which was the precursor to the European Space Agency (ESA). It was developed with the aim to delivering space access technology, and more specifically to facilitate the deployment of European-wide telecommunication and meteorological satellites into orbit.
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Details
Transinne - Euro Space Center
Euro Space Center - a science museum and educational tourist attraction located in Transinne, Belgium. It is devoted to space science and astronautics. The centre includes simulators of space flight and micro-gravity, various space craft models and space exploration objects. It is also the home of the only full-scale mock-up of a U.S. Space Shuttle existing in Europe, named Amicitia.
Info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_Space_Center.
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Richard Poppelaars
About Pixels Photography: #Europa2 #ELDO #spacerocket #EuroSpaceCenter #Transinne #BE
Les Aventures de Tintin "On a marché sur la Lune" - or "Explorers on the Moon" (literally in French: We walked on the Moon) is the seventeenth volume of The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. The story got published in 1952, the collected volume by Casterman in 1954. Completing a story arc begun in the preceding volume, Destination Moon (1953), the narrative tells of the young reporter Tintin, his dog Snowy, and friends Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus, and Thomson and Thompson who are aboard humanity's first manned rocket mission to the Moon. The possibility of human space travel – a feat that had yet to be achieved...
Info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorers_on_the_Moon.
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Transinne - Euro Space Center
Euro Space Center - a science museum and educational tourist attraction located in Transinne, Belgium. It is devoted to space science and astronautics. The centre includes simulators of space flight and micro-gravity, various space craft models and space exploration objects. It is also the home of the only full-scale mock-up of a U.S. Space Shuttle existing in Europe, named Amicitia.
Info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_Space_Center.
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Richard Poppelaars
About Pixels Photography: #shopping #cartoon #Tintin #EuroSpaceCenter #Transinne #BE
Soyuz spacecraft model. - a series of spacecraft designed for the Soviet space program by the Korolev Design Bureau (now Energia) in the 1960s that remains in service today, having made more than 140 flights. The Soyuz succeeded the Voskhod spacecraft and was originally built as part of the Soviet crewed lunar programs. The Soyuz spacecraft is launched on a Soyuz rocket, the most reliable launch vehicle in the world to date.
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Space stations - also known as an orbital station or an orbital space station, is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. Stations must have docking ports to allow other spacecraft to dock to transfer crew and supplies. The purpose of maintaining an orbital outpost varies depending on the program like scientific and military purposes.
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International Space Station - as of 2020, one fully operational and permanently inhabited space station is in low Earth orbit: the International Space Station (ISS), which is used to study the effects of long-term space flight on the human body as well as to provide a location to conduct a greater number and longer length of scientific studies than is possible on other space vehicles.
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Transinne - Euro Space Center
Euro Space Center - a science museum and educational tourist attraction located in Transinne, Belgium. It is devoted to space science and astronautics. The centre includes simulators of space flight and micro-gravity, various space craft models and space exploration objects. It is also the home of the only full-scale mock-up of a U.S. Space Shuttle existing in Europe, named Amicitia.
Info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_Space_Center.
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Richard Poppelaars
About Pixels Photography: #Soyuz #spacecraft #EuroSpaceCenter #Transinne #BE