spacecraft

NASA chose it for a critical spacecraft system

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After some delays and problems, the Artemis II mission will take off next April 1, 2026 towards the Moon after half a century without humanity setting foot on the Earth’s satellite. And well, the reality is that the four people who will travel will not touch the Moon: they will simply circle it in a 10-day mission that will put humanity one step further: they will be the human beings who have been the furthest from Earth. And in that ship there will be critical technology made in Spain. Because the Orion ship consists of two modules: a crew capsule manufactured by Lockheed Martin for NASA and the European Service Module, provided by the European Space Agency, with the German Airbus Defense and Space as main contractor. That’s where the Madrid piece is: the thermal control unit, which is carried out by Airbus Crisa. TCU arrives from Tres Cantos. The Airbus Crisa plant in Tres Cantos (Madrid) has designed, manufactured and validated the Thermal Control Unit (TCU) of the European Service Module. As explains the Madrid company on its website, this piece will allow the supply of air and water to the astronauts, while ensuring that the temperature on board remains within comfortable levels for astronauts and equipment. As account for El Mundo Fernando Gómez-Carpintero, general director of Airbus Crisa, Orion does not carry one TCU but two. “Both are identical and redundant, that is, the ship carries two units because all the systems are duplicated in case one fails.” After all, it is the life support of the crew capsule: it monitors and regulates the conditions inside, providing propulsion, communications and energy. ESA module breakdown. THAT Why it is important. Because as recognizes NASA itselffor the first time in history has entrusted a non-American company with the construction of a crucial element for a United States manned space mission. Among the chosen European ones is Airbus Crisa from Tres Cantos and also with a critical component Who is Airbus Crisa. CRISA was born in 1985 independently, but since 2000 is integrated within the Airbus group. Its activity focuses on the development and manufacture of electronic components for space missions, both for the Airbus group and for third parties. In 2012, ESA launched the public tender and in 2014, Airbus Crisa signed the contract. As tells its directorwith Artemisa 1 its units recorded impeccable operation. His resume includes his participation in some of the most ambitious space missions of recent years, such as electronics for the James Webb Space Telescope, monitoring Martian rovers Curiosity and Perseverancecomponents for the Ariane and Vega rockets and also for ESA’s Gaia star mapper or the electronics of the SPAINSAT NG antennaEurope’s most advanced military secure communications satellites. Spain and the moon are old acquaintances. Spain’s connection with lunar exploration is not new. Without going any further, in the Apollo mission the antenna through which we received Neil Armstrong’s first words It was from Fresnedillas de la Oliva (Madrid). Its successor is still in Madrid today, but has changed location: now It is in Robledo de Chavela and remains operational as part of NASA’s Deep Space Network. However, Airbus Crisa’s contribution to Artemis II represents a qualitative leap: we are talking about critical components integrated into a manned spacecraft. In Xataka | Artemis: launch plans and everything we know about the mission to return man to the Moon In Xataka | We have been deceived by the distances of the Solar System: the closest neighbor to Neptune is Mercury Cover | Airbus Crisa and NASA

The company that overturned on the Moon has sent a spacecraft again a year later. The same thing happened

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“We do not believe to be in the correct orientation on the moon, once again,” summarized the CEO of Intuitive Machines, Steve Altemus, at the beginning of a press conference on the injury of the Athena spacecraft. Nova-C has overturned again. The Nova-C Lunar Module “Athena” of the American company intuitive machines landed on the moon Thursday, March 6, at 5:30 p.m. UTC. The ship is alive, transmits telemetry and can receive commands. He even receives light in his solar panels, but is poorly oriented. After a week of travel, 39 turns to the moon and a descent maneuver on the South Lunar Pole in which the Methane and Liquid Oxygen Propulsion System apparently worked perfectly, something went wrong when perched on the satellite. Intuitive Machines does not know exactly where the ship is and where it is looking, but it seems to have been sideways. A year later. On February 22, 2024, Intuitive Machines was called to become the first private company to successfully alunizar. However, the Nova-C module “Odysseus” had a more abrupt landing than expected, left one of its legs and ended up turning on the moon. Athena has suffered the same destination. Intuitive Machines will wait for the probe Lunar reconnaissance orbiter NASA fly over the area to see exactly where it has been and which of its four sides is face down. For now, it is suspected that it can be on a slope. In energy saving mode. While finding what happened, Intuitive Machines has turned off several subsystems to preserve the useful life of the probe. In the South Lunar Pole, the temperatures are extreme and, depending on what position the ship and how much light will receive these days, it is possible that much of the energy is required to light heating. Athena was launched to Mons Mouton, a plateau near the South Lunar Pole, to display the NASA Prime-1 experiment with the aim of looking for ice water in the subsoil. It is possible that part of the scientific mission will continue, but the results of the mission will be “off-nominal,” said Steve Altemus, who however considers to continue in touch with the ship. Image | Nova-C “Odysseus” and Nova-C “Athena” (intuitive machines) In Xataka | After bankruptcy and an internal scandal, Firefly has made history: being the first private company to step on the moon

The Pentagon has shared for the first time a photo taken with its secret spacecraft. The most striking is your orbit

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The Pentagon has broken by surprise the hermeticism around to the X-37b space plane of the US space force. For the first time we have seen an image taken from the secret ship, which Fly for years No crew. The photo. Maybe what has done irresistible Publish this image Be the captivating views of the Earth that enjoys the aircraft. The photo was taken near the highest point (the peak) of the elliptical trajectory in which A Falcon Heavy rocket from Spacex He launched the X-37B space plane. And it is an amazingly high and elliptical orbit (185 x 35,188 kilometers, according to the Marco Langbroek researcher) which explains why they needed all the Power of a Heavy Falcon To launch it. The context. X-37B is a small robotic ship operated by the American Air Force and Space Force that was last launched in the late 2023. It is designed to test new exploration and space defense technologies, so its missions are largely secret. The current mission is the seventh and focuses on experimenting with “highly elliptical orbits” and “aerofrenado maneuvers” capable of repositioning the ship with a minimum amount of fuel, something that the United States considers vital in a scenario of growing spatial competition, especially by Chinawhich has its own secret space plane. Why this photo is striking. It is not the first time that we see the earth to tens of thousands of kilometers, but so far, the mission of X-37b had taken in an almost absolute silence. This is the first time we see a snapshot captured by the vehicle itself while still in space. Of course, the image is not recent. It was taken on January 30, 2024, according to JPEG’s metadata, a date that The most skeptics verified Comparing the pattern of clouds on planet Earth with the clouds that meteorological satellites recorded that day. What is X-37b for. In addition to demonstrating aerobraking (taking advantage of atmospheric braking to change orbit), X-37B has performed tests with plant seeds to study the effects of radiation on plant growth and has deployed small useful loads to recover them later, which Open the door to potential satellite surveillance or repair applications. This ability to interact with small satellites It is also suspected of the Chinese unmanned ship, Shenlong. Both China and the United States study the deployment and recovery of satellites in these prolonged missions to be able to take advantage of them in the future. In Xataka | China flew Europe with its secret space plane. An Austrian fan managed to photograph him

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