Space technology new inventions

New's in Space Technology :

1. Inventions made to outer space( SES-1 )
2. Astronomers capture First Images of an Exoplanet
3. Entrepreneurs to Enter New Space Race
4. Japan's IKAROS Successfully rolls out first Solar sail in Space
5. Astronomers Still Waiting For Jupiter Impact Debris 
6. Get Your GPS Ready, New Civil Signal 
Read more to view details of above topics



Inventions made to outer space( SES-1 Communication satellite):

1. Despite the fact that space technology has been, for a long time, one of the most advanced technical areas, and outer space activities are, in fact, the fruit of intellectual creations, it is only in recent years that intellectual property issues are raised in connection with outer space activities.
2. SES-1 is a telecommunication satellite principally used for providing high-power direct-to-home (DTH) and digital broadcasting services to very small aperture terminals (VSAT) in the US. It is currently being operated from the 101° west longitude.
3. The satellite, which is part of the SES fleet, was launched into geostationary orbit on 24 April 2010. SES-1 has replaced the existing AMC-2 and AMC-4 satellites located at 101° west. It is the 42nd satellite in the SES global fleet.
4. SES-1 was launched through Orbital Science's Star 2.4 satellite bus platform on the piggyback of ILS Proton-M/Briz-M vehicle from Baikonurur Cosmodrome site 200/39, Kazakhstan. The satellite power network serves thousands of VSAT's by transmitting high-quality video signals.
5. The satellite weighs around 3,152kg and consumes 5kW of power. Four solar panels are also fitted to the spacecraft for providing electricity to the satellite when one of the power systems fails. The solar panels absorb thermal energy from the sun and convert it into electrical energy.

Astronomers capture First Images of an Exoplanet:

1. For the first time, astronomers have been able to follow the path of an exoplanet as it orbits its star, a breakthrough for planet-hunters and anyone interested in how planets are made.
2. The image above is a composite of images from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, showing a planet orbiting the nearby star Beta Pictoris. The dark circle in the center is from a piece of metal that blocks Beta Pictoris' bright light, allowing observations of the fuzzy planetary disc around it.
3. Look inside the dark circle. The pale dot on the left is the planet in 2003; the dot on the right is the planet in late 2009. The small line connecting the dots represents the planet's likely orbit.
4. The star and the planet are both fairly young; Beta Pictoris is just 12 million years old, a fraction of the Sun's age. The fact that there's already a planet orbiting it shows that planets can form very quickly, in as little as a few million years.
5. Astronomers have long known about the planetary disc around Beta Pictoris, which is pretty close to our solar system at just 63 light years away. They also knew the disc was warped, and that comets were falling into the star, suggesting the presence of a huge planet.
6. In 2003, they first noticed a pale dot near the star, but they couldn't be sure it was a planet. Later, the pale dot disappeared, but it came back in fall 2009 -- on the other side.
   
7. This was conclusive proof that it was a planet, and it had been hiding out either in front of or behind the star.Scientists say the planet, which they've nicknamed Beta Pictoris b, is about nine times bigger than Jupiter, and it's about as close to its star as Saturn is to our Sun .
8. Astronomers only have about 10 pictures of exoplanets, so each new snapshot is a monumental discovery. But this one is especially cool because astronomers can see it moving around its sun.
   
9. The Beta Pictoris b discovery is also neat because it's the closest to its star of any exoplanet imaged so far. Most are as far from their stars as Neptune is from the Sun, which means they probably formed differently than the planets in our solar system.
   
10. This one, astronomers think, might have formed just like ours. And, we can speculate, Earth-like exoplanets may house Earth-like life.

Entrepreneurs to Enter New Space Race:

1. The Bigelow Aerospace factory here, the full-size space station mockups sitting on the warehouse floor look somewhat like puffy white watermelons. The interiors offer a hint of what spacious living in space might look like.
   
2. Four years from now, the company plans for real modules to be launched and assembled into the solar system’s first private space station.
3. Paying customers — primarily nations that do not have the money or expertise to build a space program from scratch — would arrive a year later. In 2016, a second, larger station would follow.
4. The two Bigelow stations would then be home to 36 people at a time — six times as many as currently live on the International Space Station. I
5. f this business plan unfolds as it is written — the company has two fully inflated test modules in orbit already — Bigelow will be buying 15 to 20 rocket launchings in 2017 and in each year after, providing ample business for the private space companies .
6. A stay on a Bigelow station, including transportation, is currently priced at just under $25 million a person for 30 days. That is less than half the more than $50 million a seat that NASA is paying for rides alone on Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station.
   
7. Doubling the stay to 60 days adds just $3.75 million more. For a country or company willing to sign up for a four-year commitment, the lease for an entire six-person module would cost just under $395 million a year, and that would include transportation for a dozen people each year.

Japan's IKAROS Successfully rolls out first Solar sail in Space:

1. The sail is made of aluminized plastic that’s a mere 0.0003 inches thick and covered in thin-film solar cells.
   
2. When photons from the sun strike the sail, they bounce off and impart their forward momentum to the sail, which tows a small spacecraft.
3. Photons are quite small but they are also abundant, so while it takes a while to get moving, that momentum builds up over time.
4. Since it’s powered by the sun, solar sail craft require no propellant or other power source, which make them a leading candidate for long-distance, interstellar space travel.
   
5. And because the sail collects photovoltaic electricity as well, future spacecraft could be augmented with an engine that also runs off the suns energy.
6. IKAROS is more or less a proof of concept, so the craft isn’t designed to do anything beyond proving the technology can actually carry the craft out of Earth orbit and toward the solar system beyond.
7. That spacecraft will attempt to reach Jupiter and the Trojan asteroids by cruising on sunshine.

Astronomers Still Waiting For Jupiter Impact Debris:

1. On June 3rd, 2010, something hit Jupiter. A comet or asteroid descended from the black of space, struck the planet's cloudtops, and disintegrated, producing a flash of light so bright it was visible in backyard telescopes on Earth.
   
2. Soon, observers around the world were training their optics on the impact site, waiting to monitor the cindery cloud of debris which always seems to accompany a strike of this kind.
3. 
   They're still waiting."It's as if Jupiter just swallowed the thing whole," says Anthony Wesley of Australia, one of two amateur astronomers who recorded the initial flash.
   
   
4. 
   The other, Christopher Go of the Philippines, says "it was thrilling to see the impact, but the absence of any visible debris has got us scratching our heads.
   
5. 
   "Indeed, it is a bit of a puzzle. "We've seen things hit Jupiter before," says planetary scientist Glenn Orton of JPL, "and the flash of impact has always been followed by some kind of debris.
   
6. 
   "For instance, when fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit Jupiter in 1994, each major flash observed by NASA's Galileo spacecraft produced a "bruise," a murky mixture of incinerated comet dust and chemically altered Jovian gas twisting and swirling among the native clouds.
   
7. 
   Just last year, in July 2009, Wesley discovered a similar mark thought to be debris from a rogue asteroid crashing into the planet.
   
8. 
   So where is the debris this time? A possibility offered by some observers is that the flash wasn't an impact at all. Maybe Go and Wesley witnessed a giant Jovian lightning bolt.
   
9. 
   Could those very same clouds be hiding the impact debris? He doesn't think so. "The flash came from an altitude above any cirrus layer, so the debris should be plainly visible—if there is any."
   
10. 
    The best remaining hypothesis is that the impactor was small, packing just enough punch to make a flash, but without leaving much debris.
    
11. 
    One thing is sure: "Jupiter is getting hit more than we expected," says Don Yeomans, head of NASA's Near-Earth Object program of JPL.
    
    
12. 
    "Back in the days of Shoemaker-Levy 9 (SL-9), we calculated that we should see an impact on Jupiter once every hundred years or so. We considered ourselves extraordinarily lucky to witness the SL-9 event.
    
13. 
    ""But look where we are now," he continues. "Anthony Wesley has observed two impacts within the past 12 months alone. It's time to revise our impact models [particularly for small impactors]".
    
14. 
    Clearly, researchers have a lot to learn, not only about how often Jupiter gets hit, but also what happens when the strikes occur.
    

Get Your GPS Ready, New Civil Signal :

1. The first GPS IIF navigation satellite, launched on MAY 27, has begun test transmission of the new civil safety-of-life signal, L5.
   
2. The new dedicated and protected frequency is designed to provide increased power and reduced interference, making the signal more robust for civil navigation.
3. The Boeing-built GPS IIF-1 satellite (designated SVN-62) is the first with L5 deigned in.
4. The US Air Force launched an L5 demonstration payload in March 2009 on the Lockheed Martin-built GPS IIR-20 satellite (SVN-49)
5. For GPS users, the Air Force says, the ne satellite is set to "unhealthy" and the signal should not be used until the spacecraft completes its on-orbit check out in about three months.
6. After that the satellite will be set to healthy, an advisory to users will be published and suitable GPS receivers will be able to use the signal.