scholarly journals Recovery ofBacillusSpore Contaminants from Rough Surfaces: a Challenge to Space Mission Cleanliness Control

2011 ◽  
Vol 77 (5) ◽  
pp. 1628-1637 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Probst ◽  
Rainer Facius ◽  
Reinhard Wirth ◽  
Marco Wolf ◽  
Christine Moissl-Eichinger
Keyword(s):  
Standard Method ◽  
Rough Surfaces ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Space Mission ◽  
Scientific Integrity ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Bacillus Atrophaeus ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Life Detection ◽  
Spore Load

ABSTRACTMicrobial contaminants on spacecraft can threaten the scientific integrity of space missions due to probable interference with life detection experiments. Therefore, space agencies measure the cultivable spore load (“bioburden”) of a spacecraft. A recent study has reported an insufficient recovery ofBacillus atrophaeusspores from Vectran fabric, a typical spacecraft airbag material (A. Probst, R. Facius, R. Wirth, and C. Moissl-Eichinger, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 76:5148-5158, 2010). Here, 10 different sampling methods were compared forB. atrophaeusspore recovery from this rough textile, revealing significantly different efficiencies (0.5 to 15.4%). The most efficient method, based on the wipe-rinse technique (foam-spatula protocol; 13.2% efficiency), was then compared to the current European Space Agency (ESA) standard wipe assay in sampling four different kinds of spacecraft-related surfaces. Results indicate that the novel protocol out-performed the standard method with an average efficiency of 41.1% compared to 13.9% for the standard method. Additional experiments were performed by sampling Vectran fabric seeded with seven different spore concentrations and five differentBacillusspecies (B. atrophaeus,B. anthracisSterne,B. megaterium,B. thuringiensis, andB. safensis). Among these,B. atrophaeusspores were recovered with the highest (13.2%) efficiency andB. anthracisSterne spores were recovered with the lowest (0.3%) efficiency. Different inoculation methods of seeding spores on test surfaces (spotting and aerosolization) resulted in different spore recovery efficiencies. The results of this study provide a step forward in understanding the spore distribution on and recovery from rough surfaces. The results presented will contribute relevant knowledge to the fields of astrobiology andB. anthracisresearch.

scholarly journals Prisma: A New Space Mission For Stellar Physics

1993 ◽  
Vol 137 ◽  
pp. 812-819
Author(s):  
T. Appourchaux ◽  
D. Gough ◽  
P. Hyoyng ◽  
C. Catala ◽  
S. Frandsen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
European Space Agency ◽  
Real Space ◽  
Space Mission ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
New Space

PRISMA (Probing Rotation and Interior of Stars: Microvariability and Activity) is a new space mission of the European Space Agency. PRISMA is currently in a Phase A study with 3 other competitors. PRISMA is the only ESA-only mission amongst those four and only one mission will be selected in Spring 1993 to become a real space mission.The goal of the Phase A study is to determine whether the payload of PRISMA can be accommodated on a second unit of the X-ray Multi-Mirror (XMM) bus; and whether the budget of the PRISMA mission can be kept below 265 MAU (’88 Economic conditions). The XMM mission is an approved cornerstone and is in a Phase A together with PRISMA.

scholarly journals Coordination within the remote sensing payload on the Solar Orbiter mission

2020 ◽  
Vol 642 ◽  
pp. A6 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Auchère ◽  
V. Andretta ◽  
E. Antonucci ◽  
N. Bach ◽  
M. Battaglia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Space Mission ◽  
Integrated System ◽  
Solar Interior ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Synergistic Approach ◽  
Communication Scheme ◽  
Cross Calibration

Context. To meet the scientific objectives of the mission, the Solar Orbiter spacecraft carries a suite of in-situ (IS) and remote sensing (RS) instruments designed for joint operations with inter-instrument communication capabilities. Indeed, previous missions have shown that the Sun (imaged by the RS instruments) and the heliosphere (mainly sampled by the IS instruments) should be considered as an integrated system rather than separate entities. Many of the advances expected from Solar Orbiter rely on this synergistic approach between IS and RS measurements. Aims. Many aspects of hardware development, integration, testing, and operations are common to two or more RS instruments. In this paper, we describe the coordination effort initiated from the early mission phases by the Remote Sensing Working Group. We review the scientific goals and challenges, and give an overview of the technical solutions devised to successfully operate these instruments together. Methods. A major constraint for the RS instruments is the limited telemetry (TM) bandwidth of the Solar Orbiter deep-space mission compared to missions in Earth orbit. Hence, many of the strategies developed to maximise the scientific return from these instruments revolve around the optimisation of TM usage, relying for example on onboard autonomy for data processing, compression, and selection for downlink. The planning process itself has been optimised to alleviate the dynamic nature of the targets, and an inter-instrument communication scheme has been implemented which can be used to autonomously alter the observing modes. We also outline the plans for in-flight cross-calibration, which will be essential to the joint data reduction and analysis. Results. The RS instrument package on Solar Orbiter will carry out comprehensive measurements from the solar interior to the inner heliosphere. Thanks to the close coordination between the instrument teams and the European Space Agency, several challenges specific to the RS suite were identified and addressed in a timely manner.

scholarly journals Icarus: In-situ monitoring of the surface degradation on a near-Sun asteroid

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikael Granvik ◽  
Tuomas Lehtinen ◽  
Andrea Bellome ◽  
Joan-Pau Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
Near Infrared ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Bulk Composition ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Space Mission ◽  
In Situ Monitoring ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Spacecraft Design ◽  
Cost Constraints ◽  
Space Agency

<div class="page" title="Page 1"> <div class="layoutArea"> <div class="column"> <p>Icarus is a mission concept designed to record the activity of an asteroid during a close encounter with the Sun. The primary science goal of the mission is to unravel the nontrivial mechanism(s) that destroy asteroids on orbits with small perihelion distances. Understanding the destruction mechanism(s) allows us to constrain the bulk composition and interior structure of asteroids in general. The Icarus mission does not only aim to achieve its science goals but also functions as a technical demonstration of what a low-cost space mission can do. The proposed space segment will include a single spacecraft capable of surviving and operating in the harsh environment near the Sun. The spacecraft design relies on the heritage of missions such as Rosetta, MESSENGER, Parker Solar Probe, BepiColombo, and Solar Orbiter. The spacecraft will rendezvous with an asteroid during its perihelion passage and records the changes taking place on the asteroid’s surface. The primary scientific payload has to be capable of imaging the asteroid’s surface in high resolution using visual and near-infrared channels as well as collecting and analyzing particles that are ejected from the asteroid. The payload bay also allows for additional payloads relating to, for example, solar research. The Icarus spacecraft and the planned payloads have high technology readiness levels and the mission is aimed to fit the programmatic and cost constraints of the F1 mission (Comet Interceptor) by the European Space Agency. Considering the challenging nature of the Icarus trajectory and the fact that the next F-class mission opportunity (F2) is yet to be announced, we conclude that Icarus is feasible as an F-class mission when certain constraints such as a suitable launch configuration are met (e.g., if EnVision is selected as M5). A larger mission class, such as the M class by the European Space Agency, would be feasible in all circumstances.</p> </div> </div> </div>

scholarly journals Around Gaia Alerts in 20 questions

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (S285) ◽  
pp. 425-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Łukasz Wyrzykowski ◽  
Simon Hodgkin
Keyword(s):  
Data Stream ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Space Mission ◽  
Proper Motions ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Formation History ◽  
The Galaxy ◽  
Optical Wavelengths ◽  
Astrometric Data

AbstractGaia is a European Space Agency (ESA) astrometry space mission, and a successor to the ESA Hipparcos mission. Gaia's main goal is to collect high-precision astrometric data (positions, parallaxes, and proper motions) for the 1 billion brightest objects in the sky. Those data, complemented with multi-band, multi-epoch photometric and spectroscopic data observed from the same observing platform, will allow astronomers to reconstruct the formation history, structure, and evolution of the Galaxy.Gaia will observe the whole sky for 5 years, providing a unique opportunity for the discovery of large numbers of transient and anomalous events such as supernovæ, novæ and microlensing events, GRB afterglows, fallback supernovæ, and other theoretical or unexpected phenomena. The Photometric Science Alerts team has been tasked with the early detection, classification and prompt release of anomalous sources in the Gaia data stream. In this paper we discuss the challenges we face in preparing to use Gaia to search for transient pheonomena at optical wavelengths.

scholarly journals Syndrome Differentiation Analysis on Mars500 Data of Traditional Chinese Medicine

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong-Zhi Li ◽  
Guo-Zheng Li ◽  
Jian-Yi Gao ◽  
Zhi-Feng Zhang ◽  
Quan-Chun Fan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Feature Selection ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Feature Selection Method ◽  
Space Mission ◽  
Medical Data ◽  
Diagnostic Methods ◽  
Classification Model ◽  
Syndrome Differentiation ◽  
Spleen Deficiency ◽  
Space Agency

Mars500 study was a psychological and physiological isolation experiment conducted by Russia, the European Space Agency, and China, in preparation for an unspecified future manned spaceflight to the planet Mars. Its intention was to yield valuable psychological and medical data on the effects of the planned long-term deep space mission. In this paper, we present data mining methods to mine medical data collected from the crew consisting of six spaceman volunteers. The synthesis of the four diagnostic methods of TCM, inspection, listening, inquiry, and palpation, is used in our syndrome differentiation. We adopt statistics method to describe the syndrome factor regular pattern of spaceman volunteers. Hybrid optimization based multilabel (HOML) is used as feature selection method and multilabelk-nearest neighbors (ML-KNN) is applied. According to the syndrome factor statistical result, we find that qi deficiency is a base syndrome pattern throughout the entire experiment process and, at the same time, there are different associated syndromes such as liver depression, spleen deficiency, dampness stagnancy, and yin deficiency, due to differences of individual situation. With feature selection, we screen out ten key factors which are essential to syndrome differentiation in TCM. The average precision of multilabel classification model reaches 80%.

scholarly journals Simulated Doppler Radar Observations of Inhomogeneous Clouds: Application to the EarthCARE Space Mission

2008 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. A. J. Schutgens
Keyword(s):  
Doppler Radar ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Space Mission ◽  
Information And Communications Technology ◽  
Line Of Sight ◽  
Radar Observations ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Along Track ◽  
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ◽  
Spaceborne Radar

Abstract A new simulation technique for spaceborne Doppler radar observations that was developed specifically for inhomogeneous targets is presented. Cloud inhomogeneity affects Doppler observations in two ways. First, line-of-sight velocities within the instantaneous field of view are unequally weighted. As the large forward motion of a spaceborne radar contributes to these line-of-sight velocities this causes biases in observed Doppler speeds. Second, receiver voltages now have time-varying stochastical properties, increasing the inaccuracy of Doppler observations. The new technique predicts larger inaccuracies of observed Doppler speeds than the traditional random signal simulations based on the inverse Fourier transform. The accuracy of Doppler speed observations by a spaceborne 95-GHz radar [as part of the proposed European Space Agency (ESA)/Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)/National Institute for Information and Communications Technology (NICT) EarthCARE mission] is assessed through simulations for realistic cloud scenes based on observations made by ground-based cloud-profiling radars. Close to lateral cloud boundary biases as large as several meters per second occur. For half of the cloud scenes investigated, the distribution of the in-cloud bias has an rms of 0.5 m s−1, implying that a bias in excess of 0.5 m s−1 will not be uncommon. An algorithm to correct the bias in observed Doppler observations, based on the observed gradient of reflectivity along track, is suggested and shown to be effective; that is, the aforementioned rms bias reduces to 0.14 m s−1.

scholarly journals The e-ASTROGAM space mission: a major step forward for supernova physics

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (S331) ◽  
pp. 351-356
Author(s):  
Vincent Tatischeff ◽  
Roland Diehl ◽  
Alessandro De Angelis
Keyword(s):  
Gamma Ray ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Space Mission ◽  
Medium Size ◽  
Major Step ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Broad Energy Range ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
Energy Gamma ◽  
Broad Energy

Abstracte-ASTROGAM is a gamma-ray observatory operating in a broad energy range, 0.15 MeV – 3 GeV, recently proposed as the M5 Medium-size mission of the European Space Agency. It has the potential to revolutionize the astronomy of medium-energy gamma-rays by increasing the number of known sources in this domain by more than an order of magnitude and providing gamma-ray polarization information for many of these sources. In these proceedings, we discuss the expected capacity of the mission to study the physics of supernovae, both thermonuclear and core-collapse, as well as the origin of cosmic rays in SN shocks.

scholarly journals STARS - A Seismic Telescope for Astrophysical Research from Space

1995 ◽  
Vol 155 ◽  
pp. 455-456
Author(s):  
Ian W Roxburgh
Keyword(s):  
European Space Agency ◽  
Space Mission ◽  
Activity Space ◽  
Medium Size ◽  
Stellar Activity ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Astrophysical Research

AbstractSTARS is a proposed asteroseismology (and stellar activity) space mission which is currently under phase A study in the European Space Agency as a candidate for the Medium Size Mission (M3).

scholarly journals Raman spectroscopy as a screening tool for ancient life detection on Mars

2014 ◽  
Vol 372 (2030) ◽  
pp. 20140195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig P Marshall ◽  
Alison Olcott Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Raman Spectroscopy ◽  
Screening Tool ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Carbonaceous Material ◽  
Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Major Life ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Biomarker Analysis ◽  
Life Detection ◽  
Detection Strategies

The search for sp 2 -bonded carbonaceous material is one of the major life detection strategies of the astrobiological exploration programmes of National Aeronautics and Space Administration and European Space Agency (ESA). The ESA ExoMars rover scheduled for launch in 2018 will include a Raman spectrometer with the goal of detecting sp 2 -bonded carbonaceous material as potential evidence of ancient life. However, sp 2 -bonded carbonaceous material will yield the same Raman spectra of well-developed G and D bands whether they are synthesized biologically or non-biologically. Therefore, the origin and source of sp 2 -bonded carbonaceous material cannot be elucidated by Raman spectroscopy alone. Here, we report the combined approach of Raman spectroscopy and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry biomarker analysis to Precambrian sedimentary rocks, which taken together, provides a promising new methodology for readily detecting and rapidly screening samples for immature organic material amenable to successful biomarker analysis.

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