Solar Electric Propulsion
Solar electric propulsion (SEP) is the combination of solar cells and electric thrusters to propel a spacecraft through outer space. This technology has been exploited in a variety of spacecraft designs by the European Space Agency (ESA), the JAXA (Japanese Space Agency), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and NASA. SEP has a significantly higher specific impulse than chemical rocket propulsion, thus requiring less propellant mass to be launched with a spacecraft. The technology has been evaluated for missions to Mars. Overview Solar electric propulsion combines solar panels on spacecraft and one or more electric thrusters, used in tandem. There are many different types of electric thrusters, including a so-called ion thruster, a term that is often incorrectly used to describe all types of electric thrusters. It is also possible to generate electricity from the Sun without using photovoltaic panels, such as with solar concentrators and a Stirling engine. A 50 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Deep Space 1 Clean (PIA04242)
Deep or The Deep may refer to: Places United States * Deep Creek (Appomattox River tributary), Virginia * Deep Creek (Great Salt Lake), Idaho and Utah * Deep Creek (Mahantango Creek tributary), Pennsylvania * Deep Creek (Mojave River tributary), California * Deep Creek (Pine Creek tributary), Pennsylvania * Deep Creek (Soque River tributary), Georgia * Deep Creek (Texas), a tributary of the Colorado River * Deep Creek (Washington), a tributary of the Spokane River * Deep River (Indiana), a tributary of the Little Calumet River * Deep River (Iowa), a minor tributary of the English River * Deep River (North Carolina) * Deep River (Washington), a minor tributary of the Columbia River * Deep Voll Brook, New Jersey, also known as Deep Brook Elsewhere * Deep Creek (Bahamas) * Deep Creek (Melbourne, Victoria), Australia, a tributary of the Maribyrnong River * Deep River (Western Australia) People * Deep (given name) * Deep (rapper), Punjabi rapper from Houston, Texas ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Deep Space 1
''Deep Space 1'' (DS1) was a NASA technology demonstration spacecraft which flew by an asteroid and a comet. It was part of the New Millennium Program, dedicated to testing advanced technologies. Launched on 24 October 1998, the ''Deep Space 1'' spacecraft carried out a flyby of asteroid 9969 Braille, which was its primary science target. The mission was extended twice to include an encounter with comet 19P/Borrelly and further engineering testing. Problems during its initial stages and with its star tracker led to repeated changes in mission configuration. While the flyby of the asteroid was only a partial success, the encounter with the comet retrieved valuable information. The Deep Space series was continued by the '' Deep Space 2'' probes, which were launched in January 1999 piggybacked on the Mars Polar Lander and were intended to strike the surface of Mars (though contact was lost and the mission failed). ''Deep Space 1'' was the first NASA spacecraft to use ion propu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ion Thruster
An ion thruster, ion drive, or ion engine is a form of electric propulsion used for spacecraft propulsion. An ion thruster creates a cloud of positive ions from a neutral gas by ionizing it to extract some electrons from its atoms. The ions are then accelerated using electricity to create thrust. Ion thrusters are categorized as either electrostatic or electromagnetic. Electrostatic thruster ions are accelerated by the Coulomb force along the electric field direction. Temporarily stored electrons are reinjected by a ''neutralizer'' in the cloud of ions after it has passed through the electrostatic grid, so the gas becomes neutral again and can freely disperse in space without any further electrical interaction with the thruster. By contrast, electromagnetic thruster ions are accelerated by the Lorentz force to accelerate all species (free electrons as well as positive and negative ions) in the same direction whatever their electric charge, and are specifically refer ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Resistojet Rocket
A resistojet is a method of spacecraft propulsion (electric propulsion) that provides thrust by heating a typically non-reactive fluid. Heating is usually achieved by sending electricity through a resistor consisting of a hot incandescent filament, with the expanded gas expelled through a conventional nozzle. Resistojets have been flown in space since 1965 on board military Vela satellites. However, they only became used in commercial applications in 1980 with the launch of the first satellites in the Intelsat-V program. Many GEO spacecraft, and all 95 Iridium, used Aerojet MR-501/ MR-502 series resistojet engines. Nowadays resistojet propulsion is used for orbit insertion, attitude control, and deorbit of LEO satellites, and do well in situations where energy is much less of a constraint than mass, and where propulsion efficiency needs to be reasonably high but low thrust is acceptable. Resistojets have also been proposed as means of using biowaste as reaction mass, particul ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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GSAT-20
GSAT-20 (also known as CMS-03 or GSAT-N2) is a communication satellite developed by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9. The GSAT-20 satellite is funded, owned and operated by New Space India Limited. The entire capacity onboard CMS-03 satellite was leased to Dish TV. GSAT-20 is a continuation of GSAT series of communication satellites. The satellite is intended to add data transmission capacity to the communication infrastructure required by Smart Cities Mission of India. Payload The satellite features a Ka-band high-throughput communications payload with throughput utilizing 40 beams offering HTS capacity of nearly . Each beam has 2 polarisations, effectively making them 80 beams. Launch The satellite was initially expected to be launched in 2024 on an LVM 3, but shifted to Falcon 9 due to the satellite being 700 kg overweight for a successful launch on indigenous platforms. Hence, the commercial arm of IS ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Psyche (spacecraft)
''Psyche'' ( ) is a NASA Discovery Program space mission launched on October 13, 2023, to explore the origin of planetary cores by orbiting and studying the metallic asteroid 16 Psyche beginning in 2029. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) manages the project. The spacecraft will not land on the asteroid, but will orbit it from August 5, 2029, to October 31, 2031, spending 817 days in orbit. Psyche uses solar-powered Hall-effect thrusters for propulsion and orbital maneuvering, the first interplanetary spacecraft to use that technology. It's also the first mission to use laser optical communications beyond the Earth-Moon system. Asteroid 16 Psyche is the heaviest known M-type asteroid, and may be an exposed iron core of a protoplanet, the remnant of a violent collision with another object that stripped off its mantle and crust. On January 4, 2017, the ''Psyche'' mission was selected for NASA's Discovery #14 mission. History ''Psyche'' was submitted by Lindy Elkins ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lunar Gateway
The Lunar Gateway, or simply Gateway, is a planned space station which is to be assembled in orbit around the Moon. The Gateway is intended to serve as a communication hub, science laboratory, and habitation module for astronauts as part of the Artemis program. It is a multinational collaborative project: participants include NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC). The Gateway is planned to be the first space station beyond low Earth orbit. However, the Second presidency of Donald Trump, Trump administration has called for ending the Gateway program in its 2026 budget proposal. The science disciplines to be studied on the Gateway are expected to include planetary science, astrophysics, Earth observation, heliophysics, Astrobiology, fundamental space biology, and Health, human health and performance. As of April 2024, construction is underway o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hayabusa2
is an asteroid sample-return mission operated by the Japanese state space agency JAXA. It is a successor to the ''Hayabusa'' mission, which returned asteroid samples for the first time in June 2010. ''Hayabusa2'' was launched on 3 December 2014 and rendezvoused in space with near-Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu on 27 June 2018. It surveyed the asteroid for a year and a half and took samples. It left the asteroid in November 2019 and returned the samples to Earth on 5 December 2020 UTC. Its mission has now been extended through at least 2031, when it will rendezvous with the small, rapidly-rotating asteroid . ''Hayabusa2'' carries multiple science payloads for remote sensing and sampling, and four small rovers to investigate the asteroid surface and analyze the environmental and geological context of the samples collected. Mission overview Asteroid 162173 Ryugu (formerly designated ) is a primitive carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid. Carbonaceous asteroids are thought to p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hayabusa
was a robotic spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to return a sample of material from a small near-Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further analysis. ''Hayabusa'', formerly known as MUSES-C for Mu Space Engineering Spacecraft C, was launched on 9 May 2003 and rendezvoused with Itokawa in mid-September 2005. After arriving at Itokawa, ''Hayabusa'' studied the asteroid's shape, spin, topography, color, composition, density, and history. In November 2005, it landed on the asteroid and collected samples in the form of tiny grains of asteroidal material, which were returned to Earth aboard the spacecraft on 13 June 2010. The spacecraft also carried a detachable minilander, ''MINERVA'', which failed to reach the surface. Mission firsts NASA's ''Galileo'' and ''NEAR Shoemaker'' spacecraft had visited asteroids before, but the ''Hayabusa'' mission was the first one to return an asteroid sample to Earth for analysis. In addition ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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GSAT-9
The South Asia Satellite (designated GSAT-9), formerly known as SAARC Satellite, is a geostationary communications and meteorology satellite operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) region. The satellite was launched on 5 May 2017. During the 18th SAARC summit held in Nepal in 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi mooted the idea of a satellite serving the needs of SAARC member nations as a part of his neighbourhood first policy. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka are the users of the multi-dimensional facilities provided by the satellite. Pakistan "offered technical and monetary support" which India rejected saying that it wanted the project to be a "gift" and multi-national collaboration would be time-consuming. Pakistan later on declined to participate in the project citing India's refusal to collaboration and security reasons. Afghanistan too was initially non-committ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dawn (spacecraft)
''Dawn'' is a retired space probe that was launched by NASA in September 2007 with the mission of studying two of the three known protoplanets of the asteroid belt: Vesta and Ceres. In the fulfillment of that mission—the ninth in NASA's Discovery Program—''Dawn'' entered orbit around Vesta on July 16, 2011, and completed a 14-month survey mission before leaving for Ceres in late 2012. It entered orbit around Ceres on March 6, 2015. In 2017, NASA announced that the planned nine-year mission would be extended until the probe's hydrazine fuel supply was depleted. On November 1, 2018, NASA announced that ''Dawn'' had depleted its hydrazine, and the mission was ended. The derelict probe remains in a stable orbit around Ceres. ''Dawn'' is the first spacecraft to have orbited two extraterrestrial bodies, the first spacecraft to have visited either Vesta or Ceres, and the first to have orbited a dwarf planet. The ''Dawn'' mission was managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mercury (planet)
Mercury is the first planet from the Sun. It is a rocky planet with a trace atmosphere. While it is the List of Solar System objects by size, smallest and least massive planet of the Solar System, its surface gravity is slightly higher than that of Mars. The surface of Mercury is similar to Earth's Moon, heavily Impact crater, cratered, with expansive rupes system, generated from thrust faults, and bright ray systems, formed by ejecta. Its largest crater, Caloris Planitia, has a diameter of , which is about one-third the diameter of the planet (). Being the most inferior planet, inferior orbiting planet it appears in Earth's sky, always close to the Sun, either as a "morning star" or an "evening star". It stays most of the time the closest to all other planets and is the planet with the highest delta-v needed to travel to from all other planets of the Solar System. Mercury's sidereal year (88.0 Earth days) and sidereal day (58.65 Earth days) are in a 3:2 ratio. This relation ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |