I have posted a series of blogs about the history of India's space program. There have been problems and delays partially due to the limited budget that India can devote to its space program. They have developed much of their own space technology from scratch. They are accomplishing amazing things on a fraction of the budget of other space programs.
One of the most interesting developments in space flight has been the entry of private companies into the game. There are several different companies which have developed their own space craft and are pursuing commercial applications of space flight. Two private companies were recently awarded a contract by NASA to help ferry astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station.
On October 23, 2014 China launched a lunar probe called Chang'e 5 T1 on a Long March-3C rocket. The main purpose of the probe (nicknamed Xiaofei) was to test technologies and techniques for high speed reentry into Earth's atmosphere. The findings of these tests will be incorporated into the Chang'e 5 lunar mission to be launched in 2017.
Since the U.S. cancelled the Space Shuttle program in 2011, it has had to rely on foreign governments and private companies to ferry supplies to the International Space Station. One of the company contracted for this job is Orbital Sciences (OS).
The Rosetta probe was launched in 2004 by the European Space Agency to chase and ultimately rendezvous with the Churyumov-Gerasimenko Comet also known as Comet 67P. It completed its mission last week and is in orbit around Comet 67P this week. Upon arriving at Comet 67P, the Rosetta probe launched the Philae Lander for a soft landing on the comet.
The Rosetta probe was launched in 2004 by the European Space Agency to chase and ultimately rendezvous with the Churyumov-Gerasimenko Comet also known as Comet 67P. It is nearing the end of its journey and should reach Comet 67P this week.
(Please read Part 1 before reading this post.)
In recent posts I talked about asteroids in the context of exploratory probes, mineral resources and international property rights. Today, I want to talk about the threat to Earth of asteroid strikes and some possible ways of diverting approaching asteroids. The Earth was originally formed from many collisions of smaller bodies in the primordial solar disk. The lunar surface displays the many asteroid impacts that is has suffered.
My last post dealt with India's homebuilt Mangalyaan Mars satellite. The United States recently launched a Mars probe. Today I am going to discuss the U.S. satellite. The U.S. Mars probe is called MAVEN. This stands for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission. The satellite was launched on an Atlas V launch vehicle in November of 2013.
In my last post, I talked about the recent Indian mission to Mars called the Mangalyaan which is Mars in the Hindi language. The first Mars probe from India achieved Mars orbit on September 24th of 2014. In the previous post, I mentioned that the Indian probe with much less expensive than the recent MAVEN probe that was launched to Mars by the United States.
