- Email: [email protected]
3.15. Final system tests of Eureca
3.15. FINAL SKZEM TESTS OF EURECA’=’
The Columbus Programme Board, the competent body of ESA composed of national delegates from participating States monitoring the execution of Columbus and Eureca programmes, met in Bremen on 18 and 19 September 1990. On this occasion delegates had the opportunity for a close look at the flight unit of Eureca which is ESA’s first reusable and retrievable space platform, now undergoing system-level qualification tests in the integration and test facility at MBB/ ERNO. Eureca, the European Retrievable Carrier, is scheduled to be launched by the Space Shuttle Discovery either late in 1991 or early in 1992 on Shuttle flight 46. ESA astronaut Claude Nicollier has been assigned as mission specialist for this flight, and wil1 be responsible for the Eureca deployment operations during Discovery’s first day in orbit. Following initial activation of Eureca at the Shuttle’s remote manipulator arm, including the deployment of Eureca’s large two-wing solar arrays (total span of 20 m), Eureca will be released and then further activated and checked-out while the Shuttle stays 300 m behind it. Two hours and 20 minutes after release, Eureca will start the manoeuvre which brings it into its initial operational orbit of some 520 km. Eureca will operate a large variety of sophisticated microgravity instruments, together with a number of others for space science (such as solar observation) and technology (for instance electrical propulsion and experimental inter-orbit communication with ESA’s Olympus satellite) during its 6 to 9 months’ mission. On completion of its mission, the platfurm will descend to a lower Earth orbit for retrieval by another Space Shuttle. Following the rendezvous manoeuvres, the Shuttle will grapple and berth Eureca using its remote manipulator arm. Upon return, the platform will be refurbished and prepared for its second mission, scheduled for mid-1994. Eureca accommodates 1000 kg of scientific and technology payload, of which 75% are available for microgravity research. Its large payload mass, as well as its total mass of 4500 kg, makes Eureca Europe’s largest free-flying spacecraft built to date. Extending Spacelab’s in-orbit microgravity experimentation time by a factor of 20, Eureca will provide the international user community with necessary flight opportunities prior to the Space Station. Eureca’s unique engineering features allow deployment and retrieval by the manned Space Shuttle, including rendezvous and proximity operations. The platform represents a si~~cant step in Europe’s capability to design, develop, utilize and operate retrievable and reusable systems in low earth orbit. Several design and operational features of Eureca Are directly applicable to ESA’s Columbus Free-Flyer. All Eureca operations, including check-out, activation, deactivation and making the Eureca system safe during the deploy(“JFrom
58
ESA Press Release No. 42, 19 September
1990.
ment and retrieval operations, will be conducted from ESOC, ESA’s Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany. The scientific data from each experiment will be distributed to the relevant home institute, and to the Microgravity User Support Centre (MUSC) at DLR in Porz-Wahn, Germany, for microgravity instruments. Since Eureca key sizing parameters have been optimized for the Shuttle pricing policy, deployment and retrieva1 costs are very attractive (S 14.1 million for deployment and $3.9 million for retrieval) of a 4.5 ton spacecraft.
3.16. THE FREJA SCIENTIFIC
SATELLlTE”6’
The Freja scientific satellite project is a ‘follow-up’ of the successful first Swedish satellite Viking that was launched in 1986. Freja follows the concept of inexpensive satellites such as S3-3, AMPTE, and Viking. This has had the consequence that the costs incurred are in the range of ‘expensive’ sounding rockets or single instruments in ESA/NASA missions. More important, the scientific return from inexpensive satellite projects has proved to be no less than that from major agency projects in this field. The scientific objectives for Freja are in many respects similar to those for Viking, i.e. to study the interaction between the hot magnetospheric plasma with the topside atmosphere/ionosphere. This interaction leads to a strong energization of magnetospheric and ionospheric plasma and an associated erosion and loss of matter from the terrestrial exosphere. Previous mid-altitude projects, such as S3-3, DE-l/2, Viking and more recently EXOS-D, have demonstrated that important fundamental plasma physics processes take place in the altitude range ~500 km to ~15 000 km above the Earth’s aurora1 zones leading to, among other things, the occurrence of bright aurora1 displays and a strong outflow of ionospheric plasma into outer space. Freja, with an orbit inclination of 63”-68” and an altitude =650-1800 km, will cover the lower edge of the auroral acceleration region. This altitude range also hosts processes that heat and energize the ionospheric plasma above the aurora1 zone, leading to the formation of large density cavities. The following experiments make up the scientific payload. Experiment
Principal Investigator
Fl Electric Field Experiment F2 Magne& Field Experiment
G. Marklund (KTH, Stockholm, Sweden) L. Zanetti (JHU/APL, Lam@ USA)
c’h)From a report by R. Lundin and G. Haerendel in The Radio Scientist, Vol, 1, No. 1, September 1990.
59
The Columbus Programme Board, the competent body of ESA composed of national delegates from participating States monitoring the execution of Columbus and Eureca programmes, met in Bremen on 18 and 19 September 1990. On this occasion delegates had the opportunity for a close look at the flight unit of Eureca which is ESA’s first reusable and retrievable space platform, now undergoing system-level qualification tests in the integration and test facility at MBB/ ERNO. Eureca, the European Retrievable Carrier, is scheduled to be launched by the Space Shuttle Discovery either late in 1991 or early in 1992 on Shuttle flight 46. ESA astronaut Claude Nicollier has been assigned as mission specialist for this flight, and wil1 be responsible for the Eureca deployment operations during Discovery’s first day in orbit. Following initial activation of Eureca at the Shuttle’s remote manipulator arm, including the deployment of Eureca’s large two-wing solar arrays (total span of 20 m), Eureca will be released and then further activated and checked-out while the Shuttle stays 300 m behind it. Two hours and 20 minutes after release, Eureca will start the manoeuvre which brings it into its initial operational orbit of some 520 km. Eureca will operate a large variety of sophisticated microgravity instruments, together with a number of others for space science (such as solar observation) and technology (for instance electrical propulsion and experimental inter-orbit communication with ESA’s Olympus satellite) during its 6 to 9 months’ mission. On completion of its mission, the platfurm will descend to a lower Earth orbit for retrieval by another Space Shuttle. Following the rendezvous manoeuvres, the Shuttle will grapple and berth Eureca using its remote manipulator arm. Upon return, the platform will be refurbished and prepared for its second mission, scheduled for mid-1994. Eureca accommodates 1000 kg of scientific and technology payload, of which 75% are available for microgravity research. Its large payload mass, as well as its total mass of 4500 kg, makes Eureca Europe’s largest free-flying spacecraft built to date. Extending Spacelab’s in-orbit microgravity experimentation time by a factor of 20, Eureca will provide the international user community with necessary flight opportunities prior to the Space Station. Eureca’s unique engineering features allow deployment and retrieval by the manned Space Shuttle, including rendezvous and proximity operations. The platform represents a si~~cant step in Europe’s capability to design, develop, utilize and operate retrievable and reusable systems in low earth orbit. Several design and operational features of Eureca Are directly applicable to ESA’s Columbus Free-Flyer. All Eureca operations, including check-out, activation, deactivation and making the Eureca system safe during the deploy(“JFrom
58
ESA Press Release No. 42, 19 September
1990.
ment and retrieval operations, will be conducted from ESOC, ESA’s Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany. The scientific data from each experiment will be distributed to the relevant home institute, and to the Microgravity User Support Centre (MUSC) at DLR in Porz-Wahn, Germany, for microgravity instruments. Since Eureca key sizing parameters have been optimized for the Shuttle pricing policy, deployment and retrieva1 costs are very attractive (S 14.1 million for deployment and $3.9 million for retrieval) of a 4.5 ton spacecraft.
3.16. THE FREJA SCIENTIFIC
SATELLlTE”6’
The Freja scientific satellite project is a ‘follow-up’ of the successful first Swedish satellite Viking that was launched in 1986. Freja follows the concept of inexpensive satellites such as S3-3, AMPTE, and Viking. This has had the consequence that the costs incurred are in the range of ‘expensive’ sounding rockets or single instruments in ESA/NASA missions. More important, the scientific return from inexpensive satellite projects has proved to be no less than that from major agency projects in this field. The scientific objectives for Freja are in many respects similar to those for Viking, i.e. to study the interaction between the hot magnetospheric plasma with the topside atmosphere/ionosphere. This interaction leads to a strong energization of magnetospheric and ionospheric plasma and an associated erosion and loss of matter from the terrestrial exosphere. Previous mid-altitude projects, such as S3-3, DE-l/2, Viking and more recently EXOS-D, have demonstrated that important fundamental plasma physics processes take place in the altitude range ~500 km to ~15 000 km above the Earth’s aurora1 zones leading to, among other things, the occurrence of bright aurora1 displays and a strong outflow of ionospheric plasma into outer space. Freja, with an orbit inclination of 63”-68” and an altitude =650-1800 km, will cover the lower edge of the auroral acceleration region. This altitude range also hosts processes that heat and energize the ionospheric plasma above the aurora1 zone, leading to the formation of large density cavities. The following experiments make up the scientific payload. Experiment
Principal Investigator
Fl Electric Field Experiment F2 Magne& Field Experiment
G. Marklund (KTH, Stockholm, Sweden) L. Zanetti (JHU/APL, Lam@ USA)
c’h)From a report by R. Lundin and G. Haerendel in The Radio Scientist, Vol, 1, No. 1, September 1990.
59