Tag Archives: ESA

Gravity Assist Competition

Or The Space Game, by ESA. This is a nice javascript webpage where a probe is shot from Earth to Jupiter with gravity assists at Venus (twice), Earth and Mars. You try to achieve the lowest propulsive delta vee. You … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Astronomy, Depot, Design, Energy, ESA, Homebuilt, industry, Launchers, Lunar, Models, Motivation, Science Links, Spacecraft | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fed Up

I’m quite that just right now. It will pass. Perhaps. There’s been some discussion in various places about both NASA and potential future launch vehicles. Everything’s just so static in a large sense. Completely hopeless. I’ll throw in the towel … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Demotivation, ESA, ISRU, Motivation, NASA, RLV:s, Suborbital | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

First ATV nearing ISS

The first European Autonomous Transfer Vehicle is nearing the International Space Station as I write this. It’s demo day 2 and it will go to 250 meters distance. Docking will be a few days later. ESA has a live blog here. NASASpaceflight.com has a live thread here. Someone just posted a screen capture: There’s video at … Continue reading

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European Lunar Program Alternatives

ESA’s Architecture for Exploration Study (AES) is overviewed in Lunar Base Quarterly 1/2008 (EDIT: to be clear, the Quarterly was released in January): Lots of Ariane 5, Angara and Soyuz launches with space docking, a space station in Earth-Lunar L1 … Continue reading

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