The problem is twofold, the ESA said. First, new missions into space must be sustainable, with designs that take into account safe disposal of spent rocket stages and other components that might traditionally have been left to orbit the Earth.

Second, though, is the work needed to actively clear what debris has already been abandoned. The ESA has called for pilot missions to clean the area of localized space around the planet, so as to mitigate the potential for satellites to be knocked out of the sky.

Space Debris overview:

“While measures against further debris creation and actively deorbiting defunct satellites are technically demanding and potentially costly,” ESAT Space Debris Office chief Heiner Klinkrad said in a statement, “there is no alternative to protect space as a valuable resource for our critical satellite infrastructure.”

Replacing 1,000 active satellites, for instance, would carry a cost of around €100bn ($131bn), the group estimates. That ignores the knock-on effect of navigation, broadcast, weather, telecoms, and other satellite infrastructure to business and operations on the ground.

Potential methods to actively gather up debris include the space equivalent of nets and harpoons, the AP reports, as well as more outlandish proposals that include deflecting rogue objects with laser light, and even repositioning them with robots, such as a 2011 suggestion by an Italian aerospace engineer. His idea was to actively chase down objects, seize them, and then glue rockets to them that would blast them back down to Earth. Last year, Swiss scientists revealed plans for a hunter-gatherer satellite that would cruise through its orbit like a shark, swallowing up abandoned materials.

However it’s done, the problem has already had an impact on space projects. A Russian satellite collided with debris earlier this year, believed to have been left behind by a Chinese mission, and became the fourth satellite known to be destroyed after a crash. Last year, meanwhile, NASA was almost forced to reposition the International Space Station, after fears debris could hit it.

The star is larger than our sun at about 1.5 solar masses. Scientists say that the star recently entered its subgiant phase. The subgiant phase is the point when a star begins to grow in size and eventually engulfs nearby planets and asteroids. Astronomers say being able to get a photograph of a dying star complete with a debris disk and one or more planets is very rare.

Astronomers also note that stars similar in size to our sun typically end their life as a red giant before either exploding into a supernova or cooling to become a white or brown dwarf star. Kappa Coronae Borealis will continue to burn for hundreds of thousands of years to come according to the astronomers. The star system is surrounded by a dusty debris field, which makes observing the star directly virtually impossible.

The astronomers were able to peer through the dense debris filled and measured the stars far-infrared wavelengths. The study allowed the astronomers to catalog the debris field and identify properties of the star. The star itself is interesting enough, but scientists say that they are also extremely interested in identifying a mysterious third body in the star system. The scientists believe that that third body could be a brown dwarf star or a gas giant exoplanet.

[via Science Recorder]

The Planck space probe’s primary purpose is to scan the “cosmic microwave background” radiation spreading throughout the sky, which is leftover heat from the earliest moments of the beginning of the universe. Looking at data from the split-second after the Big Bang happened, scientists and astronomers have concluded that the universe is just ever so slightly older by around 80 million years.

The new findings mention a key theory called inflation, which states that the universe exploded from subatomic size to the massive size that it is now in just a fraction of a second. The Big Bang theory says that the universe as we know it today started out smaller than an atom, but exploded and expanded rapidly at a pace that was much faster than the speed of light.

The space probe studied the afterglow of the Big Bang and has recalculated the age of the universe, which now stands at 13.81 billion years old. The Planck space telescope was launched in 2009 at a cost of $900 million. It has spent 15 months so far mapping the sky and studying how our universe began. The telescope will stay in operation until later this year when it eventually runs out of cooling fluid.

[via Fox News/AP]

As a part of the deal, the Russians will be providing the rockets for both missions in 2016 and 2018, while the Europeans will be providing the orbiter and the rover. The orbiter will study the chemical composition of the atmosphere of Mars. For the 2018 mission, the Europeans will provide the carrier and the ExoMars rover, which will be tasked with the mission to look for signs of life on the Red Planet.

However, what’s perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of this proposed rover is that it will be able to dig up samples from as deep as 6.5 feet beneath the surface of Mars, which will be the deepest that any rover has ever dug. The ESA says that, by doing this, the rover will be able to collect samples “that have been shielded from the harsh conditions of the surface, where radiation and oxidants can destroy organic materials.”

NASA actually pulled out of the ExoMars program last year, but while they’re no longer a part of it, the ESA said that NASA will still contribute to the project by providing some communications software, as well as engineering support during the missions. Other details haven’t yet been discussed, but we’re excited nonetheless.

[via Space.com]

The structures themselves would first be inflated using a type of fabric to create a dome-shaped building. Then, the modified soil would be laid on top of the dome to make the building more structurally sound. Plus, that added layer would protect inhabitants from meteorites, gamma rays, and extreme temperatures.

The ESA has already created a 1.5-ton block of simulated lunar soil using 3D printing methods, and it’s made from a mixture of terrestrial basaltic rock, magnesium oxide, and a “binding salt.” Of course, the extreme temperatures and the zero-gravity state on the Moon could affect the chemical reactions with the modified soil, but testing out the printer in a vacuum proved that the concept could easily work.

Proposed locations for where lunar bases would be built are on either poles of the Moon, where temperatures are more accurate to Earth’s climate. It’s not exactly set on when the bases on the Moon will begin construction, but numerous companies are already lining up to help out with the massive undertaking, and Deep Space Industries (DSI) is already planning to have a capable 3D printer built by 2020.

[via PhysOrg]

During the mission, the space telescope will map the locations and measure the shapes of as many as 2 billion galaxies that are spread over roughly 1/3 of the viewable sky. NASA and the ESA plan the study the universe along with dark matter and dark energy and their effect on the evolution of the universe.

The space telescope will be launched to an orbit around the sun-Earth Lagrange point L2. This Lagrange point is a location where the gravitational pull of the Sun and the Earth precisely equals the required force to keep the spacecraft in a relatively stationary position. The space telescope will be positioned behind the Earth as it is seen from the sun.

NASA’s participation will see the space agency contributing 16 state-of-the-art infrared detectors and four spare detectors for one of two science instruments that are planned to be installed on the Euclid space telescope. NASA has also nominated three science teams from the US with a total of 40 members for the Euclid Consortium. That Consortium will have an international body of 1000 members that will oversee the development of the spacecraft instruments, and manage the science operations for the project as well as analyze data returned.

[via NASA]

This mission is set to launch with a test service module built by Lockheed Martin as early as next year. This launch will be an unmanned version of the full launched, bringing the craft up to 3,600 miles above the Earth. The first test with the European tech-toting Orion is scheduled for 2017.

The European Space Agency’s contribution to this project will be a module that will be providing the full craft with basic supplies as well as propulsion, and thermal control. Power for the full Orion craft will be provided by the ESA’s hardware, and “basic supplies” include, but are not limited to, water and breathable air (complete with oxygen!) The ESA has made note that their design will be designed on ATV supply ships already in action, heading up to the International Space Station in the very near future.

The full mission will have its first “in-space tryout” according to NBC News in 2017 complete with the Orion capsule and heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket. This will be an unmanned test flight designed to go around the moon (Earth’s moon) and back to Earth. The first full manned flight will take place in 2021 if all goes well in each of the scheduled tests.

[Image via ESA]

NASA and the ESA said yesterday that DTN could one day allow “internet-like communications” with spacecrafts and help support infrastructure on other planets. The experiment took place late last month, and it involved remotely operating a small Lego rover-like robot from the International Space Station.

The Lego robot was located at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany and it was being operated and driven by US astronaut Sunita Williams who used a laptop that was designed by NASA. A command sent from the laptop would start a script to control the Lego rover, which is also actually a prototype designed for use in the ESA’s future missions.

NASA space communications chief Badri Younes says that once the protocol gets past the experimental stage, DTN could be useful for controlling robots on Mars from either a manned orbiting spacecraft or from Earth using satellites as relay stations. DTN is slightly comparable to the Internet Protocol in terms of functionality. However, the big difference is that IP relies on a continuous connection, while DTN allows for more disconnections and errors.

[via ZDNet]

The ESA microsatellite Proba-2 resides in low-Earth orbit and was tracking Venus as it moved across the Sun over about seven hours. The reason Venus appears to move and wobble as it transits the Sun is the slight up-and-down motion of the satellite. The vast distance between the sun and the satellite also contributed to what we see as wobble in the recording.

One scientist says one moment to pay attention to is when Venus first appears to touch the outermost part of the solar disk resulting in a tiny dip in solar brightness. This dip in brightness is attributed to the thick atmosphere of Venus. Check out the video and see for yourself, it’s really cool.

[via Wired]

Robotic supply ship was perched atop an Ariane 5 rocket lifted off from the ESA spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The cargo freighter was loaded with 7.2 tons of supplies including experiments, space station fuel, food, and water. ATV-3 carrying the heaviest load of cargo ever delivered to the space station using a robotic craft.

The vehicle is expected to arrive at the space station on March 28 at 6:34 PM ET. The ESA nicknamed ATV-3 the “Edoardo Amaldi.” Edoardo Amaldi was an Italian physicist and spaceflight pioneer who is credited with helping to establish the ESA. ATV-3 is 35 feet long and 14.7 feet wide and is disposable.

[via Mashable]