Kolejny start Vegi22.08. o 21:20:08 z Kourou wystrzelona została RN Vega, która wyniosła w T+53' 29" na orbitę o parametrach:
hp=311 km, ha=312 km, i=96,7° satelitę ADM-Aeolus.
http://lk.astronautilus.pl/n180816.htm#01https://twitter.com/esa/status/1032384163544948746@esaoperations 12 godzin temu
Ground controllers report solar array deployment complete! #Aeolus🛰🌬 is pointing to the Sun☀️ and generating its own power!🔋
https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/1032404657296093185Udany start ADM-Aeolus BY MICHAŁ MOROZ ON 23 SIERPNIA 2018
Start ADM-Aeolus na rakiecie Vega / ESARakieta Vega wyniosła na orbitę satelitę Atmospheric Dynamics Mission Aeolus. Misja będzie wyznaczać profile wiatrów wiejących w atmosferze Ziemi.
ADM-Aeolus po wyniesieniu na orbitę wokół Ziemi będzie za pomocą emitowanych błysków światła ultrafioletowego wyznaczał profile wiatrów wiejących w atmosferze. Dotychczas takie badania prowadzono poprzez śledzenie ruchu chmur, pomiar zmian powierzchni fal mórz lub odczytu kierunku i siły wiatru po odczycie profili temperatur powietrza.
Kadr ze startu ADM-Aeolus / ESAWspomniane możliwości zapewni instrument o nazwie Aladyn, składający się z dwóch potężnych laserów, teleskopu oraz czułych sensorów odbiorczych. Aeolus zapewni lepsze zrozumienie Ziemi, dynamiki atmosfery i klimatu. Dzięki szybko realizowanym obserwacjom dane z orbitera będą również uwzględniane w lepszych prognozach pogody.
Start odbył się na pokładzie europejskiej rakiety Vega z kosmodromu Kourou w Gujanie Francuskiej. Start rozpoczął się o 23:20 CEST a lot trwał 53 minuty i 29 sekund. Satelita zbudowany przez koncern Airbus Defence and Space dla Europejskiej Agencji Kosmicznej trafił na niską orbitę okołoziemską na wysokości 311 x 312 km i nachyleniu 96,7 stopni. Sygnał satelity został już odebrany przez centrum kontroli lotów w ESOC. W najbliższych miesiącach potrwa faza kalibracyjna po których misja rozpocznie zbierać dane.
https://kosmonauta.net/2018/08/udany-start-adm-aeolus/#prettyPhotoESA's Aeolus wind satellite launched23 August 2018
ESA’s Earth Explorer Aeolus satellite has been launched into polar orbit on a Vega rocket. Using revolutionary laser technology, Aeolus will measure winds around the globe and play a key role in our quest to better understand the workings of our atmosphere. Importantly, this novel mission will also improve weather forecasting.
Carrying the 1360 kg Aeolus satellite, the Vega rocket lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, at 21:20 GMT (23:20 CEST, 18:20 local time) on 22 August. Some 55 minutes later, Vega’s upper stage delivered Aeolus into orbit and contact was established through the Troll ground station in Antarctica at 00:30 CEST on 23 August.
Named after Aeolus, who in Greek mythology was appointed ‘keeper of the winds’ by the Gods, this novel mission is the fifth in the family of ESA’s Earth Explorers, which address the most urgent Earth-science questions of our time.
“Aeolus epitomises the essence of an Earth Explorer. It will fill a gap in our knowledge of how the planet functions and demonstrate how cutting-edge technology can be used in space,” said Jan Wörner, ESA Director General.
ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Josef Aschbacher, added, “Aeolus carries the first instrument of its kind and uses a completely new approach to measuring the wind from space.
“Such pioneering technology has meant that it has been a demanding mission to develop, but thanks to all the teams involved we are thrilled that this extraordinary satellite is now in orbit. We look forward to it living up to expectations!”
Highlighted by the World Meteorological Organization, the lack of direct global wind measurements is one of the major deficits in the Global Observing System.
By filling this gap, Aeolus will give scientists the information they need to understand how wind, pressure, temperature and humidity are interlinked.
This new mission will provide insight into how the wind influences the exchange of heat and moisture between Earth’s surface and the atmosphere – important aspects for understanding climate change.
Aeolus carries one of the most sophisticated instruments ever to be put into orbit. The first of its kind, the Aladin instrument includes revolutionary laser technology to generate pulses of ultraviolet light that are beamed down into the atmosphere to profile the world’s winds – a completely new approach to measuring the wind from space.
While Aeolus is set to advance science, it will also benefit society.
Although weather forecasts have advanced considerably in recent years, Aeolus will provide global wind profiles to improve the accuracy even further. In addition, its data will be used in air-quality models to improve forecasts of dust and other airborne particles that affect public health.
The satellite is being controlled from ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany.
Controllers will spend the next few months carefully checking and calibrating the mission as part of its commissioning phase.
https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Aeolus/ESA_s_Aeolus_wind_satellite_launchedUnderstanding the Earth’s weather: Arianespace launches Europe’s Aeolus wind-monitoring satelliteAugust 22, 2018
(...) Aeolus marked the milestone 50th mission – and the eighth dedicated to Earth observation – performed by Arianespace for ESA. It is one of the agency’s Earth Explorer missions, which address key scientific challenges identified by the science community and demonstrate breakthrough technology in observing techniques. (...)
http://www.arianespace.com/mission-update/vega-vv12-success-aeolus/Arianespace’s Vega rocket launches ESA’s Aeoluswritten by William Graham August 22, 2018
(...) ESA divides its Earth Explorer missions into two categories – Core and Opportunity – with Opportunity missions typically designed to be lower-cost missions reacting to immediate scientific requirements while Core missions are developed in close cooperation with the wider scientific community to answer specific questions about our planet.
The primary instrument aboard Aeolus is the Atmospheric Laser Doppler Instrument (ALADIN). ALADIN relies on a technique called Doppler Wind Lidar (DWL) to collect wind data.
The instrument fires ultraviolet laser pulses at a wavelength of 355 nanometres – invisible to the human eye – towards the Earth.
As the light emitted by the laser passes through the atmosphere some photons interact with particles in the atmosphere, causing them to be deflected – or scattered – in other directions. ALADIN incorporates a 1.5-metre (5-foot) telescope to collect light that is backscattered – that is, deflected back towards its source.
The satellite will be able to measure several properties of the backscattered photons to understand what has happened to them in the atmosphere. From the time between emission of a light pulse and the photons being received back by the satellite, ALADIN can determine how far the pulse traveled, and therefore the altitude at which the photons were scattered.
The photons will be passed through a spectrometer to build a profile of their wavelengths compared to that of the original light, and the shape of the curve this produces can be used to determine how they were scattered.
Light emitted by ALADIN will be affected by two different types of scattering: if they interacted with gaseous molecules in the air the curve will show evidence of Rayleigh scattering, whereas if they interacted with water droplets in clouds or with aerosols the curves will show that Mie scattering took place. Wind in the atmosphere will cause a Doppler shift in the wavelength of the light, proportional to the speed of the wind.
ALADIN is oriented perpendicular to the satellite’s direction of flight, away from the sun, with the instrument angled downwards – 35 degrees from the vertical – in order to build up a profile of wind speeds over a strip of the atmosphere as the spacecraft orbits. A single observation will last seven seconds, consisting of 700 pulses, during which time the satellite will travel 87 kilometers (54 miles, 47 nautical miles). There will be a gap of 21 seconds between observations. ALADIN can penetrate thin layers of cloud but cannot observe through thick cloud cover.
ALADIN is the only primary scientific instrument aboard Aeolus – although the satellite carries other instruments to aid attitude control and orbit determination. These include the Satellite-to-Satellite Tracking Instrument (SSTI), which uses US Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation satellites to determine the spacecraft’s position in orbit, laser retroreflectors to help observers on the ground track Aeolus and Earth-Sun sensors, star trackers and a magnetometer to keep track of its attitude. (...)
Italy’s Avio is the prime contractor for Vega, which incorporates three solid-fuelled stages and a small liquid-fuelled upper stage for precise orbit injection. All three solid motors use hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene propellant, while the Avum burns unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) oxidized by dinitrogen tetroxide. (...)
The countdown for Vega’s launch began nine hours and ten minutes before the rocket was due to lift off. As the clocks ticked towards zero the rocket’s systems – including the inertial reference system (IRS), multi-functional unit (MFU) and onboard computers were brought online and tested. Three hours and fifteen minutes before liftoff the mobile gantry used to assemble and access the rocket was retracted away from the vehicle – a process that took about three quarters of an hour to complete. (...)
Vega’s fourth stage, Avum, uses liquid propellant and can be shut down and restarted in flight. It made three burns during Wednesday’s launch – two before spacecraft separation, with a third burn to deorbit itself after successfully deploying Aeolus. Avum is powered by a Ukrainian RD-843 engine, derived from engines that the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau and Yuzhmash production plant developed for the third stage of the Soviet Union’s R-36 family of intercontinental ballistic missiles. (...)
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2018/08/arianespaces-vega-rocket-esa-aeolus-launch/https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/08/22/vv12-mission-status-center/https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/08/22/vega-launch-timeline-with-aeolus/Artykuły astronautyczneAeolus (ADM-Aeolus, Earth Explorer 4)2 30.07.2023)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADM-Aeolushttps://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADM-Aeolus3 23.08.2023
https://twitter.com/ESA_History/status/1693900275411517932