Diapositiva 1

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IUE
The International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) was
launched on 26 January 1978 as a joint
ESA/NASA/UK project to study the UV spectra of
celestial objects. Operations continued until 30
September 1996 - making it the longest-lived
spaceborne astronomy mission - after returning
more than 104,000 spectra.
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Preparing IUE's solar array for a thermal-vacuum
test at ESTEC
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Making ultraviolet observations, ranging from
comets to quasars, IUE was the worlds
longest-lived and one of the most productive
satellites ever built. Although IUE produced no
images, it provided invaluable data by measuring
the energies of ultraviolet rays coming from
celestial objects, giving insight into the
physical conditions in those objects.
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IUE Telemetry and Scientific data was received at
NASA IUE Observatory of Goddard Space Flight
Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA (via Wallops Island
Flight Facility, VA, USA), and at ESA IUE MOC and
SOC of Villafranca del Castillo (via VIL-1
antenna).
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IUE was supported daily with VIL-1 antenna during
more than 18.5 years
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EXOSAT
Designed to observe and detect high-energy
sources, Exosat was the first ESA mission to
study the Universe at X-ray wavelengths, and one
of the first unmanned satellites to feature an
on-board computer.
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Exosat being prepared for launch from Vandenberg
Air Force Base, California. The rotatable solar
array is visible at the top of the spacecraft.
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During its life, Exosat made 1780 observations of
a wide variety of objects, including active
galactic nuclei, X-ray binary systems, supernova
remnants, and clusters of galaxies.
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Exosat was supported daily with VIL-2 antenna
during its entire life (1983 - 1986)
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HIPPARCOS
ESA's Hipparcos space astrometry mission was a
pioneering European project which pinpointed
118,000 star positions at 0.001 arc seconds
accuracy, plus some 1,050,000 positions at 0.025
arc seconds. Hipparcos house-keeping Telemetry
support was given periodically from Villafranca
during its entire life (November 1989 - March
1993)
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The satellite failed to reach its proposed
geostationary orbit after failure of one of its
booster motors. This left Hipparcos in an
elongated orbit that took it through the Van
Allen belts, which risked serious radiation
damage to the solar panels that powered the
spacecraft. Fortunately, the panels turned out
to be more resistant to radiation than expected.
Over the course of several months, the European
Space Agency Project Team, the European Space
Operations Centre (ESOC), members of industry,
and the Hipparcos scientific consortia turned
their collective attention to the observational
and scheduling problems posed by the highly
eccentric orbit. As a result of their efforts,
the mission ran successfully from November 1989
to March 1993, gathering data 60 of the time.
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ISO
ESA's Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) is an
astronomical satellite that was operational
between November 1995 and May 1998. It operated
at wavelengths from 2.5 to 240 microns, in the
infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Because the atmosphere acts as an 'umbrella' for
most infrared wavelengths -preventing them from
reaching the ground- a space telescope is needed
to detect this kind of radiation invisible to the
human eye and to optical telescopes.
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ISO's highly elliptical orbit had a perigee at
around 1,000 km an apogee at 70,500 km and a
period of almost 24 hours. The lowest parts of
the orbit lay inside the Earth's van Allen belts
of trapped electrons and protons. Inside these
regions ISO's detectors were scientifically
unusable due to effects caused by radiation
impacts. ISO spent almost 17 hours per day
outside the radiation belts and during this time
all detectors could be operated.
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When ISO was launched in November 1995 the
mission life expectancy was only 20 months -
dictated by the need to keep the telescope and
instruments cold. The cryostat, a huge thermos
flask surrounding the telescope and its
instruments, was filled with 2,300 litres of
superfluid helium as a coolant. The rate at which
this helium evaporated would determine the
lifetime of the mission. The original estimates
turned out to be pessimistic and the satellite's
working life stretched to more than 28 months.
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ISO saw the space water-factories' at work
Most water on Earth was not produced here - it
came from space. Very little information about
cosmic water can be obtained from the ground -
primarily because the Earth's atmosphere is
itself rich in water vapour and blocks our view
of the water in the Universe beyond. ISO helped
astronomers to reconstruct for the first time the
cosmic cycle of water. Hydrogen (1.) was
originally produced in the Big Bang and is found
everywhere in the Universe. Oxygen (2.) is made
in stars and dispersed out into the Universe in
events such as supernova explosions. The two
elements mix in star-forming clouds (3.) and form
large amounts of water (H2O). The molecules of
water leave the clouds and end up in many
different places (4.) - comets, planets the
centres of galaxies ... When the newly-born stars
become old more oxygen is made available to the
cosmic water factory.
The mission was a great technical, operational
and scientific success with most satellite
sub-systems operating far better than
specifications and with its scientific results
impacting practically all fields of astronomy.
During its routine operational phase, ISO
successfully made some 30,000 individual imaging,
photometric, spectroscopic and polarimetric
observations ranging from objects in our own
solar system to the most distant extragalactic
sources.
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The ISO Science Operations Room at Villafranca
The ISO Mission Operations Room at Villafranca
The Science Operations Centre at ESA's Satellite
Tracking Station at Villafranca was responsible
for the control of the satellite. This is also
where observations were scheduled. However, for
scientific use ISO needed to be in continuous
contact with a ground station. NASA's station at
Goldstone (US) tracked ISO when it was obscured
from Villafranca by the Earth.
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ISO was supported daily with VIL-2 antenna during
its entire operational life (November 1995 - May
1998)
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XMM-Newton
After launch from Kourou, French Guiana on 10
December 1999, the European Space Agency's X-ray
Multi-Mirror satellite is the most powerful X-ray
telescope ever placed in orbit. Since Earth's
atmosphere blocks out all X-rays, only a
telescope in space can detect and study celestial
X-ray sources. The XMM-Newton mission is helping
scientists solve a number of cosmic mysteries,
ranging from the enigmatic black holes to the
origins of the Universe itself. Observing time on
XMM-Newton is being made available to the
scientific community, applying for observational
periods on a competitive basis.
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ESA's X-ray space observatory is unique. It is
the biggest scientific satellite ever built in
Europe, its telescope mirrors were amongst the
most powerful ever developed in the world, and
with its sensitive cameras it will see much more
than any previous X-ray satellite. The total
length of XMM-Newton is 10 metres, and when its
solar arrays are deployed, the satellite has a 16
metres span.
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The XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre situated
in Villafranca, manages observation requests and
receives XMM-Newton data.
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Real time instrument monitoring has been
transferred recently from ESAC to automation
running at ESOC. This is currently under test
with ESAC in "listening" mode and responsibility
for monitoring the instrument radiation levels
with a newly developed software package under the
supervision of the ESOC spacecraft controllers.
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The XMM-Newton spacecraft is controlled by the
European Space Operations Centre (ESOC,
Darmstadt, Germany) using ground stations at
Perth (Australia), Kourou (French Guiana),
Santiago (Chile) and VIL-2 (when Kourou is down).
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CLUSTER II
The Cluster II mission is the first whereby four
identical spacecraft have orbited in formation
around the Earth. The Cluster fleet's mission
began in the summer of 2000 with the launch of
two Russian Starsem Soyuz rockets from the
Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, each carrying
a pair of identical satellites. Taking
simultaneous measurements, they provided the
first detailed, three-dimensional analysis of the
changes and processes taking place in near-Earth.
The energy particles transmitted from the sun,
known as solar wind, considerably influence life
on Earth from space.
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The maiden flight of the Ariane 5 lifts off at
Kourou in French Guiana,South America on 4 June
1996.Aboard were ESA's four original Cluster
satellites.
40 seconds into the flight, the launch vehicle
veered off course and had to be destroyed by
ground control.
The Cluster II satellites were built to replace
the original four-satellite Cluster mission,
which Cluster was expected to benefit from a
'free' launch on the first test flight of the
newly developed Ariane-5 booster. After several
minor delays, Ariane-501 lifted off from Kourou,
French Guiana on 4 June 1996, carrying its
payload of four Cluster satellites.
Unfortunately, the launcher's maiden flight
lasted just 37 seconds before intense aerodynamic
loads resulted in its break up.
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VIL-1 antenna was fully refurbished in 1999 in
order to support Cluster II mission (original
motors, gearboxes, dish panels, Feed, Antenna
Equipment Room were replaced by the ones
installed in Odenwald antenna).
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Since launch, the four Cluster satellites were
supported daily from Maspalomas Ground Station
and Villafranca VIL-1 terminal, till February
2007 when Cluster II support activities of VIL-1
terminal were transferred to Perth Ground
Station. Since then, Villafranca Vil-2 terminal
have been scheduled to support any Cluster
satellite whenever any of those two prime
stations are down and during Cluster II eclipse
periods (spring and autumn equinoxes).
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INTEGRAL
The European astronomical satellite, INTEGRAL,
(INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory)
is an astronomical satellite for observing the
gamma-ray sky. The INTEGRAL satellite was
launched on October 17, 2002 by a Russian PROTON
launcher. Gamma-rays are even more powerful than
the X-rays used in medical examinations.
Fortunately, the Earth's atmosphere acts as a
shield to protect us from this dangerous cosmic
radiation. However, this means that gamma-rays
from astronomical sources can only be detected by
satellites. INTEGRAL is the most sensitive
gamma-ray observatory ever launched.
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The orbit of the INTEGRAL satellite is a highly
eccentric one (blue ellipse) with a revolution
period around the Earth (blue disc) of 3 sideral
days. It has a perigee height of 10,000 km and an
apogee height of 152,600 km with an inclination
of 51.6 degrees with respect to the equatorial
plane. It was chosen to minimise the background
noise due to protons trapped in the radiation
belt (in yellow) and to allow for long periods of
unbroken observation.
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INTEGRAL Science Operations Centre (ISOC) is
located in ESAC
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INTEGRAL spacecraft is controlled by the European
Space Operations Centre (ESOC, Darmstadt,
Germany) using ground stations at Redu (Belgium),
Goldstone/ NASA (United States) and VIL-2 (when
Redu is down).
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DSP
The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese
National Space Administration launched the two
Double Star Programme (DSP) satellites six months
apart in December 2003 (TC-1) and July 2004
(TC-2) from launch sites in China. DSP mission
was ended September 2007. Its purpose was to
extend our knowledge of the magnetosphere using
the two Tan Ce (Chinese for Explorer) satellites.
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TC-2
TC-1
TC-1 was launched from the Xi Chang spaceport
into an equatorial orbit and TC-2 was launched
from the Tai Yuan spaceport into a polar orbit,
with both satellites flying in highly elliptical
orbits so that they sample many key regions of
the magnetosphere. Each satellite has eight
instruments on board sampling the plasma
environment around the Earth.
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Using Double Star alongside Cluster, scientists
can investigate the Sun's 'magnetotail'. This is
a region where storms of high-energy particles
are generated. When these particles reach Earth,
they can cause power cuts, damage satellites, and
disrupt communications. Seven instruments on
Double Star are identical to those currently
flying on the four Cluster spacecraft. Conducting
joint studies with similar instruments on Cluster
and Double Star should increase the overall
scientific return from both missions.
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TC-1 and TC-2 were supported regularly with
Villafranca VIL-2 terminal (VIL-1 antenna was
used instead only if VIL-2 was scheduled to
support another ESA mission).
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This picture, taken in 2004, does not show a new
190 rooms building, dedicated for scientists
working for future Herschel, Plank, Lisa
Pathfinder, GAIA and Beppy Colombo satellites.