UNIVERSEH: The European Space University

Short Definition:

NEO, or near-Earth object, is a celestial body which is in the size range of meters to tens of kilometres, that orbits the sun and approaches the earth within the distance of 1.3 AU (astronomical units).

Detailed Definition:

Among the 600,000 known asteroids, only 20,000 of them are NEOs. To be classified as such, the object must be natural and cannot be manmade. Some of them could potentially hit the earth and for this reason, some organisation keep track of them everyday. Historically speaking, NEOs have had an impact of the earths geological and biological history. Most of the NEOs are Apollo asteroids (55.4%), meaning that they come from the Apollo asteroid group. The second most common are Amor asteroids (36.4%), and third most common are Aten asteroids (7.7%).

Etymology:

Acronym of "near-Earth object."

Sample Sentence:

An astronomer would for example say during a lecture: “The Amor asteroid, 433 Eros, was the first NEO discovered in 1898, by D. Witt of Berlin, Germany, using a photographic plate to record its position.”

Translations:

• French:
• German:
• Polish: NEO (obiekt bliski Ziemi) 
• Swedish:
  

Links to Articles/Videos:

Source: https://ttu-ir.tdl.org/bitstream/handle/2346/73031/ICES_2017_235.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

Short Definition:

An enclosure that constitutes a closed environment developed for the purpose of simulating lunar conditions and allow for the testing of material behaviour in such a space.

Detailed Definition:

A sealed enclosure used to simulate lunar environment using artificial medias such as a solar lamp, a regolith simulant, a vacuum pump, radiation elements, and heating and cooling elements. The chamber can be used for testing of devices such as rover mobility, drills, motors, gears, bearings and other types of experiments.

Sample Sentence(s):

“Dr. Karol will use the dirty vacuum chamber (aka DVac) to test the developed DIGGER experiment to verify its performance in simulated lunar environment, because the DVac can simulate not only vacuum similar to the Moon, but also the dusty environment of the Moon, the thermal conditions and vibrations.”

Translations:

• French: Chambre à vide empoussiérée
  
• German: Staubige Vakuumkammer 
• Persian: محفظه خلاء غبارآلود (Mahfaze khalae ghobar Aaloud)
• Polish: Brudna Komora Próżniowa
  
• Swedish: Dammig vakuumkammare

Links to Videos/Articles:

ICES_2017_235.pdf (tdl.org)

 

Definition:

Falcon 9 is the world's first orbital class reusable rocket, created and manufactured by SpaceX. It is a reusable, two-stage rocket capable of transporting both people and payloads into Earth's orbit and beyond. Reusability allows to reuse the most expensive parts of the rocket, which diminishes the cost of space access. The standard parameters of the rocket are:

Height - 70 m / 229.6 ft

Diameter - 3.7 m / 12 ft

Mass - 549,054 kg / 1,207,920 lb

The engine used in production of Falcon 9 is the Merlin, which uses grade kerosene (RP-1) and liquid oxygen as rocket propellants in a gas-generator power cycle. The Merlin engine was originally designed for recovery and reuse.

Falcon 9 has already been used in numerous missions or tests (Crew-1 Mission, Crew-2 Mission, Crew-3 Mission, DART Mission) and is planned to be launched in the next ones (for example Polaris Dawn in the last quarter of 2022). 

Sample Sentence(s):

"This rocket is the Falcon 9 that successfully reached orbit after 9 minutes and 38 seconds on its maiden test flight."
"It was suggested to be launched with a Falcon 9 rocket."

Translations:

• French: Falcon 9
•  German: Falcon 9
•  Polish: Falcon 9 
•  Swedish: Falcon 9

Links to Videos/Articles:

https://www.spacex.com/updates/
https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/environmentally-friendly-space-travel/
https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/falcon-9/

Short Definition:

A process involving the extraction of a resource using biological tools. For example, with bacteria or algea.

Detailed Definition:

Biomining is an environmentally friendly and energy efficient way of extracting useful elements by using microbes to break down rocks to make soil or provide nutrients. Microbes are tiny organisms, such as bacteria and fungi, that have a wide variety of functions. Some microbes have abilities that could be beneficial to humans, such as biomining.

Etymology:

Bio: From Ancient Greek βίο- (bo-), combining form and stem of βίος (bíos, “life”). Mining: Any activity that extracts or unearths minerals.

Sample Sentence:

You can use biomining to extract minerals from asteroids using bacteria or fungi."

Translations:

• Catalan: Biomineria
• French: Extraction biologique
• German: Biobergbau
• Polish: biogórnictwo
• Swedish: Biomining/Biologisk brytning (av mineraler)

Links to Videos/Articles:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/referencework/9780080885049/comprehensive-biotechnology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomining#See_also

The concept of orbital manufacturing visualized by a primate building space mission components with blocks.

Source:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Common_Chimpanzee_uses_cuboid_tool_in_the_lab.png

https://cdn2.picryl.com/photo/2010/08/17/overall-exterior-views-of-the-iss-during-undocking-and-flyaround-operations-1bdbdf-1600.jpg

Short Definition:

Orbital manufacturing refers to the production of various components required for space missions in orbit.

Detailed Definition:

In orbital manufacturing, parts, materials, and tools needed for space missions are manufactured in orbit around planets. This manufacturing capability provides a solution for sustainable, flexible missions and enables on-demand repair, fabrication, and recycling on critical systems. These capabilities provide tangible cost savings by reducing launch mass, as well as significant risk mitigation by reducing dependence on spare parts and/or oversizing systems for reliability. 

There are several advantages of manufacturing in space:

The effects of microgravity and vacuum in space enable the study and manufacturing of products that would otherwise be impossible to make on Earth.

When compared to launching all essential resources from Earth, the harvest and processing of raw materials from other astronomical bodies, commonly known as In-Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU), could enable more sustainable space research missions at a lower cost.

Raw materials might be transferred to low Earth orbit and processed into products before being delivered back to Earth. This aims to preserve the Earth by replacing terrestrial production on the planet.

Etymology:

Orbit - Latin - orbita “course, track, impression, mark”

Manu - Latin - manus “Hand”

Facture – Latin - factura  “Making”

Sample Sentence(s):

“Was this arm made using orbital manufacturing?” 

“Orbital manufacturing is particularly suitable for long space missions.”

Translations:

• French: Fabrication Orbitale
  
• German: Orbitale Produktion
  
• Polish: Produkcja na orbicie
  
• Swedish: Orbital Tillverkning
  

Links to Videos/Articles:

https://www.nasa.gov/oem/inspacemanufacturing

Definition:

A study aiming to investigate the effects of spaceflight on the human organism. The study was organized by NASA with the support of 8 universities across the USA. It was conducted in 2015-2016 and involved two identical twin brothers: Scott and Mark Kelly.

Scott Kelly served on a year-long mission aboard the International Space Station, while his brother Mark Kelly, a former NASA employee, remained on Earth. The twins study included an array of biochemical, neurological and other types of medical tests conducted before, during and after the spaceflight, i.e. over the span of 27 months. The results confirmed the robustness and resilience of human health, since 91,3% of Scott Kelly’s medical parameters returned to baseline six months after the spaceflight. The remaining changes were to be used for development of personalized measures to predict and overcome possible adverse consequences of spaceflight.

Translations:

French: 

German:
 
Polish: Eksperyment z bliżniakami

Swedish:

Article:

https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.aau8650

Other sources:

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-twins-study-results-published-in-science

https://www.nasa.gov/twins-study/about

 

Definition

A programme created in cooperation between ESA and Roscosmos, which is trying to find signs of biological processes on Mars indicating whether life has ever existed on that planet. The programme includes two missions:

• The Trace Gas Orbiter and the Schiaparelli module (launched in 2016)
  
• The Rosalind Franklin rover and a stationary surface science platform Kazachok (put on hold in March 2022 due to impossibility of cooperating with Roscosmos; launch date is not yet known)
  

The Trace Gas Orbiter’s task is to look for trace atmospheric gases, including methane, which would indicate the presence of biological processes, whereas the Rosalind Franklin rover is supposed to look for evidence of life on the surface and underground.

Etymology:

“Exo” in ExoMars refers to “exobiology”, a branch of sciences investigating life beyond Earth. A rover involved in this mission is named after Rosalind Franklin, who was an English chemist known in particular for her contribution to DNA research. The platform Kazachok is named after a Russian folk dance.

Sources:

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Exploration/ExoMars

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Exploration/ExoMars/What_is_ExoMars

More about the mission:

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Exploration/ExoMars/ExoMars_Factsheet

Source: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?IM_ID=2143, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18049439

Short Definition:

Gravity assistance describes the intentional use of the gravitational attraction of a celestial body, in order to modify the trajectory of a space vehicle. This maneuver allows the spacecraft to save rocket fuel.

Detailed Definition:

Etymology:

1. Gravity (Noun.), originating from the Latin word gravitatem, with the meaning of “weight, heaviness, pressure”

2. Assist (Verb.), originating from Latin word assistere, which means “standing by, help”

Sample Sentence(s):

“The global minimum velocity increments of direct transfer trajectory and gravity-assist trajectories are obtained for each candidate target.”

Translations:

• French: Assistance gravitationnelle
• German: Schwerkraftumlenkung
• Polish: Asysta grawitacyjna
• Swedish: Gravitationsslunga

Links to Videos/Articles:

1. "Section 1: Environment, Chapter 4: Trajectories". Basics of Space Flight. NASA. 
   
2. "Gravity assist". The Planetary Society. 
   

Source:https://www.airbus.com/sites/g/files/jlcbta136/files/styles/airbus_1440x1440/public/2021-10/Spacecraft_infographic.jpg?itok=IaLkM9ST)

Definition:

A mission under the supervision of the Surrey Space Centre of the University of Surrey (supported by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., Airbus Defense and Space, Innovative Solutions in Space, CSEM, Inria and Stellenbosch University) that aimed to find the best method of capturing and removing space debris. The project was based on a satellite containing several pieces of equipment (a net, a harpoon, a drag sail and vision-based navigation equipment, as well as a set of targets simulating space debris), which remained in orbit between 2018 and 2021.

The satellite platform for the project RemoveDEBRIS was launched using SpaceX Falcon 9, was delivered to the International Space Station and later deployed into orbit, where a series of experiments on debris removal were conducted, using several pieces of equipment:

• a space net (ejected by the DebrisSat-1 at the distance of 7 meters from the target, aiming to entangle the targeted debris)
  
• vision-based navigation equipment (the DebrisSat-2 is used to identify and track the debris)
  
• a harpoon (firing at a 10*10 cm target extending from the platform at the distance of 1,5 m)
  
• a drag sail (used to deorbit the platform itself – unfortunately, the sail was not fully deployed during the in-orbit demonstration)
  

Translations:

• French:
  
• German:
  
• Polish: Misja DEBRIS
  
• Swedish:
  

Links to Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLuHk5gWx3k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QUhCLTfXf0

Articles:

https://www.surrey.ac.uk/surrey-space-centre/missions/removedebris

https://www.airbus.com/en/products-services/space/in-space-infrastructure/removedebris

https://directory.eoportal.org/web/eoportal/satellite-missions/r/removedebris

Definition:

A study aiming to investigate the effects of spaceflight on the human organism. The study was organized by NASA with the support of 8 universities across the USA. It was conducted in 2015-2016 and involved two identical twin brothers: Scott and Mark Kelly.

Scott Kelly served on a year-long mission aboard the International Space Station, while his brother Mark Kelly, a former NASA employee, remained on Earth. The twins study included an array of biochemical, neurological and other types of medical tests conducted before, during and after the spaceflight, i.e. over the span of 27 months. The results confirmed the robustness and resilience of human health, since 91,3% of Scott Kelly’s medical parameters returned to baseline six months after the spaceflight. The remaining changes were to be used for development of personalized measures to predict and overcome possible adverse consequences of spaceflight.

Translations:

French: 

German:
 
Polish: Eksperyment z bliżniakami

Swedish:

Article:

https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.aau8650

Other sources:

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-twins-study-results-published-in-science

https://www.nasa.gov/twins-study/about