Archive for year: 2019

Charlie Camarda is an American engineer and NASA astronaut who was part of the first mission into space after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003. Camarda flew the STS-114 “Return to Flight” Space Shuttle mission, which launched on July 26, 2005, as mission specialist five. His 45 years of experience at NASA as a research engineer in thermal structures for hypersonic vehicles, included serving as a senior advisor for engineering development at NASA Langley Research Center.

Merve Kara from AeroTime spoke with Dr. Charlie Camarda about his experience on board the “Return to Flight” mission and his view on the future of space exploration.

The crew of STS-114. Charlie Camarda is third from the right. Courtesy of NASA.

Your mission, STS-114 “Return to Flight”, followed the tragedy of Space Shuttle Columbia. How did the accident impact your mission? Did it affect how you felt about your flight?

It did not affect how I felt about my flight. It did impact our mission as it had to be totally redesigned. It was going to be a logistics mission to carry supplies up to the Space Station and fix a large and control gyroscopes. After the accident, it took us about two and a half years to figure out what caused the accident and to create technologies and procedures that would ensure that we would fly safely.

Our entire mission was redesigned because we had to develop new technologies to inspect the vehicle technologies to potentially repair the vehicle if there was another debris strike on our mission. For me, as an engineer, it was the perfect mission because we had a lot of experiments to conduct to test new technology and new ideas.

What was the most memorable experience for you during your lengthy career at NASA?

I had such a long career at NASA. I worked at NASA for 45 years and just recently retired. Our space mission was definitely one of the most rewarding experiences. We flew in space after the Columbia accident, we lost seven crew members friends, colleagues, and classmates. So to be able to work with teams of engineers around the country to understand and to help fix these problems to enable us to fly safely, I think that was the most memorable experience. Flying with this unique team and a very critical mission that we had and to pull it off perfectly with the help of hundreds and thousands of engineers on the ground.

On June 27, 2019, NASA declared a brand new mission on Saturn’s largest moon Titan. Mission Dragonfly will launch in 2026 and arrive in 2034. NASA predicts that it will provide clues to how life may have arisen on our planet. What can be the effects of this mission on future space missions and scientific developments? Can it mark an era like the Apollo 11 did?

I think, what we are seeing right now, is the idea that when we move further and further out into space, we are not doing it just to plant the flag and to say we accomplished something. We are doing it with the intent to basically provide a sustainable presence even on the Moon or Mars. What we learn about moons of these planets will help us determine where the best place will be maybe to initiate a colony, a base, where we could begin the colonization of one of these heavenly bodies in order to explore further and further out into space.

To do that we are going to have to learn how to live off the land – we can not carry all the supplies that we are going to need on these missions, they are very far away from the Earth and so they have to be as autonomous as possible, because the communication lag could be 20-40 minutes or longer.

I think this is a new era of exploration because we are looking at what it will take to actually live for long periods of time off our planet.

The Kuiper Belt object, known as “Ultima Thule”, is the farthest in our solar system. NASA New Horizon’s flyby of that object, that took place on January 1, 2019, is a kind of mission that is accomplished using unmanned spacecraft. What do you think about the future of human spaceflight?

I think the future of human space flight is going to be a combination of all of the above. We are constantly conducting unmanned, uncrewed vehicles to go deeper and deeper out into space and I think it is going to be humans plus robotic missions in order to accomplish this.

For instance, in order for humans to survive on Mars, we are talking about the possibility of sending initial, robotic missions to help prepare the facilities that astronauts are going to use. These ideas are not any different than human exploration on the surface of the Earth. For instance, when we explore extreme environments like the North Pole or the South Pole, we might have way stations with supplies for pioneers, the explorers, to survive as they go further and further in their exploration. We are using those same techniques as we explore deep space. Only now, we have robots and are able to use them to maybe create fuel that we will use in order to supply fuel for the return trip back, habitats and initial landing pads for astronauts to use.

Looking back at the first space missions, a lot has changed since. What, in your opinion, are the most significant developments? What is the most significant change when comparing current space missions to the ones 50 years ago?

Unfortunately, I do not see much of a difference. I do not see radical improvements to the way we do things in space. There are a lot of incremental improvements in propulsion systems and material systems. We are still using chemical rockets. To go deeper and deeper into space, we really have to make radical advances in technology, especially propulsion technology. Unfortunately, the United States has not been investing enough resources in the far-out research that we need to do. We are not doing enough research in critical areas like advanced propulsion systems.

The other thing we are really not doing is improving the safety of these missions. I have not seen a radical improvement to the safety of how we fly people to space until we do that, I really do not believe commercial spaceflight is going to take off. Imagine there was one-in-fifty chance that an aeroplane would crash. Would you fly on that aeroplane?

On July 25, 2019, Airbus said that the first step in the construction of the inner structure of the European Space Agency (ESA) JUICE satellite was completed.

Airbus is building the JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) spacecraft for ESA’s Cosmic Vision program. In total, a consortium of over 60 companies across Europe are working on the project.

The goal is to investigate the potential for Jupiter’s icy moons Europa, Callisto and Ganymede to harbour habitable environments such as subsurface oceans. JUICE will also observe Jupiter, its atmosphere, magnetosphere, other satellites and rings, Airbus explains in a statement.

“JUICE is the first ‘large-class’ mission in our Cosmic Vision program and of prime importance for investigating the habitability potential of ocean-worlds beyond our own,” said Günther Hasinger, ESA’s Director of Science.

“We’re delighted to confirm it will have a flying start with an Ariane launch vehicle, setting it on course to fulfill its scientific goals in the Jupiter system,” Hasinger added.

The launch is planned in 2022, which means that the spacecraft would arrive at Jupiter in 2029. The journey is going to take seven years, as it will cover 600 million kilometers (372 million miles) through space.

An Ariane vehicle will be used to launch JUICE into space, Arianespace and ESA confirmed at the International Paris Air Show on June 17, 2019.

Source: https://bit.ly/2Kev8J5

Spacecraft: ESA/ATG medialab; Jupiter: NASA/ESA/J. Nichols (University of Leicester)

Boeing reported a loss of nearly $3 billion in the second quarter due to the worldwide grounding of the 737 MAX. The manufacturer also postponed the first flight of its 777X.

With a net loss of $2.942 billion in the second quarter of 2019, Boeing is facing the largest drawback in its history. It results mainly from a $5.6 billion related to the setbacks of the 737 MAX, as announced on July 18, 2019. The number dwarfs the previous estimate of $1 billion made by Boeing back in March 2019.

The aircraft has been grounded for more than four months after two crashes that caused 346 deaths. With deliveries being suspended, sales plunged by 35% to $15.751 billion.

Read More: Boeing to take $5B hit due to 737 MAX groundings

Boeing also gave an update on the ongoing 777X program, saying that it was “progressing well through pre-flight testing,” with an unchanged target of late 2020 for the first delivery. However, the plane maker decided to postpone the first flight to early 2020 due to “engine challenges”.

While Boeing CEO Dennis A. Muilenburg announced in May 2019 that the 737 MAX controversy would not affect the 777X timeline, reports surfaced a month later revealing that the company was facing challenges with General Electric’s new GE9X engine – the largest turbine engine purpose-built for the 777X jet.

Source: https://bit.ly/2yaBzHK

The new flight tracking technology of Aireon, which provides information about the location and position of aircraft anywhere in the world, has been launched in Ireland.

Aireon and the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) declared on July 9, 2019, that the Aireon Aircraft Location and Emergency Response Tracking (ALERT) service were officially live. The important feature of this system is that it can monitor all Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) equipped aircraft anywhere on Earth.

The surveillance technology relies on aircraft or airport vehicles broadcasting their position and identity via satellite navigation, which, in turn, can help determine the exact location of an aircraft in distress or on-demand.

“Aireon ALERT can provide the most accurate and precise aircraft locating data for emergency and distress situations, free of charge,” said Don Thoma, CEO of Aireon.

“As the operator of the world’s only global aircraft surveillance system, we recognize our unique position to provide such a critical service to the aviation community, and see it as our duty to provide this data to the proper authorities to assist in emergency situations,” Thoma added.

According to their statement, Aeron was officially approved as the first of a kind surveillance system certified by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), on June 4, 2019.

Source: https://bit.ly/2YVjetQ

Image: Jpatokal

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency sent a list of five changes to be made for the Boeing 737 MAX to fly again in the European skies. While most of the corrections align with FAA’s recommendations, one of them related to the autopilot might have never been raised before.

Boeing is currently working to fix the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). But another element of the aircraft has come under the attention of European regulators. The EASA fears that the autopilot does not always disengage properly in certain emergency situations requiring the crew to take over the aircraft, sources close to the investigation told Bloomberg, adding that pilots may not have time to prevent the plane from stalling.

A change to the autopilot could potentially further delay the re-entry of the Boeing 737 MAX into the market. On June 26, 2019, Boeing announced it was working on an additional flaw to the MCAS software found by the FAA. “Boeing agrees with the FAA’s decision and request, and is working on the required software,” the manufacturer said in a statement, adding “addressing this condition will reduce pilot workload by accounting for a potential source of uncommanded stabilizer motion”.

This new detail illustrates how operators from around the world may have to wait even longer than their U.S. counterparts, as the main regulators (European Union Aviation Safety Agency, Transport Canada…) have all announced their decisions to conduct individual reviews of the Boeing 737 MAX update. An individual regulator may come up with a specific requirements that the manufacturer will have to fulfill if it wants its plane to operate again globally.

The situation could not only damage Boeing’s relationship with the 737 MAX operators, but also the credibility of the FAA. The latter has repeatedly called for a resumption of the former situation of reciprocity where its judgment would be taken at face value by other regulators. “If [the other regulators] could lift the ban shortly after us, I think it would be good for the public’s trust,” said Dan Elwell, acting chief of the FAA during a meeting between the main civil aviation regulators on May 23, 2019.

But their call remains unanswered, and the EASA is now proceeding with its own investigation. A month ago, during the International Aviation Safety Conference in Cologne, EASA Director Patrick Ky reportedly said that the agency was considering additional flight simulator training for 737 MAX pilots, as well as possible design changes, as a requirement for the aircraft to operate again in the European airspace.

Source: https://bit.ly/2G1jyzQ

Image: Oleg V. Belyakov