SPACE RESEARCH CENTRE POLISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES ANNUAL REPORT 2013 WARSAW SPACE RESEARCH CENTRE Polish Academy of Sciences Bartycka 18A, 00-716 Warsaw, Poland Phone: (48-22) 49 66 200 Fax: (48-22) 840 31 31 e-mail: [email protected] 2 Achievements 2013 In 2013 groups from Space Research Centre have been active in many fields of space research, technology and applications. The main achievements are the following: The first Polish scientific satellite LEM, a member of the BRITE constellation, has been launched on a Russian rocket on Nov 21, 2013. The satellite is equipped with a camera that is going to observe small variations of light emitted by bright starts. Obtained data will be used to determine the inner structure of stars. LEM has been built by a SRC engineering team, and the interpretation of scientific data will be carried out by Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Centre. So far the satellite works very well and the performance of all subsystems is as it has been expected. The project has proved that the Polish space sector is able to successfully integrate and operate a satellite as well as develop or improve a number of new technologies implemented in BRITE. One of them was a novel type of separation mechanism DRAGON, developed in Mechatronics and Satellite Robotics Laboratory of SRC. After 35 years of journey to the outskirts of the Solar System, the Voyager 1 spacecraft has left the heliosphere, crossing the heliopause, which is the boundary between the plasma originating from the Sun and the local interstellar medium. The identification of this event from the spacecraft data was not obvious and became a subject of controversy among scientific groups. The apparent discrepancy between observations of cosmic rays flux and measurements of magnetic fields has been explained in a few papers published by researchers from the Solar System and Astrophysics Laboratory. The researchers developed a hydromagnetic model of plasma processes at the heliopause and showed that results of their modelling are in agreement with the Voyager observations. This has lend support to the conclusion that Voyager 1 indeed crossed the heliopause. This conclusion has been confirmed by NASA and was based on independent analysis. The numerical simulations performed in SRC also indicated that a non-negligible transport of interstellar plasma exists across the heliopause and into the heliosphere. For years SRC has specialized in building the ionosondes and radio waves analyser in HF frequency domain that measures remote and in situ plasma concentration in the Earth upper atmosphere. Now, this experience has been used in developing a spaceborne version of the instrument that will be able to measure the electron concentration from above. The joint effort of the Plasma Group and the Electronic Construction Laboratory has resulted in an original device, which will be located on board of 4 identical Russian spacecraft. Once space proved, the instrument can be offered as a part of equipment on ESA satellites and guarantee Polish research institutions and industry access to many near Earth missions. More than ten years ago, the Polish X-ray spectrometer RESIK working onboard the Russian CORONAS-F mission provided the best in the world observations of X-ray spectra of solar flares. In 2013 the Heliophysics Group has developed a break-through AbuOpt method of determining chemical composition of solar flare plasma based on those observations. The method employs Bayesian optimization that allows to separate the determination of ion abundances from the retrieval of plasma temperature. Thus, for the first time, it will be possible to get the chemical composition and plasma temperature from the same set of measurements. Up till now, a very strong assumption of plasma isothermal state has been made. Department of Planetary Geodesy of SRC in cooperation with OPGP Lublin has realized a contract solicited by the Head Office of Geodesy and Cartography for a new determination of the vertical reference network for Poland. The fundamental vertical network in Poland is divided into the first class and second class. The final determination refers to the European Vertical Reference Frame EVRF2007- 3 NH. The results of computations give a physical realization of a new Polish vertical reference frame PL- EVRF2007-NH that is compliant with the frame defined by the European Union. The new reference frame will soon replace the Kronsztadt86 frame used in Poland so far. An important event took place in 2013 in the institute. The main lecture hall was named after the great Polish astronomer and the first chairman of the SRC Scientific Council, Prof. Stefan Piotrowski. The ceremony was attended by the members of Scientific Council, invited guests and the family of Prof. Piotrowski. (1933-2013) Prof. dr hab. Andrzej Jurewicz suddenly passed away on the 14th of July 2013. The Space Research Centre has lost one of the most distinguished staff member and dear colleague. 4 SPACE PROJECTS ROSSETTA International Rosetta Mission is a Cornerstone Mission in ESA's Science Programme; its destination is short-period comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta is the first mission designed to orbit and land on a comet. It consists of an orbiter, carrying 11 science instruments, among them VIRTIS and OSIRIS, especially important for researchers from SRC, and a lander, called ‘Philae’, carrying 10 additional instruments with projects important to us CONSERT, and MUPUS, for the most detailed study of a comet. Rosetta was launched on the 2nd of March 2004 by an Ariane-5G rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. The journey to the comet lasts 10 years: first Earth fly-by (November 2005), Mars fly-by (February 2007), second Earth fly-by (November 2007), asteroid 2867-Steins fly-by (September 2008), third Earth fly-by (November 2009), asteroid 21 Lutetia fly-by (July 2010), deep-space hibernation (May 2011 – January 2014), comet approach (January – May 2014), comet mapping/characterisation (August 2014), landing on the nucleus of the comet (November 2014). The orbiter continues to orbit comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, observing what happens as the icy nucleus approaches the Sun and then travels away from it. The mission ends in December 2015. Fig. 1. Rosetta mission. Rosetta spacecraft has awoken from its 957 days in slumber on the 20th of January 2014, ahead of its mission to rendezvous with the Churyumov–Gerasimenko comet in August. The spacecraft awakening was confirmed by controllers at ESA’s Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany. In 2013 researchers from the SRC have still been working on interpretation of existing data coming from the OSIRIS camera and VIRTIS instrument on board Rosetta satellite and on modelling the future cometary data (see section Planetology and Solar System Dynamics). (Maria Błęcka, Marek Banaszkiewicz, Jerzy Grygorczuk) 5 BRITE-PL Bright Target Explorer (BRITE) is a project developed within the Canadian-Austrian-Polish cooperation. Consortium plans to launch a constellation of micro-satellites (20 cm 20 cm 20 cm, 7 kg) to the Low Earth Orbit. This is the first scientific satellite which was developed in Poland between 2010 and 2013. The astronomy project, which cost will exceed 14 million PLN, will be helpful in understanding the stellar oscillations and internal structure of the biggest stars (brighter and hotter than the Sun) in our galaxy. Activities in 2013 concentrated on two major events: the launches of both Polish scientific satellites, Lem and Heweliusz. Lem, which was being stored in a clean room for over one year, underwent remaining tests (open field verification of the telescope and the star tracker). Polish payload for the Heweliusz spacecraft was verified and qualified for flight, the final fitting tests on a 3d prototype of the satellite printed from plastic were conducted, the instruction manual for spacecraft integration was completed. Because of the delay connected with finding an appropriate launch opportunity for Heweliusz, activities commenced in order to prepare a public tender for the launch of the second Polish satellite. Finally the winning launch offer was selected. It was submitted by China Great Wall Industry Corporation. After choosing the launch provider, activities started to implement compatibility between the spacecraft and the launch vehicle. A new separation device, called Dragon was designed, built, tested and flight– qualified at SRC. It attracted the attention of the launch provider, owing to the record development time and its simplicity. SRC received a request for proposal from the launch provider to deliver several such satellite deployers. Fig. 2. DNEPR Launch Vehicle carried Fig. 3. Last picture taken by the telescope Lem to orbit. of Lem on Earth. At the same time the integration of Heweliusz took place, which was followed by environmental testing. In parallel the launch campaign of Lem started and the satellite with all its accompanying hardware was sent through Canada to Yasny in Russia, where it was subjected to ground testing before being loaded on the launch vehicle. On November 21st at 7:10 UTC Lem was launched from the Dombarovski Launch Base near the Kazachstan border and subsequently the radio contact was 6 established with the satellite. So far it has travelled more than 1200 orbits. It is now undergoing commissioning tests in orbit. The Lem launch event was organized by Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center, with the participation of VIPs (parliamentary committee on space research, among others) and the media. The launch of Heweliusz was scheduled for December 30th, 2013, but on December 10th due to the launch failure of the preceding flight all launches were aborted till May 2014, when the launch of Heweliusz is expected. Activities promoting the BRITE PL project were taking place: on July 31st, 2013 the Polish Post Office released a stamp devoted to the Heweliusz spacecraft. On September 25th at the Modern Music Festival Warsaw Autumn a piece for a symphony orchestra and a choir was premiered – it was commissioned by the Space Research Centre and the Modern Music Festival and was commemorating the Heweliusz spacecraft creation.